lstepanek

FREELANCER | SEEKING WORK | REMOTE

Languages: Python, Java, Ruby, JavaScript (+ES6)

Databases: MongoDB, SQL

DevOps Tools: Docker, AWS, Terraform

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiastepanek/

Tech blog: penloop.io

Email: lydia <at> penloop.io

Experience: 10 years

Location: New York, NY

Remote: Yes

Location: New York, NY

Remote: Yes

Languages: Python, Java, Ruby, JavaScript (+ES6)

Databases: MongoDB, SQL

DevOps Tools: Docker, AWS, Terraform

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydiastepanek/

Email: lydia <at> penloop.io

Experience: 10 years

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I’m really proud of my most recent app, Too Phishy. It’s by far the best anti-phishing add-on I’ve seen in the Google Workspace store. That being said, it hasn’t caught on as much as I would have hoped or as fast as I would have hoped.

In an effort to build one app per month, I have to be more ruthless than other app builders in terms of timing. Things have to take off fast, or it’s time to pivot. So I’ve decided to pivot into new ventures. Here’s my blog post explaining why.

I'm trying to built momentum for my Gmail add-on, Too Phishy, by sharing my launch blog post on HN. Unfortunately, I've posted it 3 times already and they've all bombed: * "I built an anti-phishing app. Here's what I learned (and why I hate Stripe)." * "The highs and lows of building an anti-phishing app" * "Launching Too Phishy"

My friend suggested giving my post the title "Phishing for Compliments." So let's see what happens.

hahah

Why didn’t WhatsApp’s growth slow in 2014, when Facebook acquired WhatsApp? Or in 2016 when WhatsApp started sharing user data with Facebook? Why was one privacy notification enough to send away hundreds of millions of users?

Ah, now I realize where the Malicious Software ban was coming from -- as you say, there was no plugin that could actually be malware-scanned. Makes sense. Thanks for the (perhaps obvious but not to me) insight.

Good point about those countries not being my target market, and sure an Outlook plugin would probably make me more money.

I'm new to marketing so was grasping at straws as I ran this Google Ads campaign.

If you know a better way to market to actual businesses, I'm all ears.

I agree. When running my Google Campaign, I noticed on a Thursday that my total impression count for the month had actually gone down since the day before. And my campaign had launched that Monday midway through the month so it wasn't a 30 day cutoff that explained the total impression count for the month going down.

I think the impression counts are calculated using a finger to the air...

Tl;DR: If you're a coder, running a marketing experiment is harder and more expensive than coding.

Wish I'd just used Facebook Ads instead...

I made a friendly email address to which you can forward sketchy emails (for free) and it tells you whether the email is a phishing scam.

Super proud to launch it on Product Hunt (see link in title).

I also wrote a launch post about how it only cost me $27/month to build and maintain: https://www.lydiaoncybersecurity.com/launching-isthisphishy"