Let's start with a little bit about your background and when you decided to start your journey as a founder

My background is product design but I’ve always had an interest in running my own business. I didn’t have too many ideas and wasn’t particularly ready for it after graduation - so I entered the tech workforce. All stars aligned when I met my significant other (Arlex). His background is also in product design but he took it upon himself to learn full-stack development.

We started building Sidekick in 2021 and haven’t looked back since. Balancing us as a couple and a partnership could probably be a whole different topic in itself :) 

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What was your inspiration behind starting Sidekick? I take it that distraction was a problem you experienced first hand?

Ooo yes. It’s interesting - I think a huge part of being in a relationship is being inspired by the other person to improve and grow together. Sidekick is ultimately a result of that. 

I still remember the exact moment. 

Just like any other day, I woke up late (11am) and immediately typed Netflix.com - only typing the N, the rest was autofilled - it’s interesting how you look back and see the design patterns that go into something as instantaneous as this. Groggy eyes, glasses on, didn’t even get out of bed, I turned on my next episode of Parks and Recreation. I watched a few more episodes only to be interrupted by a FaceTime from Arlex. He recently got bit by the productivity bug and spent the morning working on his latest project, a site blocker (this later became Sidekick). He was rattling off his latest productivity spewings which I usually rolled my eyes to, but that morning he hit me with this quote

“There are 86,400 seconds in a day. Each second you either grow or decay. Are you growing or are you decaying?” 

It hit me hard - because the answer was clear, I was decaying. Shortly after, in reference to the site blocker, I sheepishly asked Arlex, “How can I help?” Thus, Sidekick was born :).   

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Was there any tech tool that you really loved working with? Something you couldn't have built Sidekick without?

Figma, VSCode

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How did you get your first few paid users? 

We haven’t yet! We got our first unpaid users through word of mouth and by listing on startup directories. We’re still in our Beta phase but rolling payments out soon :). We plan to do a beta referral program.  

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What's the one feature on Sidekick that would help our users the most?

I would say it’s a combination of features - the blocklist and the Chrome Extension! Once you add distracting sites to your blocklist, they become blocked during any focus session. Coupling that with the Chrome Extension, your path to distraction-free deep work is just 2 clicks away.

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