5 years ago today, I launched Ohmify from my laptop while traveling in Colombia.
I had spent the previous night in a tree hut on the beach to recharge my batteries.
Now the moment had come…
I was finally launching Ohmify!
Something that I’d dreamed about for a long time.
I created Ohmify to be a place to learn electronics. But unlike most electronics courses and forums, I wanted this to be a welcoming place – even for complete beginners.
A place where there’s no such thing as a “stupid question”.
With practical, down-to-earth explanations, that both kids, adults, and seniors could understand.
My life looked quite different back then.
I was traveling all over the world while working from my laptop.
In Colombia, I fell in love with Pilar, who is now my wife.
We left Colombia together. Spent a few months in Europe before we found ourselves in Australia.
I have such fond memories of sitting in my shorts and t-shirt, sweating, in a tiny basement apartment, building electronics.
And whenever I needed any parts, I just walked over to Jaycar in the city center and got them.
Oh, how we loved Australia.
But we felt a bit too far from our families, so we decided to head for Norway.
When I first launched Ohmify, I didn’t have any expectations of what it would become.
I just felt inspired to create it, so I did.
But I was doing it along with ten other projects. Like writing Electronics For Kids and A Beginner’s Guide To Circuits. And developing electronics for the coffee roaster ROEST.
At this point I was getting messages from members regularly, telling me how much they loved the courses. Which motivated me to start saying ‘no’ to other projects. So that I could focus on Ohmify.
After some time in Oslo, my wife and I needed a change of environment. So we went back to Colombia for a few months.
I had a lot of fun doing an Arduino robot workshop with some locals. It was really nice to be doing this in a group. Which inspired me to make Ohmify more collaborative.
So I did a total remake of the whole Ohmify platform.
And it worked.
Suddenly the forum was booming with conversations, questions, and members showing the cool things they had made!
I started creating more courses. Which is what I love to do.
More members joined.
But I was doing web programming, marketing, design, accounting, customer support, creating new courses +++
And it was a lot for just one person.
That’s when Matthew appeared.
“Do you need help with anything?” he said.
“Uhm, yes, actually I do” I replied.
And just like that, Ohmify was no longer just me. We had become a team.
Matthew was just what I needed, and he was such a good addition to Ohmify. He understood what I was trying to do.
That freed up more time for me. More time to create courses and projects for our members.
Also, more mental space to come up with ideas.
So many ideas!
Which meant I needed more help. This led me to Ermin, who recently joined the Ohmify team.
Now we’re a team of three people, and we’re busier than ever. So many things to create! And so many interesting discussions to take part in over at the community forum.
We chat with our members every day. Hearing about what they’re struggling with. What inspires them. What they’d love to be able to do one day.
From that we get ideas. And we create new stuff.
I just checked, and we are soon reaching 500 different lessons available to Ohmify members!
Wow, that’s much more than I was able to imagine when I started.
Ohmify has grown a lot in 5 years.
I’m also a different man today compared to five years ago. My wife and I even have a little one on the way – which I’m sure will turn our lives upside down (in a good way).
I have no idea what Ohmify will be in another 5 years. All I know is that it will be exactly what it’s supposed to be.
The path appears as we walk it.
To celebrate our birthday, we’re doing a promotion for the next few days. If you sign up for the annual subscription before Monday, you’ll get a beginner’s component kit + a Blinking LED soldering kit as a welcome gift.
Keep On Soldering!
Oyvind @ build-electronic-circuits.com