How a side project I started while in Japan became my full-time business.

How a side project I started while in Japan became my full-time business. A couple of years earlier, I had burned out in Silicon Valley as a founder and engineer. I moved out of the US, traveled for 1.5 years, then landed back home in Toronto. THIS WAS IN LATE 2017. I didn't want a boss and I didn't think I was founder material. Freelancing for 3 remote companies was my happy medium for making money. Also, winter that year was awful and I vowed to never experience another Toronto winter again. I'd had Fukuoka in mind for years. A small city in southern Japan I'd read about in a Taiwanese travel magazine. The mayor wanted to model it after Seattle. He loved the tech scene and the bike-friendly culture. (FUNNY THAT I LIVE IN SEATTLE NOW.) So, I went there for the winter months in 2019. I wasn't there to vacation. Fukuoka's small enough to see in a weekend, but that was the point. I craved a simple routine of exercising, cooking and working on a new side project. My freelance work only took a few hours a day, so my afternoons and evenings were free. What I really wanted was to code for fun— something I hadn't had the opportunity to do for a while and I missed it dearly. (PROBABLY BECAUSE I WASN'T BEING CHALLENGED ENOUGH IN MY FREELANCING GIGS) I had the perfect project in mind. All through my travels, I'd kept a spreadsheet to track my spending across multiple currencies. By then, it was a monster: 20-plus tabs, sluggish and ripe for reimagining. So I built the first version during my free time. I was obsessed. I loved every minute of coding, product ideation and design. MIND YOU, THIS WAS WAY BEFORE VIBE CODING! By the time I left Fukuoka, out of 83 total days there (excludes side trips): 215 hours spent building Lunch Money Went to the gym 41 times Cooked two-thirds of my meals at home I'LL TRACK ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. I never set out to start a company, and I could never have imagined where my little side project would go. I just had a spreadsheet wearing me down, and I was finally making time to do what I love. LUNCH MONEY'S BETA WAS LAUNCHED 2 MONTHS AFTER I LEFT FUKUOKA. That was over 7 years ago! Today, Lunch Money is fully bootstrapped, profitable and run by a remote team of 5 people. THE LUNCH MONEY TEAM PANAMA 2026 FOLLOW FOR MORE BOOTSTRAPPED STARTUP STORIES AND ADVENTURES!