Attending MicroConf Europe 2025
Now that I've been home for about a month and have all my ducks back in a row, it's time I wrote about my trip to Istanbul for MicroConf Europe.
MicroConf is a conference for bootstrapped (non-VC-tracked) founders. And while I don't necessarily view Bear as a business, MicroConf is the closest there is to an Industry Event for someone like me.
First a note on Istanbul:
I arrived a week early to explore the city and see the sights. I'm a bit of a history nerd, so being at the crossroads of where it all happened in Europe—going back thousands of years—was quite spectacular. I get up early, and wandering the empty streets of the old city before the tour groups flooded in was quite special.
Also, the mosques dotting the skyline as viewed from the Bosporus are like nothing I've ever seen. It's amazing to see human effort geared towards creating beautiful buildings. I know it's not economically viable, but imagine if cities were built with beauty and a cohesive aesthetic in mind.
There were, however, a few negative characteristics of the city that grated at me, the main one being the hard separation of what is the tourist area and what isn't. Inside the old city all of the restaurants were clones, serving the same authentic Turkish food at 5x the reasonable price.
And scams were rife. I remember after a mediocre lunch at a mediocre restaurant, looking at the hand-written bill, the per-person cost came to about 2000TRY (roughly $50 at the time). The staff didn't speak English, and I wasn't going to throw all of my toys out of the cot via Google Translate, so I begrudgingly paid the bill and vowed never to eat there again. Similarly with taxis: it was impossible to take one as a foreigner without an attempted scam, to the extent the conference coordinator put out a PSA to use a specific transport company for rides instead of using the local taxis.
It's unfortunate when a city is unwelcoming in this manner, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Putting all of that aside, I still had a spectacular time. The main reason I came to this conference was to learn, get inspired, and soak up the vibes from other interesting people building interesting things. And I got exactly what I came for.
The talks and workshops were good, but what made the event shine was the in-between times spent with other attendees. The meals and walks, the hammam and sauna sessions. I found myself engaged from sunrise to sunset, notebook not far away, transcribing those notes during my downtime.
One of the attendees, Jesse Schoberg, runs a blogging platform as well, which focusses on embeddable blogs for organisations. It's called DropInBlog and is a really neat solution and platform. We chatted about what it's like running this kind of service, from bots to discoverability, and enjoyed the sunset on the terrace overlooking the Sea of Marmara. I can't think of a better place to talk shop.
I can't list all of the great conversations I had over those 3 days, but one standout to me was dinner with the ConversionFactory lads: Zach, Nick, and Cory. Not only were they one of the event sponsors, but were just great people to hang out with—and obviously incredibly proficient at their craft. After dinner on the last evening of the conference we crowded into the steam room to take advantage of the hotel's amenities that I'd paid way too much for. I got too hot, and mistaking the basin in the middle of the room for cooling off, managed to splash strong, menthol-infused water on my face. I immediately regretted it. My face, eyes, and nose started burning intensely with the icy-cold blaze of menthol and I was temporarily blinded. I had one of them hose off my face since I couldn't do anything in that state.
Product idea: Mace, but menthol.
One of my friends, Rob Hope, just arrived back from giving a talk at a conference in the US. When I met up with him for dumplings and dinner last week, it came up that, coincidentally, he had also just met the ConversionFactory lads on his most recent trip. I guess they get around.
Will I come back to MicroConf? Without a doubt. This has been inspiring, educational, and also quite validating. People were impressed with my projects, and surprised that I don't track visitors, conversions, and other important metrics. Bear is healthy, paying me a good salary while being aligned with my values, ethos, and lifestyle.
I guess I'm running on vibes, and the vibes are good.