Got a CS degree, landed the developer job, and realized something was missing. Had an idea, validated it way too thoroughly, then did the startup cliché and quit to build it. Risky? Absolutely. Worth it? Ask me when we exit.
Spent months learning everything they don't teach you—app store submissions, brand building, customer acquisition, the whole founder playbook. Launched May 2025 with a complete platform: Flutter mobile app (iOS/Android/web), Next.js booking system, business management tools, payment processing, SMS notifications, analytics dashboard. Built for detailing businesses but architected to scale.
Built everything users interact with: Flutter app across three platforms, booking platform, business website. Businesses manage their entire operation—scheduling, clients, teams, invoicing, analytics. Clients book appointments online and pay directly. Everyone gets notified via SMS. It's complex under the hood but simple where it matters.
Technical architecture: Next.js and TypeScript frontends, Python/FastAPI microservices, PostgreSQL database, all orchestrated on Google Cloud with Kubernetes by my co-founder. Worked extensively on the API layer and database design. Integrated Stripe for subscriptions, custom payment provider for business payouts, Twilio for communications, Sanity CMS for content. Learned mobile deployment with Fastlane and Shorebird the hard way.
The real education wasn't the tech—it was learning how to brand, market, sell, support, and iterate based on actual user feedback. Building something people pay for changes how you think about everything. Biggest lesson: execution beats ideas. Shipping beats perfecting. Learning in public beats hiding until it's "ready."
Currently growing a SaaS with my co-founders while learning marketing, sales, support, and all the other skills they don't teach developers. Turns out building a business is harder than building software, but infinitely more interesting. Still learning, still shipping, still figuring it out.