January 1, 2025
Last year, I tried riding the AI wave by building AI apps to explore the hype. Long story short: I failed. If you’re curious, you can read the full story here. But the TL;DR is simple—I didn’t understand my users’ needs. I wasn’t solving my own problem, so I lacked the motivation to see it through.
Still, I enjoyed the process. As an engineer, tackling the challenges of client-side video editing with JavaScript was a fun technical puzzle. I shared everything I learned in the blog linked above. Feel free to check it out and share your thoughts
In 2025, I’ve decided to follow in the footsteps of OG indie hackers who took on the 12 Products in 12 Months challenge. Many of them found one or two scalable ideas to focus on for the long haul through this process.
My plan is straightforward: I’ll build simple mini-apps in 2-3 weeks, launch them on platforms like Reddit, Twitter, Hacker News, and Discord, and see if they gain traction. If I can get 50-100 paying customers (which, honestly, feels like a lot right now), I’ll double down, add features, and scale those apps.
I’ll admit—this could totally flop. I might burn out or get bored halfway through the year. But building things that other people find useful is what excites me every single day. If I can create something that even 1,000 people around the world use and pay for, it’ll all be worth it.
Shipping one app every month is going to be tough. It’s not just about coding—it’s also marketing, gathering feedback, and iterating fast. The good news is that as I build more, I’ll develop my own frameworks and templates to speed up things like authentication and payment integration for future projects.
This time around, I’m switching things up by using Cloudflare’s infrastructure instead of Vercel. From their CDN to the SQLite D1 database, I’m excited to experiment and learn.
So, here I am—kicking off this challenge with a mix of excitement and uncertainty. Will I find that one golden idea? Who knows? But I’m here for the process, the lessons, and the fun of building things that (hopefully) make people’s lives better.
Follow along if you’re curious to see how this journey unfolds. I’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, or feedback. Here’s to a year of building, learning, and maybe even a little failing. Let’s see where this road takes me!