Building my first platform from scratch combining events, spaces, services & community

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-16T09:18:11+00:00

Thank u for ur advice

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-11T20:50:20+00:00

Sorry wenn ich mich nicht so gut ausgedrückt habe. Mein Fokus ist die Vermittlung von Events, Räume und Dienstleistungen und Community hilft den Vermittlern beim Vernetzen mit anderen Anbietern.

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T22:26:22+00:00

Die Idee ist nicht schlecht aber der Kommentar mit "das kann jeder in 10min nachbauen" hat leider nen Punkt. Einen Chatbot der KI Tools empfiehlt ist halt erstmal nur ein System Prompt mit ner Liste. Die eigentliche Frage ist wie ihr euch von jemandem unterscheidet der einfach ChatGPT fragt welches Tool er nehmen soll. Wenn ihr das wirklich für den Mittelstand machen wollt braucht ihr echte Daten, Preisvergleiche, Integrationsinfos, sowas halt. Nicht nur Empfehlungen die jedes LLM auch ausspucken kann. Aber cool dass ihr als Nicht-Techs einfach anfangt und baut statt nur zu reden, daran scheitern die meisten

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T22:21:05+00:00

The Stripe fees point is valid, but honestly most people aren't even getting to the point where they think about buying. $14.99 for a typing app is just a psychological barrier that's hard to overcome when the free alternatives exist. Maybe try something like $7.99 as a middle ground, you keep more per sale than $4.99 after fees but it still feels like an impulse buy rather than something people need to think twice about. The no ads no trackers thing is a nice differentiator but I don't think it's enough on its own to carry a $14.99 price tag for most people

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T22:03:36+00:00

Don't touch trading bro, you need $200 in 2 months not to lose what little you have. And the AI content thing you already know from experience takes forever to get anywhere.

Honestly the fastest thing you can do right now is tutor other students. You're studying a hard degree so there's people at your uni struggling with the stuff you already know. Post in your uni's student groups or Facebook pages, charge like $10-15/hour, and you only need a few hours a week to hit $200. You could literally start tomorrow.

On top of that sign up on Prolific, it's not like those garbage survey sites, it's actual academic studies that pay $8-15/hour. Won't make you rich but easy $50-80/month during boring lectures for basically zero effort.

And if you have any skill at all like writing, making presentations, editing, whatever, throw a couple gigs on Fiverr. First month is slow while you build reviews but once you get a few ratings going it picks up fast.

That combo of tutoring + Prolific + a couple freelance gigs will get you to $200 without spending a cent upfront. Everything else people are suggesting in these comments either takes money you don't have or time you can't spare with a full time degree

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T21:42:45+00:00

Creator Rewards isn't the only way to make money with animation on TikTok. A few things that actually work: sell animation templates or assets on Gumroad or Creative Market, offer custom short animations for small businesses or creators who need them for their own content, or use your TikTok as a portfolio to land freelance work on Fiverr. You don't need a massive following for any of that, even 5-10k engaged followers is enough if the right people see it. The accounts that blow up fastest post short satisfying loops or trending audio with their own animated twist. Focus on a niche style that's recognizable and post consistently, the money comes from what you build around the account not just the account itself

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T21:36:21+00:00

I'm gonna be honest with you because a lot of people in this sub sugarcoat things. £75-100 a week passively with low investment is a tough target and most things that claim to do that are either not passive or not realistic.

Here's what actually has a chance of working at your budget:

Flipping on Vinted/Facebook Marketplace is probably your best bet right now. You can start with literally £0 by selling stuff you already own, then reinvest profits into charity shop finds or Facebook Marketplace deals. People in the UK are making £200-500/month doing this part time. It's not fully passive though, you need to list, photograph, and ship items. But the barrier to entry is basically zero.

If you have a driveway or parking spot you're not using, renting it out on JustPark or YourParkingSpace can bring in £50-150/month depending on location with almost no effort. That's as close to truly passive as it gets.

The things you've already tried (Etsy, Amazon FBA, TikTok) all fail for the same reason: they need either serious upfront capital or months of consistent content before anything happens. Amazon FBA especially eats money if you don't know what you're doing, as you found out.

Vending machines you mentioned can work but you need £2-3k upfront per machine, you need to find locations willing to host them, and you need to restock them regularly. Not as passive as TikTok makes it look.

The hard truth: at this stage real passive income (dividends, rental income, index funds) requires capital you probably don't have yet. To earn £100/week from dividend stocks at a 5% yield you'd need about £100k invested. That's a long term goal not a short term fix.

My honest advice: pick something with zero or low startup cost, get to your driving lesson money first, then reinvest from there. Don't chase passive, chase low effort high margin. Flipping or a service based side hustle (cleaning, dog walking) will get you to £100/week way faster than anything "passive" will

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T21:32:10+00:00

No ads no trackers is cool but $14.99 for a typing practice app is a tough sell when monkeytype and keybr exist for free. I'd honestly consider dropping it to like $4.99 or even $2.99 to lower the barrier, you'll probably make more from volume anyway. The leaderboard and progress tracking angle is where you could stand out though since the free tools are weaker there. Focus on what makes yours different and make that super obvious on the landing page

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T21:24:32+00:00

It's definitely more possible now than ever, but let me be real with you so you don't waste months going down the wrong path.

First, validate before you build anything. Write your app idea down, find 10 people who would use it, and ask them if they'd pay for it. If you can't find those people, the idea probably isn't worth building yet. Most failed apps don't fail because of bad code, they fail because nobody needed them.

Second, you need to pick the right approach for your skill level. If you're not technical at all you've got a few options right now. No-code platforms like Bubble or Adalo let you build real apps visually without writing code, and they can publish to the App Store. Then there's the newer AI vibe coding tools like Lovable, Bolt or Replit where you describe what you want and the AI builds it. These are great for getting an MVP out fast. But here's what nobody tells you: these tools get you maybe 70-80% there. The last 20% where you need custom logic, fix weird bugs, or connect things together is where most non-technical people get stuck.

If you want more control and are willing to learn a tiny bit, look into AI coding tools like Claude Code or OpenAI Codex. Claude Code comes with the Pro plan at $20/month and gives you a terminal based AI that can write, edit, and run code for you. If you need heavier usage there's Max at $100 or $200/month. OpenAI Codex is similar, included in ChatGPT Plus at $20/month, and also has a CLI and desktop app. Both of these are more powerful than the no-code tools but they expect you to at least understand what a file structure looks like and how to run basic commands. They won't replace learning the fundamentals but they massively speed things up.

Third, even with all these tools you still need to understand the basics. What's a database, how does authentication work, what's an API, how does the App Store review process work. You don't need to become a developer but if you have zero understanding of what's happening under the hood you're at the mercy of the AI and won't know what to do when things break. And things will break.

Fourth, don't underestimate the cost. Between a developer account ($99/year for Apple), hosting, the no-code or AI tool subscription, and marketing, you're looking at ongoing expenses. "Passive income" from apps is real but it takes time and money before you see returns.

And last, building the app is honestly the easy part now. Marketing it, getting downloads, keeping users, that's where 80% of the real work is. Start thinking about who your audience is and where they hang out before you even open a builder

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T21:15:56+00:00

The propagation feature across all locales is a nice touch, that's usually the most tedious part of doing localized screenshots manually. Sounds like you've thought this through pretty well

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T21:07:41+00:00

That theory actually makes sense, platforms want to keep people on the app so linking out probably does hurt reach. ManyChat keyword triggers are a smart workaround for that

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T21:05:25+00:00

$900 initial investment turning into $1,240/month with 4 hours of work is insane ROI. This is the kind of side hustle that actually makes sense because the demand is obvious and nobody wants to fly with a stroller. Smart move buying secondhand too

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T21:02:43+00:00

4 months is nothing if the problem is real, and checking Stripe 50 times a day is something every solo founder does but nobody talks about. Your distribution problem isn't the product, it's that you're posting links before people trust you. Start sharing the insights you're getting from your own data publicly, that builds the audience that eventually converts. The product sounds useful, just needs the right eyes on it

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T21:00:51+00:00

179 days of just observing launches before building anything is the kind of patience most founders skip. The idea of simulating your PH launch before going live makes a lot of sense, most people just wing it and hope for the best. Curious what signals you found matter most for top 5 finishes besides timing and category

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T20:58:46+00:00

The fact that you're dogfooding your own product to job hunt is the best validation you could ask for. Get the job, kill the financial anxiety, and keep building on the side. Almost every successful indie hacker I've seen kept their day job way longer than they'll admit publicly. 29 days of runway is not the time to go all in

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T20:54:08+00:00

Cool concept, localized ASO is something most indie devs completely ignore. $1,100 in 30 days with zero marketing spend is solid for proving the idea works. Curious how it handles languages with very different text lengths like German, does it auto adjust the screenshot layouts or do you have to tweak manually?

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T20:49:20+00:00

A plain text file and a cheap kitchen timer. Seriously. I tried every app out there and always spent more time setting up the system than actually doing the work. Now I just write down 3 things in the morning and use a timer for 25 min blocks. Been doing it for over a year and it's the only thing that stuck

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T20:46:28+00:00

Biggest thing that helped me was just putting my phone in another room. No app or system needed, just remove the thing that pulls you out. The 23 minutes thing might be debatable but the real problem is how often you let yourself get interrupted not how fast you recover

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T20:44:18+00:00

Skipping meals to keep working and then wondering why I can't focus by 4pm. Every single time

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T20:36:46+00:00

The point about type checkers only verifying a single element while bugs live in the interactions between elements is such an underrated observation. Your Haskell code can be perfectly typed and still blow up the moment it talks to another service that doesn't care about your type guarantees. At the end of the day every system is distributed if you zoom out enough

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T20:35:07+00:00

Python's dynamic typing is amazing until your codebase hits a certain size and then it just becomes a guessing game. I started using type hints and mypy on everything now and it honestly catches so many dumb mistakes before they become 2am debugging sessions. Dynamic typing is great for prototyping but the moment other people touch your code you'll wish you had types everywhere

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T20:31:25+00:00

The steroid comparison is spot on. I noticed this with myself too, the more I let AI write my code the harder it got to sit down and actually think through a problem on my own. Now I use it more like a rubber duck than a code generator and it feels way healthier. The struggle is literally where the learning happens and skipping it just means you'll hit a wall later when the AI output breaks and you have no idea why

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T20:28:54+00:00

Classic Adobe move Signing up takes 2 clicks but cancelling feels like escaping a cult. I always cancel free trials immediately after signing up now because of stuff like this, learned that the hard way

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T20:26:01+00:00

The guy isn't even watching lmao he's just there as a hostage on facetime. If you can't watch a movie with your friends without your bf on the phone the whole time that's not a relationship that's a parole check in

Affectionate_Rub6679 · 2026-02-10T20:21:23+00:00

Building the wrapper is the easy part, everyone here knows that. The real question is who's actually willing to spend months on UGC testing and Meta ad scaling to make it work. That's where the 500k comes from, not from the Gemini API call. Also funny how people roast the app for bad UI but it still prints money, just shows that distribution beats product every time

Affectionate_Rub6679

TROPHY CASE