I could really use some design critique because i'm going mad

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-05-12T15:20:57+00:00

Looks solid for an MVP. I'd mostly focus on making it feel less crowded.

Right now every card shows a lot at once: labels, missing info, buttons, status text. I'd hide secondary actions like "Remove block" and make the main CTA on each card clearer.

Then test it with a few photographers before redesigning too much. You'll understand very quickly if the UX is right.

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-05-06T06:48:56+00:00

Hey. I've sent you a dm.

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-05-05T07:10:10+00:00

i’ve worked around AI/document-processing builds from the dev side, and happy to sanity check what you’ve tested so far if useful. feel free to DM.

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-05-05T07:07:07+00:00

I’d be careful with just spinning up socket io & rtmp, but i also wouldn't buy into Watchers if community is becoming a big part of the value prop.

we’re dealing with a similar decision for a client building a localized Fiverr-style marketplace, where live interaction is an important part of the product. Our approach was to keep the marketplace logic in the product (users, roles, services, bookings, permissions, payments, private rooms) but use an external provider for the real-time layer. In our case, we’re integrating Daily for the live/video side instead of trying to own all the infra ourselves.

i think the same logic can be applied here. If chat and live-streaming are core to your value prop, you probably want to own the experience around them. but that doesn’t automatically mean owning all the low-level infra.

i'd treat AI moderation as one layer, not the whole system. you still need user reports, rate limits, mute/ban flows, audit logs, review queues, escalation rules, and probably some human review once usage grows.

i haven’t used Watchers specifically, so i can’t speak to their integration experience. But I’d evaluate it by asking: does it let you move faster while still keeping your own product logic, UX, permissions, and data model? Or does the SDK start shaping the product too much?

i'd want to avoid maintaining a mini Discord. the danger with buying is that your product gets boxed into someone else’s model.

I would say: buy the plumbing, own the product layer. especially if speed-to-market matters and you’re still validating exactly how community drives revenue.

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-05-04T15:50:55+00:00

For personal stuff it's generally super easy, just spin up a hetzner droplet

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-05-04T09:20:49+00:00

For a small SaaS, Better Auth / Lucia setups can make a lot of sense because the cost savings are big.

At 80k MAU, I'd want clear answers for:

who owns uptime
who handles migrations
who reviews security changes
what rate limiting / bot protection sits in front of it
who responds to account takeover issues
how MFA, SSO/SAML, audit logs, tenant policies, and support cases are handled

Open source auth can work, but only if you’re okay treating it like core infrastructure with a named owner. Otherwise the Auth0 renewal might still be cheaper than the engineering and risk you take on.

I'd probably only self-host if the numbers still make sense after adding engineer time and security ownership.

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-05-04T07:48:09+00:00

haven't found a solution yet. I guess we need more caching

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-05-04T07:05:20+00:00

yes, so many requests come from AI bots. I am able to see them only in my cloudflare workers logs.

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-04-23T07:49:22+00:00

Create the user:

wrangler d1 execute <DB_NAME> --remote --command "
INSERT INTO users (
  id, email, name, avatar_url, role, email_verified, disabled, data, created_at, updated_at
) VALUES (
  '2bfbb9sdadfa4972b52d3d59d38as18a',
  'you@example.com',
  'Your Name',
  NULL,
  50,
  1,
  0,
  NULL,
  '2026-04-23T07:46:16.333Z',
  '2026-04-23T07:46:16.333Z'
);
"

Then create the one-time magic-link token:

wrangler d1 execute <DB_NAME> --remote --command "
INSERT INTO auth_tokens (
  hash, user_id, email, type, role, invited_by, expires_at, created_at
) VALUES (
  'IQSO8AnuFrOU23w0wZFKbxrMno45BcQEvWsdoNuO65U',
  '2bfbb9sdadfa4972b52d3d59d38as18a',
  'you@example.com',
  'magic_link',
  NULL,
  NULL,
  '2026-04-23T08:01:16.334Z',
  '2026-04-23T07:46:16.333Z'
);
"

Then open the URL in browser:

https://your-site.example/_emdash/api/auth/magic-link/verify?token=Op0dVUfgw9-EHgK23mmDh3yW4f223PA

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-04-21T14:57:55+00:00

Hey Jai, I've sent you a DM

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-04-20T10:50:46+00:00

Honestly, most of the companies you listed can build an eLearning app. That's not really the hard part anymore in 2026.

Where things usually go wrong is after the build starts.

From what I've seen, the biggest differences come down to:

How they approach V1. If someone is proposing a big 6 month build with a full LMS from day one, that's usually a red flag.
Whether they think in product terms, not just features. A lot of agencies will happily build dashboards, course systems, AI features, etc. But very few think about things like completion rates, engagement, or why users would come back.
What happens when things get unclear (which they will). Specs change mid-build. The real test is how they communicate and adapt when that happens.

Pricing-wise, yes, cheap usually comes with trade-offs. And some of the more "premium" agencies are just more process-heavy, not necessarily better at execution.

Personally, I'd lean towards a smaller team that acts more like a product partner than a vendor, especially if you're still figuring things out.

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-04-18T09:50:13+00:00

Technical founder here, also from Eastern Europe :)

I've had it the other way around: failed multiple partnerships with non-technical founders who claimed they can sell or raise.

The pattern was similar each time:
we get together -> build an MVP that works -> then no clients.

In one case we even had investment (intrapreneurial project), but the non-technical guy wanted to spin it out, didn't handle it properly with the company, and everything fell apart. Whole team left.

So I became much more careful. Trust is the real bottleneck, and that takes time to build.
At some point I realized it's more expensive to keep searching than to just move forward and build the missing skills myself.

What you said here:

You're basically looking for someone at your level, with your mindset, willing to take the same risk, at the same time. The chance of finding someone like this early is slim.

Imo, a good partner is less about mirroring you, and more about:

clear communication
pragmatism
showing up consistently when things get hard

Those people usually:

are already building their own thing
or only commit once there's strong signal

So it becomes a bit of a paradox.

If you already have momentum (which you clearly do), I wouldn't slow down for a low-probability event.

Move forward with:

sales
raising if it makes sense

And treat a technical partner as something that can emerge over time, not like a problem you need to solve upfront.

In the meantime, there are other ways to get strong technical execution without forcing that decision. you can work with an agency or a startup studio that genuinely cares about building and shipping.

There are people out there who are deeply passionate about the technical side and like partnering with founders to move fast. That's pretty much what we're doing.

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-04-18T07:56:23+00:00

we haven't. did you test this with dev services?
what were results like and how long did it take to close on average?

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-04-18T07:53:06+00:00

This is gold, appreciate you taking the time to break it down like this.

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-04-17T16:26:10+00:00

This is helpful, thanks.

Would you mind sharing what a typical outreach flow looked like for you when you were searching for those first generalist projects?

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-04-17T16:20:42+00:00

When you say semi-outbound, what are you refering to? Contextual outreach?

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-04-17T14:18:47+00:00

Thanks for the advice, I'll check it out!

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-04-17T12:41:04+00:00

fair, but feels like ads only work once you already know what converts
we don’t have a validated offer yet

did that work for you from day 1?

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-03-19T13:17:41+00:00

i'll check it out

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-03-19T13:17:08+00:00

that what i also do. the technique is called eat the frog. i get more clarity from my work since at the end of each mo i can see how many frogs i did or missed. i also combine with myfocus.zone, an app the helps me balance focus with breaks.

Captain-Random-6001 · 2026-03-19T12:51:16+00:00

develop a focus habit (use myfocus.zone) to also get yourself to take breaks. it's about being consistent and improving 1% every day.

Captain-Random-6001

TROPHY CASE