Your Budget Guide

🧩 Context:

An MVP to validate a minimalist “Goodreads alternative” — no ratings or reviews, just a way to track reading and form a habit.

🛠️ Stack:

• Rails 7 API backend
• Vue 3 frontend with Pinia
• Supabase for auth
• Tailwind CSS

⚙️ Features/Scope of Project:

• User signup/login via Supabase
• Add/update books with status (Reading, Completed)
• Daily reading log (time/pages)
• Dashboard: Weekly streaks, pages read

🔍 Dev Insights:

• Use Rails’ JSON API + Vue SPA to separate concerns cleanly
• Leaned on Supabase’s auth and row-level security to avoid custom auth logic
• Tailwind + reusable components saved 20% UI time

💡 Strategic Move:

Add "reading challenge" feature as an early retention loop — build it in a scoped-down way using static challenges + checkboxes.

🧩 Context:

An MVP for a travel tech founder aiming to unify flights, hotels, cabs, and activities into one dynamic itinerary platform with AI-assisted planning and real-time bookings.

🛠️ Stack:

• Rails API + Vue 3 (PWA with Pinia)
• Postgres + PostGIS (for spatial queries)
• Redis + Sidekiq (aggressive API caching + orchestration)
• Adapter + Orchestrator pattern for modular API control
• Domain-Driven Design for scalable, modular codebase
• AI agent layer for itinerary assistance

⚙️ Features/Scope of Project:

• Intelligent trip creation engine that auto-adjusts timeline and bookings
• Guest itinerary flow with seamless account upgrade
• Pluggable adapter system for Amadeus, Viator, Booking.com, etc.
• PostGIS-based proximity filtering (e.g., hotels near activity clusters)
• Orchestration layer to keep bookings, prices, and availability in sync

🔍 Dev Insights:

• Domain-Driven Design enables clean scaling toward microservices
• Adapter pattern helps swap third-party APIs without touching core logic
• Redis caching + Sidekiq retries ensured resilience to flaky API behavior
• Real-time trip adjustment required layered state management with fallbacks

💡 Strategic Move:

Offering itinerary creation without login increased engagement; AI-driven planning and seamless API orchestration positioned the product as infrastructure-ready for global rollout.

🧩 Context:

Digitize the ops of a small D2C skincare brand, using Google Sheets to manage stock + WhatsApp to take orders, with a unified panel to manage SKUs, orders, and vendors.

🛠️ Stack:

• Rails 8 + Hotwire (Turbo + Stimulus)
• Postgres + ActiveStorage
• Sidekiq for background jobs
• Admin-only access (no customer-facing frontend yet)

⚙️ Features/Scope of Project:

• SKU/product management with batch uploads
• Order intake form (manual or CSV import)
• Stock deduction & reorder alerts
• Low-stock email reminders
• Export to Excel with custom filters

🔍 Dev Insights:

• Use Axlsx gem to generate Excel reports
• Use Turbo streams to auto-update order table
• Set up scoped roles for staff vs. founders

💡 Strategic Move:

Add invoice generation and API integrations — when the order volume grows.

🧩 Context:

A tech internship portal for local startups — minimal budget, no logins.

🛠️ Stack:

• Rails + SQLite + Bootstrap 5
• Deploy on Fly.io (free tier)
• Admin approval via ActiveAdmin

⚙️ Features/Scope of Project:

• Homepage showing live job listings
• Form for startups to submit listings
• Admin panel to approve/reject
• Email notification on new post

🔍 Dev Insights:

• Build in 3-5 days — just 6 models and 3 controllers
• Use Stimulus for minor interactivity
• No user auth kept it lean

💡 Strategic Move:

Only allow form submissions and approvals at first. Scope full employer dashboards for v2.

🧩 Context:

A private community platform for a renowned yoga instructor to offer online courses, sell workshops, host live Zoom classes, and manage members.

🛠️ Stack:

• Next.js (frontend) + Supabase (backend & auth)
• Razorpay for payments
• Zoom API for auto-creating meeting links
• Gumroad integration for early digital products

⚙️ Features/Scope of Project:

• Course dashboard with video unlock per module
• Live class schedule (Zoom links generated via API)
• Razorpay paywall before access
• Community tab (comments + upvotes)

🔍 Dev Insights:

• Carefully integrate Zoom.JWT tokens & rate limits makes it trickier
• Use Supabase row-level security to isolate each user’s progress
• Embed Typeform or roll out custom forms for pre-course surveys

💡 Strategic Move:

Bundling the course with a calendar sync could improve daily class turnout by 2x.

🧩 Context:

An MVP for a 2-sided rental marketplace for DSLR cameras and lenses.

🛠️ Stack:

• Rails monolith
• MySQL + ActiveStorage
• Stimulus + Bootstrap 5
• Razorpay for payments

⚙️ Features/Scope of Project:

• Listings with photo uploads
• Booking form → approval-based
• Razorpay integration (50% upfront)
• Admin dashboard to verify users
• Rating, reviews, and notifications (using web push)

🔍 Dev Insights:

• Skip user chat for v1 to stay within scope
• Use Stimulus to add smooth interactions (datepicker, image preview)

💡 Strategic Move:

Enforce manual verification instead of KYC → reduced dev complexity and liability.

🧩 Context:

A tool where founders could generate legal clauses (e.g., NDAs, equity splits) tailored to their use case, using GPT-4 with contextual prompting.

🛠️ Stack:

• Rails 8 + Hotwire + Tailwind
• OpenAI GPT-4 API
• Stripe (pay-per-clause)
• Devise, Postgres (JSONB), Sidekiq, Redis
• Ahoy for analytics

⚙️ Features/Scope of Project:

• Contextual clause generator → editable, copy-ready output
• Token billing via Stripe (usage-based pricing)
• Clause history + bookmarks
• Moderation & clause quality self-rating via GPT
• Admin tools for prompt testing + usage monitoring

🔍 Dev Insights:

• Map prompt templates to legal domains for tone consistency
• Use GPT to rate its own output for clarity/confidence
• Flag risky prompts with OpenAI moderation API

💡 Strategic Move:

Add “Embed in Notion” → can led to organic adoption in startup ops templates.

🧩 Context:

A mobile trivia platform where users could compete daily, win cash, and refer friends — combining gamification, payouts, and viral growth loops.

🛠️ Stack:

• Rails 7 API + Sidekiq + Redis
• React Native (Expo) mobile app
• MySQL + ActiveRecord
• Razorpay Payouts API
• Devise + JWT auth
• Ahoy + Posthog for analytics

⚙️ Features/Scope of Project:

• Time-locked daily quiz engine (1 quiz per 24h per user)
• Real-time leaderboard by quiz + monthly high scorers
• Wallet system: ₹10 entry → ₹100 prize pool
• Referral engine: ₹20 bonus per invite after first play
• Admin panel: manage questions, review winners, detect fraud
• Razorpay payout scheduler with manual override

🔍 Dev Insights:

• Use Redis to pre-cache leaderboard writes → reduced DB locks
• Quiz hash verification built with SHA256 to detect tampering
• JWT-based mobile auth for lightweight game session handling
• Optimized MySQL indexes to handle burst reads during quiz hours
• Sidekiq to handle scoring + payout batching async

💡 Strategic Move:

Launch a “hosted quiz mode” where a live anchor could trigger real-time events → engagement could jump 2x via live Discord + WhatsApp communities.

🧩 Context:

An app for couple to track shared expenses without joining Splitwise. A private, cleaner UI with categories and notes.

🛠️ Stack:

• React Native (Expo)
• Supabase for backend + auth
• Chartkick
• Push notifications via Expo

⚙️ Features/Scope of Project:

• Shared wallet model (both can see + add)
• Add expense with amount, tags, optional photo of receipt
• Charts for “who paid more,” categories, etc.
• Notifications when a new expense is added

🔍 Dev Insights:

• Use Supabase’s row-level access rules for privacy
• Use Expo for easy to ship Android test builds via QR
• Use React Native dev prebuilt chart and datepicker libs

💡 Strategic Move:

Launch via close friends group. Invite share to unlock additional features.

🧩 Context:

A wailtlist page to validate demand for an AI-based email assistant. Find optimal niche by varying landing page copywriting based on initial choice.

🛠️ Stack:

• Webflow for design and hosting
• Formspree for collecting email signups
• Notion embed for a live product roadmap

⚙️ Features/Scope of Project:

• 1-page landing site with sections: Hook, Use Cases, Demo GIF, Waitlist form
• Slight variation in landing page design and copywriting based on initial choice from a list of options
• Add "Join 278 others" dynamic count for social proof

🔍 Dev Insights:

• Use free tier of Webflow to save costs
• Connect custom domain quickly
• Bake in mobile responsiveness

💡 Strategic Move:

Based on initial choice, add a dynamic hidden field value in the form to find the best niche.

🧩 Context:

An MIS system for mid-sized home service company with 100+ franchises to track tasks, issues, updates, and communication — currently handled via spreadsheets and WhatsApp.

🛠️ Stack:

• Rails monolith + Stimulus
• MySQL
• Pundit for roles
• Cron + ActionMailer for digests
• Sidekiq for heavy tasks

⚙️ Features/Scope of Project:

• Multi-role login: Franchisee, Manager, HQ
• Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Task assignment + completion tracking
• Escalation logic: auto-forwarded if delayed
• Reports: weekly summary, SLA breaches
• File uploads, comments, tagging

🔍 Dev Insights:

• Scope the project tightly to exclude finance/invoicing — focus only on ops & workflow
• Design notifications + alerts to reduce WhatsApp dependency
• HQ dashboard that shows red/yellow/green status across regions — simple but effective

💡 Strategic Move:

Build a 3-tier permission model (HQ → RM → Franchise) to avoid chaos — saves months of future access control headaches.