Hi everyone! I wanted to share something I've been obsessed with building since the election:

butmyeggs.com

butmyeggs.com

The Story

The cost of everyday items has become a huge part of political discussions, and understandably, it affects everyone's daily life. During the election, I noticed how hard it was to find reliable, easy-to-understand data about price changes and what drives them. I wanted to create something to help people explore and understand these trends using official government data, so I registered butmyeggs.com that same night.

One small problem: I had never built a website like this before, let alone worked with Next.js. I'm a full-time artist and photographer. But I couldn't shake the idea, so I dove in headfirst. What started as a weekend project completely consumed my free time, every evening, every weekend, learning and building something new.

What It Does

The site pulls real-time data directly from government sources (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Reserve, EIA) to help track and understand:

• Common household expenses (eggs, milk, gas)
• Economic indicators (inflation, unemployment, interest rates)
• Price changes across different periods
• Impact of major policy decisions

Key Features

• Price Comparison Tool: View price trends across periods
• Purchasing Power Calculator: Understand how the value of your money has changed over time
• Policy Impact Timeline: Interactive visualization showing how major economic decisions affected prices
• Educational Insights: Clear explanations about what drives each economic metric
• Automatic Updates: Nightly data refresh from government sources
• Historical Analysis: Track trends and changes over multiple years

Technical Details

• Built with Next.js
• Data sourced from BLS, Federal Reserve, and EIA APIs
• Automatic caching system for API rate limits
• Recharts for visualizations
• MongoDB for data persistence
• Vercel for deployment and cron jobs

Lessons Learned

• Next.js is amazing but has a steep learning curve when you're new. Yikes.
• Working with government APIs requires lots of error handling.
• Caching is crucial when dealing with rate-limited APIs.
• Building features is addictive - I kept thinking "wouldn't it be cool if..."
• I am obsessed with interface design and making things easy for people to visualize. I guess that's where my photography and visual artist career comes into play.

What's In The Future?

• Adding more economic indicators. I keep thinking seeing US inflation compared to other major economies in the world would be cool.
• Enhancing the policy impact analysis. I'm trying to figure out how to make policy impact easier to understand, especially the lag that some policies have until we see the effect of them in our daily lives.
• Improving mobile responsiveness. Always a challenge to be honest.
• Adding more historical context. Right now I'm focused on 2016 to the Present, but maybe it would be cool to go back further.
• Building additional educational resources. Because I love education.

This is my first real project, so there are probably bugs, but I'm excited to share it with the community. My goal is to make economic data more accessible and easier to understand for everyone.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback! Check it out at butmyeggs.com and please share it with friends!

Edit: it works on mobile, but I think it’s easier to play around with on a laptop or iPad :)

I'm passionate about solving problems and addressing real pain points, but I find it frustrating to spend time on solutions that no one truly needs. What if there were a platform where people could share the challenges they face in their jobs, allowing others to relate to those issues? This could attract problem solvers who would collaborate to develop solutions and bring them to market in the form of startups. So i created solvegrid.io for this purpose.

Like many of you, I often find myself wanting to share interesting articles on Twitter, but the process of manually crafting a thread is just... ugh. Copy-pasting, rephrasing, adding commentary, and trying to stay within character limits? It's a chore!

So, like any good side project addict, I decided to build something to scratch my own itch. Introducing xThreadMaker (you can try it out here: https://xthreadmaker.app), an AI-powered web app that turns articles into engaging Twitter threads.

Here's how it works:

• You paste the article link and boom. The tool uses some AI magic to analyze the content and generate a series of connected tweets.
• It tries to avoid boring summaries by focusing on the interesting and funny parts of the text, acting as a commentary instead of just a copy-paste.

Why I built this:

• I was tired of the repetitive task of extracting information from articles into tweets.
• I wanted a way to share content without spending hours formatting it.
• I've been learning about web development and AI integration, so this was a fun project to learn more.

This was a passion project, made in my free time during the weekend so its still pretty early. Every comment is welcomed!

Thanks!

18 days after starting my online business, I made my first sale.

Here’s exactly how I went from a college kid with a part-time job to closing my first deal for $1.7k

With 12 days left to make $3k to attend WHOP headquarters in NY for FREE.

A thread...

I started with one simple skill:

Setting up LLCs, bank accounts, credit cards, and budgeting finances.

I didn’t see it as a business—until I helped a friend who started his business.

They scaled to $20k/month in 4 months with 80% margins.

While I was still in school earning the same paycheck.

I thought, What if this could be a business?

Fast forward: I finished school, moved to Cape Town, and gave it a real shot.

Before moving, I tried starting my business at home but got lazy and made no progress.

Cape Town was different.

I was surrounded by 18-20 year-olds making more in a month than my mom did in 6 months.

The energy pushed me.

I had no choice but to succeed.

When I arrived, I got to work.

On my first day, I had dinner with a group collectively making $100k/month, and I only semi-had my business idea in mind.

In just 10 days, I

-Built my business plan in Lucid
-Mapped project steps in ClickUp
-Set up my funnel system in GHL

3 days after finishing my setup:

My first booked call.

1 day later:

$1,720 in my bank account.

That’s 50% of my monthly paycheck from a part-time job, in a 45-minute sales call.

Here’s exactly what I did.

- Start with a skill: I had expertise in LLCs, bank accounts, credit cards, and budgeting.
- Build a business around it: Clear offers, systems, and tools to streamline my work.
- Sell it: Show people the value of what you offer.

The biggest lesson?

-Environment matters.
-I surrounded myself with high-energy, ambitious people, and it forced me to level up.
-You can’t grow staying comfortable.

If you have a skill, there’s a market for it.

Take the leap, build a business around it, and sell the value you bring.

DM me if you have any questions on how I did it.

Hi everyone,

I’m curious—how do you track your professional successes? Do you use any tools or systems, or do you rely on something like Google Docs or Excel?

I’m exploring the idea of building a tool that could help professionals better organize and showcase their achievements, with features like reminders, structured templates, and questions to help bring more clarity to your progress. I’d love to know:

• What challenges do you face when tracking your own career growth?

• What features would make a tool like this useful to you?

• Would you pay for a tool that helps structure and showcase your progress over time?

Any feedback or insights would be really helpful as I consider moving forward with this. Thanks in advance!

Hey r/SideProject community! 👋

I’m currently working on a WordPress business directory plugin and wanted to share a side project that’s been an eye-opener for me and others.

To help people understand the real potential of running directories, I built a Directory Profit Calculator. It visually breaks down how directories can generate revenue through ads, affiliate marketing, lead generation, e-commerce, and more.

The idea is simple: show how even a modest directory with 25,000 listings and low conversion rates can generate significant monthly income.

This calculator has been a fun and enlightening way to highlight what’s possible with this business model.

Would love your feedback! What do you think about this as a tool? Is it something you’d use or improve on? Let me know!

https://preview.redd.it/k26ulkkyw98e1.png?width=2000&format=png&auto=webp&s=267d49f2ac3da178ca6cf39bbc837deb00c5d9aa

Let’s chat about the potential of directories or your thoughts on building tools like this! 🌟

I wanted to test out the demand for Ads with AI

Had read a lot about other companies killing in this space mostly through meta ads

I have been running Meta Ads for the past 2.5 years and have personally applied a lot of AI stuff

So I decided to curate all these ad templates and create a demand gen for https://hookads.ai/

My major core thesis around its demand and whether folks would want it personalised for them is now tested ( through the feedback board in my product)

I did simple outreach and made sales now focusing on programmatic and building the core product

Hey everyone! 👋

I absolutely love the idea of Secret Santa. After countless holiday seasons of messy Secret Santa arrangements in group chats and spreadsheets, I decided to build something better. I'd love your feedback on my first SaaS project!

What it does:
- Choose your gift tier ($10, $50, or $100)
- Recommend a gift within your budget
- Get matched with someone at the same tier (Anonymous)
- Receive a surprise gift from your anonymous Santa with a anonymous note!

What makes it different:
- Zero platform fees (100% of your money goes to gifts)
- Global matching (connect with Santas worldwide)
- Secure handling of shipping info (only shared with your matched Santa)
- Simple, straightforward process
- Optionally get a chance to connect with your secret santa over social media if both parties agree.

Why I built it:
I love Secret Santa exchanges but always found them logistically challenging, especially with larger groups or remote participants. Plus, the budget mismatches were always awkward - someone spending $50 while getting a $10 gift in return. This platform solves these issues by ensuring everyone gets matched at their chosen price point.

Who doesn't want to get a anonymous gift during the holiday seasons.

What I'm looking for:
- Would you use something like this?
- What features would make it more appealing?
- Any concerns about the matching/shipping process?
- Thoughts on the price tiers?
- Security suggestions?

I'm really excited to hear your thoughts and suggestions! This is my first SaaS project, and I want to make it as useful as possible.

Hi, My morning routine everyday is to open and browse hacker news. As the title suggests I am working on deploying a small ml app ( a basic hacker news recommender based on input bio/interest of a user). If time permits, please give it a try and give relevant feedback so that I can make improvements (link attached at the bottom of the post).

Basic improvements that I have in mind:

1. recommendation rn is based solely on user input and story title (logic -usually the heading contains the crux of the story). I would like to use content from the stories as well - any inputs on how to do this ? (rn for each post I can use a max of 512 tokens as an input to the model)

2. reducing latency

3. better cross encoder models

For reference Repo - https://github.com/AnanyaP-WDW/Hn-Reranker Live app - https://hn.ananyapathak.xyz/
PS: the recommendation is based on the top 500 stories on the front page

I’m almost ready to launch my MVP but wondering if now is a good time or to wait till new year.

Presume a lot of people are now on holiday - but does that mean they’ve got more free time to browse and buy / test new things? Or am I better off waiting till people are back in their “work mood”

Anyone got experience with seasonality?

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I've been seeing a lot of posts lately about people feeling stuck in their jobs, dreaming of something more. And honestly? I was right there with you. For years, I was grinding away at a big corporation, feeling like just another cog in the machine. I was good at my job, sure, but there was this nagging feeling that I wasn't really building anything for myself.

About a year ago, that feeling became unbearable. I started spending my nights and weekends diving into code, building little projects, just playing around. I've always been a techy at heart, tinkering with things since I was a kid. But this time felt different. I wasn't just fixing something; I was creating something from scratch.

That "something" eventually turned into a little web app, then a mobile utility... and now I'm actually getting paid to do this stuff! It wasn't easy; there were nights of frustration, debugging marathons, and the occasional "why did I ever think this was a good idea" moment. But pushing through all that has been the most rewarding experience I've ever had.

Now, I'm a full-time freelance developer, and I'm loving it. I get to choose my projects, set my hours, and the best part? I'm helping other people bring their visions to life. I'm also starting to mentor others who are feeling that same itch I had to break free and do something they actually enjoy.

If you're feeling that pull, that desire to create or change your path, I'm here to say that it IS possible. It takes a lot of hard work, discipline, and learning, but the freedom that comes with it is totally worth it.

If you have questions about getting started, about freelancing, or just want to talk tech, I'm happy to share what I've learned. Feel free to drop a comment below or reach out through my website (link in my profile).

Let's build something awesome!

P.S. Don't let the fear of failure stop you. I failed plenty of times along the way, and each one was a lesson I needed.

I wanted to share a recent experience that really streamlined my workflow and helped me launch a SaaS MVP in just one week next to my fulltime job. To be upfront, I’m the creator of ZapStart, and I want to be transparent about how it made a huge difference for me.

The Challenge

Starting a new SaaS project from scratch can be overwhelming. Between setting up authentication, databases, designing the UI, and handling payments, it felt like there was never enough time in the day. I was looking for a way to cut down on the setup time so I could focus more on building features that matter.

Enter ZapStart

That’s where ZapStart came in. I developed it to simplify the initial setup process, and honestly, it worked better than I expected. Setting up ZapStart was incredibly quick and easy—within minutes, I had everything configured and ready to go. Here’s how ZapStart helped me get my MVP up and running so swiftly:

1. Seamless Authentication with Clerk
Setting up user authentication usually takes a lot of time, but ZapStart integrates effortlessly with Clerk. This made implementing secure sign-ins and social logins (like Google and GitHub) super easy.

2. Robust Database Integration with Supabase
Managing the backend was a breeze thanks to the Supabase integration. It provided a real-time, scalable database that worked perfectly with my Next.js app, saving me hours on setup and configuration.

3. Easy Payment Processing via Stripe
Incorporating Stripe for payments was straightforward with ZapStart’s pre-configured components. Handling subscriptions and multiple payment methods was hassle-free, letting me focus on the core functionality of my app.

4. Polished UI with Tailwind CSS
Designing a professional-looking UI can be time-consuming, but ZapStart comes with customizable components and a ready-to-use landing page built with Tailwind CSS. This not only gave my MVP a sleek appearance but also allowed me to quickly adjust the design to fit my brand.

5. One-Click Deployment and Built-In SEO
Deploying the app was as simple as a single click, getting my MVP live within minutes. Plus, ZapStart includes SEO optimizations out of the box, helping my project gain visibility without needing extensive SEO knowledge.

Saving Time and Effort

Using ZapStart, I saved over 30 hours on initial setup tasks. This extra time was invaluable for iterating on features, gathering user feedback, and refining the product quickly. It felt amazing to see everything come together so fast!

Lifetime Access with One-Time Payment

One thing I love about ZapStart is the lifetime access model. With a single payment, you get unlimited use of ZapStart for all your current and future projects. No recurring fees means it’s a cost-effective solution whether you’re launching one MVP or scaling to multiple SaaS products.

Why I Created ZapStart

As a developer, I know how frustrating and time-consuming the setup process can be. I wanted to create a tool that not only speeds up development but also ensures the end product looks professional and is ready for users. Seeing ZapStart help others achieve their goals faster is incredibly rewarding, and I’m always working on improving it based on your feedback.

Final Thoughts

Building and launching an MVP in a week is definitely challenging, but with the right tools, it’s achievable. ZapStart was a game-changer for me, making the development process smooth and efficient from start to finish. If you’re a developer or entrepreneur looking to accelerate your SaaS project, I highly recommend giving ZapStart a try.

Feel free to ask me any questions about my experience or how ZapStart can fit into your workflow. I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

Hey everyone! 👋

I built this while learning Go and wanted to share. It's basically just a string reversal API, but I had fun making it ridiculously over-engineered, complete with user auth, API key management, and a dashboard showing usage metrics.

The whole joke is that it takes something as simple as reversing a string (which is literally one line of code in most languages) and wraps it in layers of enterprise-style complexity.

It's built with Go for the backend, HTMX for interactivity, and TailwindCSS for styling. If anyone wants to check it out: stringreverser.com

The API is actually pretty snappy and you can try it without signing up.

I recently launched a side project called BudgetForCars.com, a free car budget calculator that uses the 20/4/10 rule to calculate car budget for your income.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React with Material-UI for a clean and responsive design.
• Backend: Django REST Framework for API endpoints.
• Hosting: Deployed on Vercel for the frontend and Cloud Run for the backend.
• SEO: Focused on programmatic SEO pages like “Car Budget in California” and “Car Budget for $60,000 Income.”

Challenges I’m Facing

1. Thin Content on SEO Pages: I’ve built dynamic pages targeting location- and income-specific queries, but they sometimes feel repetitive. Any tips on improving the depth without bloating them?
2. Backlink Building: Growth is slow without backlinks. Are there creative strategies you’ve used for projects in similar niches?

Looking for Feedback

If you have a moment, I’d love your feedback on:

• Design: Does the UI/UX feel intuitive?
• SEO & Content: Ideas to make the pages more engaging and rank-worthy?

Here’s the link: BudgetForCars.com

As a side project, I developed a tool that analyzes subreddit activity to show the best times to post. It helps identify peak engagement periods with features like a 24-hour activity chart, heatmap, and weekly trends.

Here’s a screenshot of the tool in action:

Analytics Page

Why I built it: I’ve often struggled to figure out when to post on Reddit to maximize visibility, so I decided to solve that problem myself.

It’s free to use for one subreddit, and I’d love feedback from the community, especially other creators or SaaS founders. Let me know what you think or if there’s a feature you’d want to see!

Hi everyone! I know there are a lot of these apps out there these days, but I've really enjoyed working on this in my free time, and I think it has turned out decently well! I'm using ChatGpt with a built up chain of custom prompts to analyze dreams, generate automated tags, and create images to represent the content of the dream. You can see it here: https://www.dailydreamer.co/

I'd love to hear any feedback if you have it! Or let me know what features you think I should work on adding next!

https://preview.redd.it/ex8n2tpsu88e1.png?width=1320&format=png&auto=webp&s=1a59d288a12309f478ace7579dd97506c1ceb0dd

PlanSense for iPhone, iPad, MacOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/plansense/id6503712817?platform=iphone

I recently developed Totals, a macOS menubar app that pulls real-time revenue from Stripe, Paddle, Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, and Polar. It shows your earnings at a glance without needing to open dashboards or log in.

It’s a one-time purchase for $19, and you own it forever.

I’m curious, do you think this is fair for creators and small business owners? If not, what would you pay?

I'm thinking of building a tool to help manage and track which email addresses you've used to sign up for different websites/services.

The basic idea is to have a simple dashboard where you can:

• See all websites linked to each of your email addresses
• Track which services still have active accounts
• Get reminded about unused subscriptions you might want to cancel
• Keep track of which authentication method you used (email/password, Google, Apple, etc.)
• Search across all your registrations quickly

WHY?

Because I often forget:

• Which email I used to sign up for a specific service
• Where I have active accounts that I'm not using anymore
• Which services have access to my email accounts

Would you find this useful? If yes, what features would you want to see?

Let me know your thoughts! Looking for honest feedback before diving deeper into development.

Last week I posted similar thing and found out a lot of people works on their side project every weekends. So, I posting this again - what are you working on this weekend?

For me, I'm still working on indexone - find under the radar software engineer jobs in one place. This weekend, I will be working on Email notification feature - where people will get new jobs notifications right in their email, so they don't have to remember to visit the site for new jobs.

I'm curious what are you guys building. I tried out a few products last time, I'm planning to do the same again.