Southern Turf Carolinas
↗
for Southern Turf Carolinas
Full-stack rebuild for commercial turf installer. Turned 8-second WordPress nightmare into sub-second static site with smart lead capture.
Results:
- Page load: 8 seconds → 0.7 seconds
- Mobile bounce rate: 87% → 31%
- Lead quality up 3x with smart forms
- First page Google for key terms
AstroVercelTypeScriptResend
Analytics Pipeline Overhaul
for Stealth E-commerce Brand
Rebuilt their entire data pipeline from Segment chaos to clean, reliable BigQuery warehouse with actual business metrics.
Results:
- Data freshness: 24 hours → 15 minutes
- Pipeline failures: Daily → Monthly
- Analytics trust: 'Nobody believes these numbers' → 'Finally, real data'
- Cost: -60% despite 10x more data
BigQueryDataflowdbtPython
Quick & Dirty Market Test
for B2B SaaS Startup
Two-week sprint to test if anyone would actually pay for their 'revolutionary' idea. Spoiler: they wouldn't.
Results:
- Built functional MVP in 10 days
- Tested with 50 target users
- Conversion rate: 0%
- Saved them $2M in wasted development
Next.jsSupabaseStripe
Animated Brand System
for Creative Agency
Started building a generative logo system. Got distracted by cooler project. Will return someday.
What happened:
- Built working prototype
- Created 3 variations
- Got distracted
- ...
ReactFramer MotionTypeScript
✨
The Perfect CMS
for Internal
Every developer's white whale. Started building the CMS to end all CMSs. Realized Notion exists.
Why it's paused: Someone else did it better
What happened:
- Beautiful schema design
- 2 weeks of work
- Discovered Payload CMS
- Deleted everything
Next.jsPrismatRPC
🤝
Real-time Collaboration Tool
for Internal Project
Building a Figma-like multiplayer editor. Hit WebRTC limitations. On pause while we learn more.
Why it's paused: Underestimated complexity
What happened:
- Built working prototype with CRDT
- Sync worked... mostly
- Discovered why Figma has 100 engineers
WebRTCCRDTTypeScriptCanvas API
🤖
ML-Powered Content Generation
for Content Startup
Auto-generate blog posts from bullet points. GPT-4 came out mid-project. Pivoted to using their API.
Why it's paused: OpenAI did it better
What happened:
- Trained custom model on 10k articles
- Achieved 70% quality score
- GPT-4 scored 95%
- Client happy with API solution
PythonTensorFlowGPT-4 APIFastAPI
🤖
ML-Powered Sentiment Dashboard
for Marketing Agency
Client wanted AI sentiment analysis. Built a prototype. Realized Google Trends did 90% of it for free.
Cause of Death: Death by existing Google Trends
What we learned:
- Built working prototype in 1 week
- Discovered free alternative
- Saved client $200k/year
- Killed with prejudice
PythonTensorFlowBigQuery
📦
Real-Time Inventory Sync
for E-commerce Platform
Everyone said they needed real-time. Tested with 15-minute batches. Nobody noticed.
Cause of Death: Murdered by batch processing
What we learned:
- Built real-time prototype
- Tested batch alternative
- Users couldn't tell difference
- Saved 90% complexity
KafkaRedisPostgreSQL
⛓️
Blockchain Loyalty Points
for VC-Backed Startup
They wanted blockchain everything. Built both versions. Postgres was 100x faster and free.
Cause of Death: Postgres did it better
What we learned:
- Blockchain version: 3 second transactions
- Postgres version: 30ms transactions
- Cost difference: $50k vs $500/year
- They picked Postgres
SolidityWeb3.jsPostgreSQL
Microservices Migration
for Mid-size SaaS
Client wanted 47 microservices. Peak traffic was 12 requests/second. Kept the monolith.
Cause of Death: Monolith was fine
What we learned:
- Analyzed actual traffic patterns
- Peak load: 12 req/sec
- Microservices needed: 0
- Money saved: $500k
DockerKubernetesRails