... Solo builder here, won't say much about the product yet but happy to talk shop on the plumbing. Quick version of what I'd tell my past self: Auth - Supabase, Clerk, Auth0, pick one. An afternoon of setup vs. days of building it badly. I tried the days version first, do not recommend. Permissions - this is the sneaky one. Most people check "can this user see this?" in their app code. Way better to push the rule into ... ... environment What s been harder than expected than the stack itself is everything around it: auth + permissions are getting complex fast (especially with multi-client setups) data pipelines + syncing are way harder than expected deciding what to precompute vs

... Messaging overload : Slack, Notion, Gmail, Google Docs, and 20 tabs all named "final_v5_REAL" Research loops: GPT, Claude, Perplexity and still asking users "What do you actually need?" Content chaos : GPT for copy, Grammarly for tone, Ideogram for visuals. None of them work together Design stretch: Figma, Canva, Kling. "Just a quick mockup" turns into a 3-hour detour Async fatigue: Loom videos I don t have time to record, and no one has time to watch Automation maze ...

... Gmail, Google Docs (plus 23 unread tabs titled Strategy v4 Final Final FINAL ) Research black holes: Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude (and somehow still asking users so what do you actually need? ) Content chaos: ChatGPT-4 for copy, Grammarly for tone, Ideogram for visuals, and sometimes just yelling at the cursor Design stretch: Canva, Kling, Figma because can you mock that real quick? always means 3 hours Async pressure: Loom for updates I don t have time to record and even less ...