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Today

Hey, I'm Nikolas. I'm a product engineer who's always curious about how we build things – and how AI is making us rethink it all. I believe good products come from understanding the whole picture, from the big idea to the final code.

This is where I share my journey and ideas, hoping to find other folks passionate about building what's next.

Writing

2026

Chasing models won't make you better at using them

Feb 23

Stop buying courses. Start asking questions

Feb 19

2025: The year I stopped yapping and started shipping

Jan 4

2025

Why I'm just a 'decent' developer (and that's perfect for AI)

Jul 29

AI hype cycle: Wright brothers edition

Jul 22

AI will write 90% of code. Here's why that doesn't scare me

Jul 15

We're all getting hooked on cheap AI

Jul 8

Trading my developer comfort zone for real business skills

Jul 1

I thought I was behind, turns out I'm just specialized

Jun 23

Hello, I'm building

Jun 10

Projects

2026

Yapper

Native macOS app for offline, privacy-first speech-to-text transcription.

running

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Stack

Swift SwiftUI Whisper macOS

Visit

2025

LucidCode

Turn fuzzy app ideas into structured specs AI tools can actually build.

running

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Stack

TanStack Start PostgreSQL AI SDK OpenAI Bun

Status

Launched and live. Gathering early users.

Visit

WatchRival

AI-powered website monitoring and change detection with actionable insights.

abandoned

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Stack

TanStack Start Firecrawl AI SDK Bun

Status

Code completed but abandoned before launch.

Employee Evaluation Tool

Internal company tool for managing employee evaluation processes.

exited

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Stack

TanStack Start TypeScript PostgreSQL Google Gemini AI SDK Bun

Status

Successfully sold to my current company. Actively used by 100+ employees for internal evaluation processes.

[no name yet]

AI agent that helps you achieve your unachievable goals.

active

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

2024

PenPrism

AI writing that keeps your voice. Transform perspectives into content.

abandoned

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Stack

SvelteKit OpenAI Vercel Tailwind CSS

AI Agents List

Curated collection of the best AI agents from across the internet.

running

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Visit

Troden

Time and cost-efficient native MacOS interface for LLMs.

abandoned

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Stack

Tauri Svelte

Beanbrief

AI-driven newsletter client for organizing newsletters.

abandoned

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Stack

Next.js OpenAI Vercel AWS

2023

[no name]

Generating podcast transcripts and creating content from these.

abandoned

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Feedboard

Canny/Upvoty inspired user feedback board.

abandoned

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Lessons

Couldn't find a way to differentiate from the competition.

[no name]

Extremely minimalistic desktop text editor.

abandoned

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Stack

Tauri Svelte

[no name]

X (formerly Twitter) bookmarks organization helper.

abandoned

Journey

Idea →

Dev →

Launched →

Revenue →

Exited

Lessons

Abandoned after Twitter API pricing change (could not afford $42k a month).

Connect

If you want to get in touch with me about something or just to say hi, reach out on social media or send me an email.