Build a rough web version in 1-2 weeks and test it at a friend's party

Pat WallsThat's awesome. Let's talk about how you built this app. How long did it take to build this app, and what was that journey like?

Brian ShinSo the first version took around a week or two. It was a web app that kind of just had the core features of what a mobile app intended to have. We had a Halloween party hosted by my friend coming up, so we built out this web version, we printed out some invitation codes, so that everyone in the party can join in, take photos, and honestly, it broke many times during the event, but we were able to validate the core idea that people love taking photos in that event into a singular album of each other through an experience that mocks the whole disposable camera experience, so it didn't need to be perfect, but it was perfect enough to validate what we wanted to check.

Pat WallsMy other question is, AI, I mean you just built this like three months ago. Did you just build it with AI tools, or what tools did you use?

Brian ShinIt might be a hot take, but after we validated with the web app, we threw out the first version. And that's because I honestly believe that consumer app is basically a craft, and I use a lot of AI for dev, for finance, for everything, but for design, we never use AI, and that's because we really believe that design requires taste, and we think that the more opinionated, the better design that could possibly come out. But aside from that, I basically live on Claude Code.

Pat WallsYeah, I mean, I 100% agree with that. Design is one of those things that AI is not that good at yet. And when you have a B2C app like this, a consumer-facing app, you want it to feel, this isn't just for utility, this is for fun, creativeness, so I agree on that. Let's talk about the tech stack. What did you actually use to build this?