Was building in the shadows for months. Now time to go public.
So building in public and building on the side are the two most common advice for builders. And probably pretty reasonable as well.
But nevertheless, I did neither. Just building, which took months, until I have something tangible to show.
So only now I've started to show what I'm working on right now (with rather mixed results so far).
And I've reckoned that this might be a good place to start sharing my journey as well, so here I am :).
I am launching a beta version of Tekyous - an interactive tech stack builder and tools directory.
You build your stack on a visual canvas, and as you add tools, you get real-time hints, saying whether your selected tools pair well together, or what can be missing.
There are two main modes in the builder (the hints work for both):
Questionnaire mode - suggested starting stacks based on your project type and experience level, with rationale and an easy option to swap tools
Sandbox mode - free exploration, you build from the ground up
The catalogue covers over 150 tools across web development, data tooling, automation, and infrastructure. And will keep growing.
And even though I call it a beta version, the visual builder and tools catalogue are fully functional. User accounts, saved stacks, and AI-assisted recommendations are on the roadmap.
But one aspect indicating a beta version might be the visuals - I'm a data guy, this is my background. I was pretty satisfied how it looks, especially the canvas, but now I feel like some elements, especially landing page, could maybe look a little bit nicer.
So I'm happy to hear any feedback, and looking forward to being acting here :)
The link should be available on the page, so I will only link a Youtube platform demo separately here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mflDd6AALf8
Interesting build.
The thing I'd be careful with is that the challenge may not be whether the visuals need improvement.
The harder question may be what users are actually choosing Tekyous for.
That sounds subtle, but it can quietly shape what gets prioritized, what feedback matters, and how future features get interpreted.
I wouldn't make that call casually this early.
Thanks Aryan for your take, I agree with it fully.
At my stage the visuals should be 'good enough', just to not scare away the users. But my focus should be on actually getting the users in the first place, because there's no point in polishing the looks if no-one is going to see it anyway.
So discoverability is my first goal, and then order of specific features will indeed depend on actual needs and feedback (for instance user accounts vs more features inside the Builder or more tools and stacks coverage).
Possibly.
The reason I'd still be careful is that discoverability and feature prioritization can both look clearer than they actually are when feedback is still limited.
That's one of those decisions that can quietly shape what gets built next and how future signals get interpreted.
I wouldn't try to unpack that properly in a thread.
If you're curious, drop your email and I'll put together the tighter version.