CrispPlan

Probably a good idea if there are a few people interested in CrispPost before the launch, so I've been exploring some ways to build some interest. In addition to the (super basic) landing page at www.crispplan.com, I'm also exploring some content marketing.

After doing some research, Instagram carousel tutorials look like a good place to start. They are fairly quick to put together, can be reused across other channels (email, blog, etc.). Created some initial mock-ups, but cannot decide between a light or dark theme: https://twitter.com/dkrape/status/1264953098776297474

Been a busy last few weeks. I've started talking to some potential customers to get a sense of what their needs are and what tools they currently use. Sounds like CrispPost will be a good fit for some, others not so much. I think having an early alpha for people to use will be super helpful for further evaluation and validation.

I've also been spending some time on the various screens. I went straight from sketches to high-fidelity mock-ups, which is generally not my preferred process since testing wireframes can often be very helpful. However, I'm having fun doing it and since I'm doing the dev work too, everything should be pretty flexible.

A few of the mock-ups are on my Twitter account: https://twitter.com/dkrape/status/1262819832426311680

Decided on a name: CrispPlan. The domain was available, and I like how it emphasizes how easy it should be to plan your social media and newsletter content.

I also put together a super simple landing page just so I have somewhere people can go and sign-up for email updates: https://crispplan.com

The landing page took me about 45 minutes, largely because I revamped one I'd created for another project. I debated using one of the many landing page builders out there (including a number that have launched on IndieHackers), but I wanted to minimize the number of tools that I use, largely for simplicity sake. I'm using a free MailChimp account for the email collection.

I also spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out what I should do for the tech stack. I've always been planning to use Laravel since I know PHP reasonably well and I've been really impressed with how accessible it is. Laracast tutorials have also been super helpful, and I've probably spent 20 hours already on tutorials so far.

What I had been struggling with was the front-end. I've used a bit of React, and I started learning Vue and was really liking it. But I kept coming back to the fact that it felt like overkill and it'll probably take me more time to get to building due to the learning curve. Then I discovered AlpineJS. It uses a lot of the same syntax as Vue, but without a lot of the overhead and duplication with Laravel. I'll likely use TailwindCSS as well, though I have misgivings about only using utility classes.

So now that I have my stack, I'll probably start building this weekend!

This is a tool I've wanted for awhile: a super simple social media planning tool that will encourage me to be more active on my accounts and will help me build more of a community.

Additionally, my wife, who's growing a coaching business, could really use a tool like this. Most of the tools out there are built for larger businesses and more complex than she needs. Most notably, she's not a designer, so she needs a way to consistently create good looking content for Instagram and email with limited effort and design expertise.

My first goal is to create an MVP that my wife and I will use (and maybe some people interested in my early alpha). Ultimately my goal with this is to build something and learn from it. We'll see where it goes from there.

Spent a fun couple hours on the mock-up calendar page: https://twitter.com/dkrape/status/1251513406361829376