DEV Community: Richard Gigi

From a 3 AM Idea to 1,000 Users

Richard Gigi — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 05:27:48 +0000

I'm sitting here, staring at our dashboard, and the number still doesn't feel real: 1,000 users.

Let me be perfectly honest with you. I've never built a product and pushed it to 500 users, let alone a thousand. The fact that Zealock, our WhatsApp-powered marketplace has surpassed that in just one month is... mind-blowing. I'm equal parts ecstatic, exhausted, and terrified. But mostly, I'm incredibly grateful.

This isn't just a milestone post; it's the story of how a simple question in the dead of night spiraled into a product people actually use. It's about the chaos, the backlash, the self-doubt, and the features we're building to shape the future of shopping in Nigeria.

The 3 AM Spark That Ignited Everything

The origin story doesn't start in a fancy office or a structured brainstorming session. It starts with video games.

I was almost done with Torgist, a tool for collecting feedback (the irony is not lost on me). One early morning, after a long gaming session with my co-founder, Emmanuel, we were just talking. And then, out of sheer personal frustration, I asked a question that would change everything:

"Why do I always have to ask for a plug for laptops?"

It was a simple pain point we both felt deeply. The chaos of WhatsApp DMs, the endless group chats, the unsaved numbers, the ghosting. It was a fragmented, inefficient mess. We started joking about a solution, and then the joke stopped being funny. It started being an idea.

We posted a little about this nascent idea. The response wasn't just positive; it was overwhelming. Our DMs flooded with people not just saying "good idea," but asking, "When?" and "How can I use it?" Some messages were so detailed, outlining their own frustrations, that we knew we weren't just solving our own problem. We were solving a universal one.

The validation was so raw and genuine that we had no choice. We had to build it. Torgist was paused. Zealock was on.

Building in Public, for the People Who Asked for It

Our strategy was unconventional but intentional. We built Zealock in public, but not on the usual platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn first.

We built it for our WhatsApp audience.

They were the ones who asked for it, so they were the first to see the teasers, the early UIs, and the struggles. Their feedback was immediate and brutal in the best way possible. How did I know they weren't just being nice? Let's just say even the people I least expected to be supportive were hitting me up saying, "Bro, this is impressive." When your enemies love it, you know you're onto something. 😂

The Road Was Anything But Smooth

Let's not romanticize this. The journey was, and still is, hard.

Meta's Maze: We faced our fair share of backlash and blockers. Meta frustrated us to no end. At one point, our account was suspended for a violation that felt vague. Other times, we were just stuck waiting for verifications, watching precious momentum slow to a crawl. It was a constant reminder that building on someone else's platform is a double-edged sword.
The Founder's Doubt: There were countless times I'd just sit in my chair, head in my hands, and ask myself, "Am I doing too much?" I'd spend hours staring at the analytics, obsessing over every single user, wondering, "Are people actually making sales? Is this really working?"
The Burnout Balance: This is where your support system becomes everything. Shoutout to the people really close to me, and especially to Jay, who would literally tell me to step away from the computer and force me to rest. Founders, hear me: you cannot pour from an empty cup. Rest is a feature, not a bug.

The New Phase: Introducing "The Zealock Handshake"

Hitting 1k users isn't a finish line; it's the starting gate. The work has just begun. We're here to serve our users and prove that Nigerian innovation can thrive with integrity, despite the country's challenges.

But vision needs execution. So, as promised, here's what we've been building:

1. The New Zealock.com: Clarity is Key.

We've completely overhauled our website. It's now crystal clear who we are, what we do, and why it matters. If you've ever been confused about Zealock, visit zealock.com now. The message is sharpened.

2. Smarter Search & Priority Placement.

We've made significant changes to our search algorithm. Now, when you subscribe to any of our plans, your product or service gets priority placement at the top of relevant searches. It's a win-win: buyers find the best options faster, and serious sellers get the visibility they deserve.

3. The Zealock Handshake: A Better Way to Connect.

This is our biggest update yet. We're moving beyond just showing a phone number.

Now, when you find an item you like, you'll see a full dedicated view for it—a clean, focused page with all the details. When you're ready, you click to get the contact. We call this "The Zealock Handshake."

Why does this matter?

For Buyers: A cleaner, more secure user experience.
For Sellers: Higher-intent leads. We know who contacted you, allowing us to build better features for both sides.
For Us: Crucial data to understand what's working and how to better facilitate real, successful deals.

This isn't just a feature; it's the foundation for everything we're building next: ratings, verification, analytics. The Handshake makes it all possible.

The Honest Ask: We Can't Do This Alone

We have single-handedly bootstrapped Zealock to this point. We're proud of that, but I'm not ashamed to say it: we are low on resources.

To push Zealock to where it needs to be, to serve our users the way they deserve, to build out the dozen game-changing features we have mapped out—we need investors. We need partners who believe in our vision to "make shopping feel like chatting" and who see the immense potential in organizing the chaos of WhatsApp commerce.

This is our call. If you believe in what we're building, if you see the potential, we want to talk.

What's Next?

The journey from 1,000 to 10,000 users is a new mountain to climb. There will be new challenges, more Meta frustrations, and undoubtedly more moments of doubt.

But there will also be more moments of pure joy, like seeing that user count jump after two hours of staring at a frozen number.

I'll be documenting it all, right here. The code, the challenges, the wins. This is just the beginning.

Want to be part of the journey?

Try Zealock: Message us on WhatsApp: https://wa.me/2348123698316?text=Hello+Zealock
Tell us what to build next: Your feedback is our roadmap. Share it here: https://torgist.vercel.app/f/8707de00
Follow our every move: Stay updated across all platforms:
- X (FKA Twitter): https://x.com/zealockai
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zealockai
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/zealockai

Here's to the next 1,000. The grind continues.

Why I Built StyleXui

Richard Gigi — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 20:16:04 +0000

It’s been a while since the last official release of StyleXui, and I thought it was time to tell the full story. Not just about what StyleXui is, but why I built it.

A lot has happened since my last post. Life has been a rollercoaster for me personally and for the team at Xnyder. We’ve bounced between figuring out revenue models for Xnyder, managing a tool we initially built for fun (shoutout to our anonymous feedback app), and developing what we believe could revolutionize how e-commerce works in my beautiful country, Nigeria.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, I kept going back to one tool consistently: StyleXui.
And no, not just because I built it. Okay, maybe a little bit because of that 😂
But really, let me take you back to the beginning.

The First Draft

The very first version of StyleXui was hacked together around four years ago. I didn’t even think to push it to GitHub at the time. I wasn’t sure it was a big deal. It was just… something I made. But now, looking back, I realize that tiny side project laid the foundation for something much bigger.

At first, I just wanted to challenge myself:

“Can I build my own CSS framework?”
I mean, how hard could it be?

Turns out to be very hard.

Growing Pains

Every time I used StyleXui on a project, I ran into missing styles. It felt like I was in a constant loop of fixing and adding. For over a year, I kept telling myself:

“This thing won’t go anywhere.”

I even shelved it more than once. But something kept pulling me back.

Then came the CORS issue.
I was still new to it all and had no clue what was wrong. After days of searching, debugging, and trial-and-error, I finally cracked it. That experience alone could have been its own mini project 😩

Next up: optimization.
Fonts, spacing, sizing, none of it was quite right. I had to figure out how to fix that too. Shoutout to gwfh.mranftl.com for helping me self-host Google Fonts easily. Also, Toptal’s JS and CSS minifiers became my best friends during this phase.

Who’s Using It?

That was another question: Who’s actually going to use this?

I didn’t do much promotion. I just didn’t feel it was “there” yet. But one of my guys, Nnaemeka, has been using StyleXui for two years straight. I think he even knows how to use it better than I do 😂😂

Tailwind? Bootstrap? StyleXui?

Before we launched, I had doubts.
Was this just another Tailwind copy?

If that’s how you see it, I get it. The syntax is familiar.
But that’s the whole point.

I’ve used Tailwind CSS, I’ve used Bootstrap, they both have strengths and weaknesses. With StyleXui, we’re trying to bring the best of both worlds:

Utility-first like Tailwind
Easy to get started with like Bootstrap
No configs or heavy setups—just plug and go

Where We Are Now

We finally launched 🎉
We're still a small name in the space, but the recognition we’ve received, no matter how little, means the world to us. We’re not perfect, but we’re building something.

And that something is StyleXui.

A modern CSS framework made for real-world devs.
Whether you’re a Tailwind fan or a Bootstrap loyalist, StyleXui doesn’t force you to choose. It blends both approaches and simplifies getting started. And it’s open source, so your feedback, ideas, and pull requests are always welcome.

Try It Out

👉 Visit the official site: https://stylexui.com
📬 Want to reach out? DM me on social media or message us on X (formerly Twitter) @StyleXui
💬 We’re always open to contributions and feedback.

We haven’t released our official docs yet, but they’re coming soon. In the meantime, just start building and let us know what you think.

If this article resonates with you, or you're curious to try something different in your next project, give StyleXui a spin.

Thanks for reading 🙌
🚀 Richard Gigi, Co-Founder @ Xnyder

I’ve Built for 4 Years, Failed Quietly, and Now I’m Sharing Everything

Richard Gigi — Sat, 17 May 2025 04:27:33 +0000

Well, I want to say something here before moving forward. I had no idea people would read my first post, especially since it was my first time writing an article. I'm really grateful for the love and support shown here.

For those seeing my posts for the first or second time (P.S. this is my second post) 😂. I'll be sharing what I’ve been working on since the last one.

The Journey Since My First Post

It’s been… how do I put this? An up-and-down kind of journey. After telling people how I got into tech, I went back to the hustle. And now, I’ll try my best to give you all the details, bit by bit.

My Early Tech Journey: Where It All Started

I’ve been building products for over 4 years now. I built my first project in the second year of my tech journey. We tried creating a forum and thought that just making it look better was enough to make it successful.

Now that I’m older, I see that’s not it. Nobody told us about marketing. People won’t care if you don’t put your work in front of them. I made this same mistake again with my second and third projects. (Don’t worry! I’ll write about those one day.)

Honestly, it’s painful. When I build something and no one uses it, I ask myself:

“Was it a waste of time?”
“Did I miss something?”
“Am I even meant to make it in life?”

So at some point, I started building free things. I figured maybe people weren’t using my work because I was trying to charge for it.

Building with My Co-Founder

Right now, I build with Emmanuel, my co-founder. We decided it was time to take things seriously and start shipping products. And so far? From July 1st, 2024 till now, we’ve released 4 products.

I love solving problems, even those not related to tech. So we came up with tools to help people in one way or another. You can see our tools on Product Hunt.

It hasn’t been easy shipping tools consistently, but we’ve kept them all free for now, just trying to get people to use them.

The Birth of Torgist

And hey… it worked! 😂
One of our tools, Torgist, now has almost 300 users, the largest number we've gotten since I started building tools, and we’re not even done building yet.

So, what’s Torgist? In the simplest English:

A place where you can really vent and not worry about your identity.

I’ve heard way too many stories of abuse where I come from, and in 90% of them, the victims don’t speak up. Not because they can’t, but because they’re afraid it will be turned against them. And sadly, in many cases, it is.

Why Torgist Exists

You might say:

“Well, they could just create a fake account and seek help.”

True… but we built a better way. With Torgist, there’s no need to fake anything.
Just come and say what’s on your mind.

We also see a huge use case for schools and offices. Imagine a bullied student or stressed employee being able to anonymously report issues through a digital feedback box. That message could go straight to the HR or leadership.

We’ve got big plans for Torgist. But I’ll save some of the juice, gotta leave room for surprises 😏.

Taking It Seriously at Xnyder

We had a meeting with the entire Xnyder team. We talked about the vision, ran a survey, got community feedback, and wrote detailed documentation.

We highlighted:

The problems
Our proposed solutions
What our competitors are doing
And how we can do it even better

We’re already working on a new version of Torgist, with simplicity as the key focus and everyone’s feedback in mind.

StyleXui – The Simple and Modern CSS Framework

Now, before all the Torgist gist 😅, I released something I’m super proud of:
A CSS framework called StyleXui.

I’ve been marketing it without ads, mostly just word of mouth. I’ve messaged so many devs on LinkedIn. A few replied (shoutout to those ones 😂), and 2 of them even built something with it!

Here’s one: Agro Box, a real site built with StyleXui.
I was so happy to see someone use it. I remember rushing to our dev group to share the news. That joy? It was real. 😂

Is StyleXui Ready for the Big Stage?

I used to be scared. Like… can StyleXui really compete with Bootstrap or Tailwind?

So I asked myself:

“Can StyleXui build a proper dashboard?”

A few weeks ago, the answer was no.

Yes, the first release had some layout support, but I didn’t document the dashboard parts properly because I knew they weren’t ready. And you know what? Sometimes, you just have to be honest with yourself.

The Zypher Admin Dashboard

So, I decided to fix it. I said I’d build a full-blown admin dashboard. I thought,

“Maybe 5 days max. I’ll be done.”

LOL. Dey play.
That task had other plans for me.

The design blockers were real. I was stuck on Dribbble and Behance for days trying to find the perfect design. (Perfectionism is my toxic trait, btw 😅)

Two weeks and six days later, I finally built something I could be proud of:
👉 Zypher Admin Dashboard

It’s an e-commerce dashboard that lets you manage customers, orders, discounts, gateways, and more. Liking the look? Clone it from GitHub.

Oh, and StyleXui v1.0.1 launched alongside it. Now the framework can build clean dashboards too. Give it a try.

My First Online Sale 🎉

I also created a premium version of Zypher and put it on Selar.

And guess what? I got my first sale the same day it launched!
You should’ve seen me. (No, actually, you shouldn’t have. It was that dramatic 😂)

The buyer even left a review. I didn’t pressure anyone. They just saw it and bought it. And that meant the world to me.

I’ve never sold anything online. I’ve never made money from something I built.
But this? This is a big win - for me and for the company.

What’s Next?

We’re working on a landing page for StyleXui. Right now, it’s hard to use ClickUp as our documentation base and some users have already mentioned that pain.

So we’re opening up the project. If you’re a designer or dev and want to help, drop a comment. It’s open source, and we’d love to build with you.

Oh, and I’ve got one more dashboard to build for internal use. I was going to say it’s a “2-day task” (like the last one 😅), but let me not jinx it this time.

This one will be built with React, not just plain HTML and CSS like before.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading this far. I hope you felt the realness in every line.
This journey hasn’t been perfect, but it’s mine and I’m proud of how far I’ve come.

Let’s keep building. Let’s keep learning. And if you’re out there struggling with visibility, traction, or doubt…

Just know you’re not alone. We move! 🚀

How It All Started: A Boy, a Computer, and a Whole Lot of Curiosity

Richard Gigi — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 14:45:05 +0000

I’ve always had this thing for computers. I can’t even remember when exactly it started, but let’s just say age 6. Back then, I was already operating my parents' phone like a pro. I know, I know—kids nowadays are doing the same at two years old, but back then? That was a big deal 😂. Just knowing how to use a phone kinda made you feel like you were qualified to join the tech gang.

But before we go too far, let me introduce myself—I'm Richard Gigi, from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and I’ll be sharing my tech journey with you. All of it. The highs, the frustrating lows, and everything in between.

First Touch

So, my parents noticed how good I was with devices and decided to enroll me in a computer class when I was in Nursery 3. That’s where it really started. The moment I laid my hands on a computer for the first time, you would have thought I’d been using it for years. While some kids were still trying to figure out the mouse and how to “left-click,” I was already exploring apps like I owned the place 😂.

My teacher noticed too and even asked if we had a computer at home. I said no—we were just living in a self-contain then, but that didn’t stop me. We were learning how to draw a house on Paint (you know: triangle roof, square body, rectangle door, the classic). Then it moved to Mavis Beacon, and that typing game had me hooked. I wasn’t just playing with computers—I was building a connection with them.

Then came the revelation: even the games and apps on the phone were made with computers?! 😳 You guys didn’t tell me this part now 😂.

When Curiosity Kicked In

I didn’t start coding right away—I mean, I was still young. But I was curious. My brain started forming ideas like, “People must be talking to the computer to make these things work.” 😂 Kids say the craziest things.

When I got into high school, it was required to have a laptop, and my dad got me one. A tiny Lenovo. I used it for assignments, games, and typing for my dad, until—sadly—it got stolen. That hurt. But one thing was now clear to my dad: this whole tech thing wasn’t just a phase.

He heard about a popular school in Port Harcourt where I could actually start learning how to build apps. I was like, “Say less. Sign me up already.” That same day, he got me a laptop—well, something like it. A LEAP Injoo. Basically a glorified tablet with a keyboard (4GB RAM, 32GB ROM). It wasn’t much, but I was grateful. I started web development in 2019, and that was the beginning of everything.

Enter: Hello World

When classes started, I was ready. I had already downloaded Adobe Dreamweaver, I was using Sublime Text, and here they were asking us to use Notepad 😂. I created my first “Hello World,” and in my head, I was now officially a web designer 😎.

But somewhere along the line, things started falling apart. The teachers stopped doing practicals. They’d just throw slides at us and disappear. I knew I had to take things into my own hands.

Thank God for the right people at the right time. One of my friends gave me a hard drive filled with Udemy videos—shout out to that guy, fr. That’s when I really started learning. I even remember the instructor’s name—Colt Steele. That course changed everything for me.

I had already paid ₦150,000 to become a fullstack dev and still couldn’t build anything serious. But those Udemy videos? Game changer. For the first time, I knew what I was doing. I learned how to build my profile, design real websites, and stop relying on Dreamweaver.

If We’re Keeping It Real…

Let me not lie, that school didn’t try at all. If you remove me and like two other people, almost everyone else that went through that program dropped tech altogether. I wouldn’t even recommend the place unless you just want a diploma and plan to do a year top-up abroad. Harsh truth, but truth nonetheless.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

It’s been over six years since I officially started, and it’s been anything but smooth. I’ve had more bad memories than good ones—but I’m still here. Still growing. Still showing up.

To anyone reading this who’s just starting out, let me tell you something: it’s okay to feel stuck, to feel like it’s not working out. What’s not okay is giving up without asking for help. Someone gave me free Udemy courses, and I didn’t even know they were paid for at the time. That simple act changed everything for me.

One of my biggest regrets is not sharing my progress earlier. People say I’m good—but honestly, who knows? I was silent for too long. If I had been posting, documenting my growth, maybe I’d be in a different place today. But it’s all good. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved—silently.

And When It All Gets Too Much…

I just say "omo" 😭

This is just the beginning of my story. I’ll be sharing more about the wins, the struggles, and the random twists along the way. If you’ve got a dream, pursue it with all you’ve got. And if it ever feels too hard—just remember, omo, we move 🚀