🧭 The Story Behind Flyone — Building a Data-Driven Link Platform in Public

There are products you build because there’s a market.

And then there are products you build because there’s a pain — a real one you’ve felt yourself.

That’s how Flyone started.

---

🌍 A simple problem, a bigger vision

Every creator, marketer, or startup shares links.

We shorten them, track clicks, add UTMs…

but still, we barely understand what’s actually happening after the click.

Are those clicks converting?

Which channel really drives growth?

Which campaign actually matters?

I wanted to see beyond the “link count”.

I wanted clarity.

So I started building it myself — with zero marketing, zero funding, just curiosity and caffeine. ☕

That’s the start of Flyone, my journey to build a data-driven link management platform — in public.

---

⚙️ The First Line of Code

The very first commit was nothing glamorous:

POST /shorten → returns a slug.

No analytics.

No fancy dashboard.

Just a URL that worked.

Then I added:

• Password-protected links
• Device & country redirects
• Expiration & OTP
• Simple JSON analytics

Suddenly, it wasn’t just a link shortener anymore.

It was a small system of data points waiting to tell a story.

---

🧠 The Realization

As the project grew, I realized:

"Links are the most underrated data source on the internet."

Every click is intent, every redirect is context, and every campaign is insight — if you know how to read it.

That’s when Flyone evolved from a “short link app” into a platform:

• A Core Engine for links
• A Data Layer for analytics
• An Automation Layer for webhooks and n8n
• An AI Layer for insights (via ChatGPT + MCP)

I wasn’t just building software anymore.

I was building a language to interpret digital actions.

---

💡 The Stack (so far)

I like building products that are simple but extensible.

Here’s the Flyone stack today:

yaml
Frontend: Next.js + TypeScript + shadcn/ui  
Backend: Node.js + Express + Redis Cache  
Database: MongoDB (core) + Clickhouse (analytics)  
Auth: Clerk  
Billing: Lemon Squeezy  
CDN: Cloudflare  
Automation: n8n  
AI & Copilot: MCP Server + ChatGPT