I am Marilyn Alvarado. I am a Latina founder from Peru living in Silicon Valley. I have won grants from the City of San Francisco and raised funding from the NEAR Foundation, but there is one thing I am not: I am not a backend engineer.
In the past, building a real-time, high-frequency trading platform for massive events would have required a $500k budget and a team of three senior developers.
These days, I built it in 48 hours with $0 budget.
My team? Just me and two AI Agents:
"Archy" (Google Gemini): My Solutions Architect & DevOps Lead.
Kiro (AI IDE): My Full-Stack Developer & Code Generator.
Here is how we built TheFunFanReporter, a "Frankenstein" monster that stitches the Legacy Web (WordPress/ 43% of the webs in Internet are made in WordPress) to the Real-Time Web (Node.js/Sockets), and why we believe this is the future of software development.
🛑 The Nightmare Scenario (The Problem)
Imagine you paid $7,000 for a Super Bowl ticket. You are 30 minutes away from kickoff, but you are stuck in "Zombie Gridlock" just 5 blocks from the stadium.
Google Maps is useless (it doesn't know which gate is actually moving).
The News is useless (they are talking about the halftime show).
You can't just abandon your car in the middle of the street.
The Solution: You need a local hero. A valet parking at a nearby hotel who can take your car right now.
TheFunFanReporter is a real-time market for this intel. You broadcast a mission ("$1450 for a Valet NOW"), and a local accepts it. You pay them in Meritocracy Coins (pegged to $7.25 USD). We split the tip 50/50 with the reporter.
🧟♂️ The "Frankenstein" Architecture
To win the Frankenstein Category of the Kiroween Hackathon, we didn't just write code; we performed surgery.
Most devs would say: "Rewrite everything in React."
Archy (My Gemini Architect) said: "No. WordPress powers 43% of the web. Let's give WordPress a superpower."
We stitched together two technologies that usually hate each other:
The Body (The Corpse): A standard WordPress site (Hostinger). It handles SEO, User Accounts, and Trust.
The Brain (The Lightning): A Node.js + Socket.io server running on Render Cloud. It handles 75,000+ concurrent connections.
The Stitches: A custom Vanilla JS Widget injected into the WordPress footer that talks to the Brain without breaking the Body.
🤖 How I Managed 2 AI Co-Founders
As a non-technical founder, I didn't write the code. I Directed the code. Here is the workflow that changed my life:
- The Strategy (Me + Archy/Gemini) I chatted with Archy to define the architecture. Archy explained that we needed a "Stateful" server (Node) to talk to a "Stateless" site (WordPress). Archy wrote the "Steering Documents"—the technical instructions that I would later feed to Kiro.
- Spec-Driven Development (Me + Kiro) I didn't ask Kiro to "write a chat app." I uploaded a specs.md file that Archy and I wrote. The Prompt: "Read this spec. Build a Node.js server that handles a 50/50 financial split on every transaction." The Result: Kiro scaffolded the entire backend logic in under 60 seconds. It understood that when User A tips, 50% goes to User B and 50% to the Platform. It wrote flawless math logic that I couldn't have written myself.
- Vibe Coding (The Costume) I wanted the app to look like a "Cyberpunk Haunted Stadium" for the Costume Contest. The Prompt: "Make it look like a glitched hologram inside a dark stadium. Neon Green borders." The Magic: Kiro instantly wrote complex CSS Keyframe animations (lightning flashes, heartbeat pulses) that made the app feel alive.
- The Deployment (The Hard Part) When we tried to connect the local server to the public web, it failed. This is where most solo founders quit. Archy analyzed the logs and realized we had a CORS issue (Secure Website vs Local Laptop). Archy guided me to deploy the Brain to Render.com and update the widget code to point to the cloud. Result: A fully functioning Cloud App in minutes. 🚀 The Result We built a fully functional MVP that includes: ✅ Real-Time Chat: Instant messaging across devices. ✅ Tipping Economy: A working 50/50 revenue split model. ✅ Mobile Responsive: Looks like a native app on phones. ✅ Documentation: A complete GitHub repo with MIT License. What I learned: The barrier to entry for Tech Startups has collapsed. You don't need a CTO to build an MVP anymore. You need a Vision, and you need to know how to manage AI Agents. Archy and Kiro didn't just help me code; they taught me how to think like an engineer. 🔗 Try the Live Demo: https://thefunfanreporter.com/kiro/ 📂 See the Code: GitHub Repository Vote for TheFunFanReporter in the Kiroween Hackathon! Let's turn 75,000 fans into 75,000 paid reporters.
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