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! 🚀
Top comments (4)
Man, that kinda grit is what keeps me showing up too - after years of stuff flopping, even one win feels crazy good. You're a freaking legend for sticking with it.
Brooo, I feel this deep. It’s that one small win after all the flops that keeps the fire alive. Sometimes that one breakthrough feels louder than all the failures combined. Thanks for the love. It honestly means a lot. We’re all just trying to stay consistent and keep showing up. Legends recognize legends 🔥💪🏽
Wow. Omo this isn't easy. I think I would have learnt a trade after 4 years of failing 😭😭. I checked all the products Xnyder has made and I can only imagine how Xnyder would grow in the next 5 years. Tonight I'm gonna be dissecting the admin dashboard. Can't wait to implement it for a client. Torgist use cases are amazing. Especially in a university setting. I am now finding out for the first time that you can sell other stuffs on selar. I thought it was just for books. I got all these from reading your 10 mins post so obviously I can't wait for the next post. Thanks so much .
It's so nice to hear all these. I'm really glad you're seeing the journey behind everything (the failed attempts, the lessons, the slow but steady progress). Truth is, 4 years of building and failing feels like a long time, but it's shaping something solid for the future. Hearing that you're already planning to use the admin dashboard for a client? That’s mad encouraging 🙌🏽
And Torgist, yes! The use cases are endless, especially for students and young people who need safe spaces to speak freely. As for Selar, 😂, I used to think it was just for ebooks too until I explored more. So glad the post helped spark all this for you. You just made my night, more posts definitely coming soon. Stay building. 🚀