A while back I got an urge to start building something. Not having coded in years, I headed to a build-in-public group on X to see what others were creating. It seemed much more active than I could remember, with tons of people now utilizing AI to create apps and websites. What a lot of those people had in common, was that many were still in the early stages of building, and had yet to set up any type of early validation. That's where Tendril came from.
How Tendril works
Tendril is a simple tool built to grow your product while you share your project progress on social media. You pick a URL that you want to send your users to (tendril.so/projectname), and create your card. That's it! After that, just plug your tendril card into your social bio, and share what you're building. Grow the waitlist while you build, and when you're ready to launch, you can export your waitlist subscribers, and let them all know of your launch.
Tendril also has an affiliate program. If you add your referral code to your profile, you'll earn 40% commission when someone upgrades to Pro through your card. It's optional, but a nice bonus if your card gets traction.
Why I built Tendril
I think most founders can agree that getting your first few users is the hardest part. From there on out, it gets easier. Tendril is meant to passively get you those users. A side effect is that you also get to validate your idea early on, and see if people are interested.
How I built Tendril
After years of not coding, I wasn't completely sure which tools and frameworks I wanted to use to build Tendril. Previously, I had some experience with React. But most of what I learnt was forgotten. I had heard a lot of positive things about SvelteKit, and decided to go give it a shot. So far it has been great. Functionality doesn't feel like extreme amounts of magic going on under the hood, like React does to me.
Struggles and what I've learnt
My biggest struggle when building a project is that I often get an urge to hop onto a new project. I think a lot of people can relate to this. You get bored of what you're currently building, and feeling ready for the next thing. My fix has been to decide on a minimum timeline before I'm allowed to move on.
There's also been a ridiculous amount of design iterations on certain pages. I actually designed Tendril in Figma to be fully dark mode by default. The waitlist cards also had a horizontal layout. The dashboard had more features. In the end, I decided to keep it simple. Features can come later.
Roadmap
Tendril is launching at $5/month for Pro. As I add more features, the price will increase - but early subscribers keep their rate forever. I have a lot of planned features for Tendril, but in the near future:
- Themes and customization to fit your project branding
- Being able to have multiple cards
- Perks for joining a waitlist
With this post, I have officially launched my first real project, Tendril. I'd love for you to try it out: tendril.so.
And if you have feedback, I'm all ears. I'm learning as I go.
This is also my first post on Dev! 🥳
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