Money Toolkit: Shipping More

I’m taking steps to shipping my own products. I’ve taken a few big steps. In my most recent project, this is where I’m at.

  • ✅ found a solid tech stack

  • ✅ deployed PoC to a dev environment

  • ✅ bought a domain

  • (in-progress) setup production Clerk config

  • [TBD] setup production Convex config

  • [TBD] setup production Stripe config

  • [TBD] open for sign-up

It’s a collection of personal finance tools turned into a web app. More on that later.

March usually isn’t the time for New Year resolutions, but this year I want to see myself actually ship a product. Two if I can. I’ve written about starting to code again, as an outlet from my time as an AppSec engineer. I’ve written about escaping the boredom of a corporate job—again through building. And how I’m tackling a big project writing a sort of programming guide.

So far, the building and coding has mostly been side projects. I try to learn a bit with each one. It scratches an itch, but I haven’t seen much more than that.

I want to see one deployed. Nothing too crazy. But a deployment. A tangible thing I can put in someone’s hands and say, “Here. Go to this URL. See the product. Sign up and pay if you like.”

A Related Thought

AppSec is already in higher demand with AI. I'm making a bet that engineers who can build with AI--and secure it--have never been more in-demand than right now. This is related to why I want to write an “AppSec guide for small teams”. AI makes code cheap, which isn’t necessarily good or bad, but it means more solo devs and scrappy teams building things. And they need an answer for securing those projects.

Additionally, if LLMs proliferating through software engineering means developers are consolidated into architectural implementers, then something similar is likely to happen within AppSec. I’m making a bet that those who can build and secure are going to be in higher demand. Whether that’s recognizing the needed security tools and then building them, or establishing secure defaults across teams, or something else…I’m betting AppSec will demand more systems-thinking and implementation across architectures and teams.

What I'm Building

I mentioned this is a small collection of personal finance tools turned into a web app. It’s a trivially simple project on purpose. An amortization schedule and a sinking fund calculator. First, I’m still working on the book/guide, this is just a small detour, so I want to keep it small. (I tend to do that—have an idea, then a detour, then figure out how to juggle them.) Second, the focus is on getting the accomplishment of shipping something as fast as possible.

This small project is meant to be a practical template. I don’t expect to make money from it. I would greatly appreciate someone throwing a few dollars towards it! But this is about putting in the reps, and making it repeatable.

Here's to building AND shipping more this year 🔥 More on this later.