Skip to main content
← Back to Projects

Tribe Update

completed

Users can create a 'tribe' of close friends and family to share updates, photos, and videos in a private, ad-free environment.

Timeframe

Q2 2025

Status

completed

Categories

socialmessagingaiemailsmsnotificationsmedia-sharingprivacy

About This Project

Users can create a 'tribe' of close friends and family to share updates, photos, and videos in a private, ad-free environment.

Features for tribe creators include multiple upload channels (email, SMS, Whatsapp) and the ability to compile their updates into digital (and eventually physical) collectibles.

Recipients can choose how they want to receive updates - via email digests, SMS or Whatsapp, what frequency and signifcance of updates they would like.

An AI assistant compiles the updates into a beautiful gallery format tailored to the recipients preferences.

Tech Stack

Next.jsTypeScriptTailwind CSSPostgreSQL

Why I Built This

As I was sharing updates of our newborn child with multiple groups scattered across different platforms I realised that there should be a way to consolidate this manual uploading process.

The problems we are solving are for users - to simplify uploads by consolidaitng multiple user groups into a single upload channel.

For recipients - to give them control over how they want to receive updates and what frequency/significance of updates they would like to receive.

The platform prompts users to share mindfully by giving them ideas on what to share. The media that is shared is compiled into a digital collectible that can be treasured forever.

Key Learnings

Implemented best practicies for engineering which resulted in significantly more overhead and complexity compared to a typical vibe coded project.
Ran multiple audits using Chatgpt and Claude and consolidated results to improve security and frontend
Used SendGrid for email delivery and Twilio for SMS/Whatsapp delivery - both have great documentation which made integration easy
Initial version of this project used too much front end work and was hard to maintain. Re-architected to use server side rendering and static generation where possible to improve performance and reduce complexity
Pivoted project through design process. sometimes its easier to burn it down and restart rather than wade through archeology
Implemented automated testing (lint and type checks) as github actions. Absolutely amazing how much time this saves in the long run

Business Model

Freemium.

Project Links