I’m an engineer turned product manager, and I’ve always loved two things a little more than necessary: education and games.
For a long time, I wanted to put those interests and the skills I’d picked up building technology, towards something useful for children. That became much more tangible once my niece reached the age where the iPad became a regular part of her world.
I’m not anti-iPad. Quite the opposite. It is an incredible piece of technology to put in the hands of a six-year-old. I just kept thinking it could ask more of her.
That thought took me back to Dora the Explorer.
Growing up, we’d watch Dora ask us a question and then stare silently at the screen for a painfully long time while we yelled the answer at the TV. Obviously, Dora couldn’t hear us. But the idea was clever. The screen was trying to turn us from viewers into participants.
Learning games like Lingokids and ABC Mouse took that much further and made screens genuinely interactive. But most of that interaction still happens within rails someone else designed. Tap here. Drag this. Choose A, B, or C. Collect the reward. Repeat.
That works brilliantly for games. But it doesn’t accommodate the wonderfully messy way a six-year-old wonders about things.
Ask my niece an interesting question and she might draw the answer. She might make up a ridiculous story. She might photograph something she noticed around the house, make a sound, explain an idea, or give you an answer you never anticipated.
I started wondering if I could build for that.
Could the iPad provide the spark and just enough structure to get a child started, while leaving the interesting part to them?
The first versions were experiments around this idea. Then came the uncomfortable question every builder eventually has to answer: does this actually work for anyone other than me?
So I spent months talking to parents and educators. I sat through hours of enrichment classes at a school for gifted kids, which was basically the X-Mansion for 8-year-olds. I watched how teachers prompted children, when kids became absorbed in something, when they needed more structure, and when something I thought was clever bored them almost immediately. And very importantly, I saw how their eyes lit up when they screamed “look what I made” in class.
These insights shaped the Taroo we have today, and I’m genuinely proud of where we’ve reached.
Taroo is a world of short creative quests for kids 6 to 10. In Pass the Pen, a child might get the beginning of a strange story and decide where it goes next. Doodle Master might give them the start of a picture and ask them to turn it into anything they imagine. Rhythm Pad lets them experiment with sounds and put together their own little beat. Snap Trail might ask them to put the iPad down, hunt for something triangular in the real world, photograph it, and tell Taroo what they found.
Their creations stick around too, so over time Taroo becomes a little record of the things they have imagined and made. Parents get a window into that world without needing to hover over every activity.
There is still plenty I want to improve. But this no longer feels like the little experiment I started with. I’m proud to put it in front of parents, and particularly proud when I see a kid become attached to something they made themselves.
If you have a 6 to 10-year-old in your life, I’d love for you to try Taroo with them. More than anything, I’d love the unfiltered feedback: what they immediately understand, what they ignore, what they keep coming back to, where they get stuck, and what they wish they could do that I haven’t thought of yet.
I’ve spent enough time with Taroo that I’m no longer capable of seeing it like a new user.
Chrome’s native bookmarks bar runs out of room around 15 bookmarks and dumps the rest behind a tiny arrow. I never remembered what was in there so I just stopped bookmarking things.
Favicon-first layout so way more sites fit in the same space, full add/edit/delete/reorganize right from the bar, search built in, multiple named bars you can switch between. Everything’s local, no account.
Free tier is a real single bar, paid unlock is a one-time thing for multiple bars.
A friend and I were always the people our friend group went to when they wanted a dedicated server for a Minecraft or whatever random steam game came out. We always commented to each other that we wished something came out that not only had the tools an advanced user would find convenient , but easy enough for anyone to use. (this was the key issue most people we knew had) We worked on this for the past few years and here it is.
DeployCat.
You can use DeployCat on windows, mac, unraid/docker and even a linux OS for any spare hardware you have laying around.
You can find it at www.deploycat.app . There is even a simulator on the site to take a look at how the app functions. The goal is to try and make it easy for anyone to host, backup, name, change your settings, restore your server and understand from point A to Z for everyone.
We would love for you to take a look at it and let us know what you think! If you have ever wanted to host a game server but have ever been intimidated by it, or just frustrated with some other self hosting apps; please look and give us a try.
Hey r/IMadeThis — sharing something I've been building solo for the last ~9 months.
Every budgeting app I tried gave me the same thing: a pretty graph showing "you spent €312 this month". Useful, but not what I actually needed. What I wanted was one number on my home screen — "you can spend €27 today" — and for it to be correct even when my salary lands on the 25th, not the 1st.
So I built FinansX.
What it does?
Track income & expenses — log every transaction in any of 25+ currencies, auto-converted to your main one. Tag them, attach receipts, search the lot.
Calendar-first budget that respects your real billing cycle (mine resets on the 25th — most apps assume the 1st and lie to me for half the month).
Day-budget reservations: I tell it "save €50 for a friend's birthday on the 14th" and that €50 is already gone from today's available balance, not sitting there pretending I can spend it.
Categories with their own budgets and priorities — a smart planner allocates money by priority (must-haves first, flexible last) so you don't overspend on takeout before rent.
Savings goals in any currency — I save in EUR, track in USD, app handles conversion and tells me the daily rate to stay on track.
Debts & loans tracker — who owes you, who you owe, partial payments, reminders.
Recurring transactions & budgets — rent, subscriptions, the €20 you spend every Friday.
Statistics, reports & period comparison — see where your money goes, compare this month vs last, export to PDF.
Financial education built in — short lessons and challenges if you want to learn, not just track.
Privacy mode — mask sensitive numbers on screen behind a password or biometrics. Multi-device sync, push reminders, dark mode.
Works as web + Android.
Where it's at
Live on the web — try it here: https://finansx.app (free account, takes 30 seconds to sign up). Android is in closed testing on Play Store.
Looking for beta testers who'll use it for real for a couple of weeks and tell me what's broken or confusing. First 25 testers to send me real feedback get 2 years of Premium free as a thank-you for helping shape the roadmap. If that's you: email [finansx.app@gmail.com](mailto:finansx.app@gmail.com) with the Gmail address you'll install it with and I'll add you to the Play Console testing track.
No marketing fluff — just the app, your feedback, and a founder who reads every message.
Happy to answer any questions about the build, the budget logic, or anything else. Tear it apart in the comments, I genuinely want the feedback. 👍
It recognizes the file you have open, including its name, type, and location, and keeps that context tied to the note. If it’s something new, there’s a fresh note waiting. If you’ve worked on it before, ClingNote brings the old note back automatically.
Open Excel → its note appears.
Switch to Power BI or a PDF → the note switches too.
Go back later → your previous note is still there.
It also has rich formatting, pop-out notes, multiple notes per context, and deep search.
If you're an indie developer or startup founder, you know how hard it can be to get consistent attention for a new product. Seasons give projects a recurring competitive layer where they can compete for visibility, earn permanent points for future seasons and start each cycle with a fresh leaderboard.
How it works
Every quarter, the leaderboard resets and a new competition starts.
Projects compete based on points, which combine votes with boosts and multipliers.
At the end of each season, the top 3 projects earn permanent awards
🥇 Golden Leaf is worth +5 permanent points
🥈 Silver Leaf is worth +3 permanent points
🥉 Bronze Leaf is worth +1 permanent point
So if you win a Golden Leaf this season, that +5 permanent advantage carries into future seasons. Over time, you can build a track record of wins rather than starting completely from zero every quarter.
There's also something for the Top 10
The top 10 projects receive a free 24-hour Rocket Launcher boost at the beginning of the next season, giving them momentum going into the next competition.
Why we built it
We wanted Votekicker to be more than a one-time launch leaderboard, but a place where projects can leverage gamification to earn their place.
Seasons turn product discovery into an ongoing competition
If you're building a SaaS, AI tool, developer tool, consumer app, game or basically anything you're proud of, we'd love to see what you're building.
I made a small tool called Usetrestly to help parents track their child’s therapy progress. Therapies like OT, Speech, Language and more.
It started because I kept forgetting what goals my kid was working on, what happened in each session, and whether things were actually improving. So I built a simple progress tracker where parents can log goals, sessions, and small wins — just to make therapy feel clearer and less overwhelming. Sample screenshot
Most websites are just a white box. This puts your own wallpaper behind them instead - a photo, a video, or one of two animated ones built in.
It only steps in when a page is plain white, grey or black. Anything that already has its own design is left alone, and there is a per-site off switch for the ones you want untouched.
The hard part was never the wallpaper, it was readability. The panels, buttons and boxes turn translucent and blurred over it so the text still sits on something solid, with sliders for blur, tint and how much the wallpaper is dimmed. It works on any site rather than a list of sites, including ones I have never seen.
Firefox is the thing I get asked for most and I am working on it.
Being upfront: I earn nothing from this. It started as a personal project and I honestly do not know yet how much people actually want it. If it is useful to you, a comment or any feedback genuinely helps me work out whether to keep putting time into it.
I've been vibe-coding with Claude Code and kept hitting the same wall, the agent can write code but can't DO anything. No browser. No email. No way to test, deploy, or message anyone. And when I gave it my own machine, it trashed it: pegged CPUs, API keys scattered everywhere, one worktree stepping on another.
So I built Zipbox. It's a disposable cloud box made for agents. It boots in seconds, comes with its own email inbox, a public URL, a browser, an EVM + Solana wallet, and your API keys already set up. Full root. When the task is done you pause it or nuke it, and the next agent gets a fresh one.
No numbers to brag about yet! I'm literally looking for my first 10 users and honest feedback. Free tier's up, no credit card: zipbox.ai
What should I make the agent do next? Genuinely taking requests.
I run a whole-home storage company in Atlanta (KLOVO) and the thing I'm actually proud of is the assembly line — a cabinet box gets put together in about 45 seconds, start to finish. Somebody finally asked me to explain it on camera, so here's the 20 min version: https://youtu.be/54ceNquth3g Nerdy bit I get into: retail buyers and builders judge the same box on completely different things — retail cares about ship date, builders care about tolerance and how often they have to rebuild it. Ask me anything about the process, happy to go into the boring parts.
I kept seeing small creators choose between vague networking posts and engagement-exchange schemes, so I built CreatorFound around useful contributions instead.
Creators can complete voluntary tasks such as thumbnail voting, collaboration briefs, and eligible campaign work to earn non-withdrawable credits. Those credits can fund reviewed requests for Community Post, comment, description, or video shoutouts from relevant creators. The system prohibits sub-for-sub, forced positive comments, fabricated engagement, and guaranteed-growth claims.
I also built collaboration matching, private introductions, channel audits, title and description ideas, thumbnail preference tests, breakout-video research, public media kits, and 54 free creator utilities. YouTube access is read-only by default; CreatorFound never posts, comments, likes, subscribes, or uploads automatically. Brand discovery and structured brand collaborations are coming soon.
The platform opens in a few days. The first 100 registrations will receive 15 free promotional credits. If you’re a creator who wants early access, DM me here or email creatorfound7@gmail.com, and I’ll send the private launch link when it is ready.
I’d genuinely like feedback on which part sounds most useful: finding collaborators, testing thumbnails, reviewed shoutouts, or building a media kit.
MapToCraft lets you search for any city, landmark, or address, draw a rectangular area, and download it as a Minecraft Java Edition ZIP or an experimental Bedrock .mcworld.
There is no installation or account required. I built the browser experience on top of the open-source Arnis generator (Apache-2.0).
This is the hybrid fitness experience our team built for Vora 33. The premise is simple: many people lift and also run, walk, cycle, or do intervals, but their apps usually treat those as unrelated activities.
We wanted each side to keep the detail it needs. Strength has personalized workout suggestions, form guidance, previous performance, load, reps, RPE, rest, and progress. Cardio has structured stages, an outdoor map recorder, live metrics, and post-workout heart-rate recovery.
The connection happens before and after the workout. Recent training and recovery can shape the next suggestion, then strength and cardio both contribute to one training-load view.
First I use "The Reddit Goldmine Method" which is:
Find your subreddits.
use those magic search terms: "wish there was", "looking for", "alternative to", "frustrated with", "hate that"... .
Copy 20 complaints. Group by theme. The biggest group = your opportunity.
But unfortunately I become distracted, I search in many subreddits "copywriting, freelancers, SaaS, content creators, and others" as I don't know which field I want to serve in..
I also went to G2 and search in SaaSs "such as Jasper" reviews which has 3 stars and see what they like to build on it and what they don't like to see how I can solve these problems, but I become distracted and failed again
I also want to tell you that sometimes I start building for half a day and then I think this idea wouldn't succeed so, I stop building and again I try to find a successful one ( I do it many times )
So I settle on a red ocean one "social media scheduling tool" in a giant market with giant competitors such as Buffer, Metricool and others. So I want an advice to how a solo entrepreneur can compete with those giants.
TL;DR: How can a solo entrepreneur to compete with giants companies in his fields
