Founder Log Week #4 – Recipe System Online, Next Stop: Pre-Sale

- 3 minutes read - 546 words

🧠 Weekly Overview

This week was a focused push toward real features, real data, and getting the recipe system into production. I wrapped up the Redux-based recipe filtering UI, designed a clean recipe schema, and built a new backend service to serve localized recipes from YAML files. Still need to wire UI and backend together to have full recipe solution finalized.

Most importantly — I made the decision to launch the first pre-sale for Polish users next week. This is a major milestone. Real money, real users, real pressure. I’ve started planning the offer and landing page copy. Now it’s time to test whether people are ready to buy what I’ve been building.

I also got into a deep state of flow while building the backend. Leveraging well-prepared ADRs, I let the AI handle 90% of the code while I focused on structure, tests, and validation. This workflow is now a weapon.

Even though Easter slowed down the schedule a bit, I still showed up every morning and made progress.

🗓 Daily Execution Summary

Monday – Apr 14

  • Finalized Redux-based recipe filtering.
  • Cleaned up UI edge cases and committed.
  • Attempted automated translation key checker — turned out too complex for now.

Tuesday – Apr 15

  • Refactored layout system and built ScreenSection for responsive UI blocks.
  • Improved recipe toggle layout for mobile.
  • Deployed polish improvements to prod.
  • Debugged GA tracking setup in the evening.

Wednesday – Apr 16

  • Deep design session: defined multilingual recipe schema, ingredient model, units, tags.
  • No coding, but finalized full backend data model with Archie and ADRs.

Thursday – Apr 17

  • Wrote sample YAML recipes.
  • Updated schema and ADRs.
  • Decided to build a real RecipeService backend instead of mocking data in UI.
  • Started backend design and API spec.

Friday – Apr 18

  • Bootstrapped new Quarkus RecipeService.
  • Generalized GitLab pipeline and CloudFormation for future services.
  • RecipeService now deployed to staging and prod (ping endpoint works).
  • Planned pre-sale offer structure.

Saturday – Apr 19

  • Implemented full YAML parser with multi-language support.
  • Validated schema, wrote tests, and started indexing logic.
  • Despite slow start (tired), stayed consistent and pushed through.

Sunday – Apr 20

  • Implemented in-memory recipe index and GET /recipes/{id} controller.
  • Wrote integration tests.
  • Backend delivers localized JSON from YAML recipes — all working.

🏆 Wins of the Week

  • 🎯 Recipe filtering by user ingredients fully implemented and shipped.
  • 🎯 Full design + deployment of RecipeService backend using Quarkus.
  • 🎯 Real recipe data loaded from YAML, parsed, indexed, and served.
  • 🎯 Backend and frontend ready to integrate.
  • 🎯 First pre-sale campaign for Polish users planned - preparing to ship next week.

✍️ Lessons & Reflections

  • Backend development combined with detailed specs and AI is insanely efficient.
  • Refactoring the UI layout system with ScreenSection simplified styling across all screens.
  • Starting with real data and real endpoints from day one pays off — no wasted mocks or throwaway code.
  • Morning flow sessions continue to be the best part of my day — even on holidays.

🎯 Plan for the next week

  • 🚀 Launch pre-sale for Polish users — test willingness to pay.
  • ✅ Deploy RecipeService to prod with real endpoints.
  • ✅ Populate recipe DB with 10–20 solid recipes.
  • ✅ Connect UI to live recipe API and drop mock data.
  • ✅ Implement recipe detail screen (cookable view, mobile optimized).