Case Studies
Indie Maker Launches a Micro-App in Less Than 48 Hours Using BuildShip
Apr 12, 2024
~48 Hours to Build
15K Users acquired
10/10 recommend
The App
Domainpedia is an intuitive micro-app that uses AI to generate domain ideas and check their real-time availability. Founder Marco Mendes faced the challenge of finding available domains that hadn't already been taken. Previously, he would use ChatGPT and manually copy and paste responses into a domain checker, a time-consuming process.
To improve on this, Marco created Domainpedia. His goal for Domainpedia is to serve as a lead magnet for other applications he is developing, making the entire process faster and more efficient.
The Challenge
The initial challenge seemed simple: making API calls to OpenAI and a domain checking API. The real test was achieving this as quickly as possible, and BuildShip provided an excellent solution. Additionally, there was a technical hurdle to overcome: ensuring the API call originated from a whitelisted IP address. Marco was able to resolve this issue efficiently with a straightforward solution he developed.
The Process
To accomplish the above, Marco utilized the pre-built OpenAI and Supabase nodes, which significantly improved the process by eliminating the need to manually script the entire API call. All he had to do was configure the system and user prompts, and input his API key. Additionally, he adjusted the OpenAI call to output the response in JSON format for easier handling.
Although Marco had already built the backend using his preferred tool, Xano, he saw this project as a great chance to experiment with BuildShip. One key advantage he found in using BuildShip over Xano was its ability to adjust concurrency when processing an array, which significantly reduced execution time by more than 2 seconds compared to the Xano setup.
The pre-built Supabase and OpenAI nodes greatly accelerated Marco's app-building process. When pre-built nodes were unavailable, the AI-generated nodes proved valuable. He utilized them to create a node that converts arrays into CSV format, allowing for efficient preparation of domains to be sent to the domain availability checking API.
The Result
Almost 15k domain names have been generated using Domainpedia over the last 2 months. Marco's backend has been running smoothly, and he's looking to use BuildShip further by adding new features to Domainpedia, such as Stripe integrations for monetization. As an indie maker, Marco has decided to stick with BuildShip as his go-to platform for building the backends of his other projects.
