— 18 NOTES
Notes from the workbench.
Practical guides, decision frameworks, and honest opinions — for founders, buyers, and anyone thinking about building software.
All notes
WhatsApp pricing changed. Recheck your unit economics.
Messaging moved to per-message billing and template categories decide what you pay. How to work out your real cost per order, and where to cut without losing delivery updates.
Read ↗CLAUDE.md is the new spec document
The project file that makes AI-assisted engineering repeatable. What goes in it, what stays out, and how phase gates in a single markdown file cut our rework dramatically.
Read ↗What we charge, and why
Real numbers for web and mobile builds in India — sprint, full build and retainer. What sits inside each band, what pushes a quote up, and how to compare three proposals fairly.
Read ↗How to get cited by ChatGPT and AI Overviews
Search now answers before it links. The practical work that gets an Indian business quoted inside AI answers — structure, schema, entities, freshness — and how to measure it.
Read ↗What AI actually costs inside your product
Real token maths in rupees. What an AI feature costs per user per month, the four levers that cut the bill by 80%, and the guardrails that stop a runaway invoice.
Read ↗Your vibe-coded app is in production. Now what?
AI wrote the code, it works, and it is live. Here are the seven things that quietly break at scale — and the 48-hour triage we run before deciding to patch or rebuild.
Read ↗Does your business need an app, or just a website?
A practical decision framework for founders staring down a ₹5-30L build. Six questions that reveal what you actually need — before you spend a rupee.
Read ↗We built 12 free tools that don't touch your files
Image compression, favicon generation, PDF utilities, QR codes — all in the browser. No signups, no limits, no server uploads. Meet tools.napdesigns.com.
Read ↗5 things that go wrong when you build software without a spec
The pattern shows up every kickoff week for a client who thinks they can 'figure it out as we go'. Here's what breaks — and the one-page fix.
Read ↗MVP, prototype, POC — what you actually need first
Three words founders use interchangeably that mean three different things — and cost three different amounts. A cheat sheet for scoping your first build.
Read ↗Should you build in-house or hire a studio?
A clear-eyed comparison of the two most common paths for a first product build. Real numbers, real trade-offs, and the framework we use with clients who ask.
Read ↗How long does it actually take to build an MVP?
A breakdown of realistic timelines by product type. What eats weeks. What can be parallelized. And why the '3-month MVP' is almost always a lie.
Read ↗The Razorpay + WhatsApp + SMS playbook for Indian D2C
The three integrations every Indian D2C brand needs. Real wiring, real failure modes, and the decisions we make on every build.
Read ↗10 questions to ask before signing with a dev studio
A no-nonsense checklist for first-time buyers evaluating agencies, freelancers, and product studios. Cuts through the pitch deck to what actually matters.
Read ↗Why your D2C store is bleeding conversions
The seven friction points that quietly kill 30% of D2C revenue in India. Each one is fixable in an afternoon. Most brands don't.
Read ↗SEO for D2C stores in India — a practical playbook
Not another 'do keyword research' post. The specific SEO decisions that move traffic for Indian D2C brands in 2026. What actually works, and what to skip.
Read ↗Choosing a stack in 2026 — a decision framework
Stop picking stacks by trend. Six questions that make the choice obvious. The exact grid we walk through in every kickoff call.
Read ↗Supabase vs Firebase — which one for what
The head-to-head every technical founder Googles in 2026. We ship on both. Here's the honest decision framework — and where each one loses badly.
Read ↗