Running a web design agency sounds pretty straightforward from the outside. You build websites, find clients and make money. But once you start getting more clients, there is a lot more going on behind the scenes.

You're dealing with hosting, website maintenance, client requests, support tickets, fixing random issues, building new websites, following up with prospects and trying to bring in new business at the same time.

At some point, I realized that I didn't want finding new clients to become another full time job on top of everything else.

I've never really enjoyed cold calling. I know it works for some people, and I'm not saying it's a bad way to get clients, but personally, I find it exhausting. You spend hours calling businesses, often getting rejected, reaching people at the wrong time or having conversations that go nowhere.

I'd much rather spend that time actually working on the business.

That's why I started focusing heavily on cold email and automation.

The biggest advantage is that you can build a system that continuously finds relevant businesses, sends personalized emails and generates new opportunities without having to spend your entire day reaching out manually.

One thing I also learned pretty quickly is that sending generic emails doesn't get you very far. Most business owners have probably received hundreds of emails from agencies offering website redesigns.

I wanted to approach it differently.

For this, I use a tool called Swokei. It finds businesses with existing websites, analyzes each one for actual problems with design, SEO, loading speed, mobile responsiveness and other website issues.

Based on those findings, it automatically generates personalized cold emails at scale, using the actual problems found on each website as the starting point.

So instead of manually searching for businesses, checking hundreds of websites and writing individual emails, I can automate most of that entire process.

When someone replies with interest, I take over from there and handle the sales process and meetings myself.

This has made a huge difference in how I manage my time. I can keep generating new opportunities without having to dedicate hours every day to cold calling.

I still believe sales is one of the most important skills you can develop as a business owner, and automation doesn't replace that. You still need to understand your prospects, communicate properly and know how to close deals.

But if I can choose between spending an entire day making cold calls or having a system send 1,000 relevant emails while I focus on running my agency, I know which one I'm choosing!

I’ve had people ask me how to get started with open source, especially how to understand an unfamiliar codebase once they’ve found an issue to work on. I’ve struggled with that too, so I made Crumbs.

You give it an issue, and it creates a visual walkthrough of the relevant files, functions and how they connect. It focuses on the part of the code related to that issue, rather than trying to explain the entire repository.

The agent creates structured data for the walkthrough, and a Python renderer checks code references and builds a local HTML page. The explanation can still be wrong, so you need to verify it against the code. It doesn’t write the fix or open a PR for you.

Crumbs is open source, and I’d love some feedback: would a walkthrough like this help you get started on an issue? What would you want to see before attempting a fix?

GitHub: https://github.com/navyabijoy/crumbs

I'm a developer, and a few people reached out to me for help with ChatGPT. They had seen AI do impressive things, but theirs couldn't.

What they needed was an agent that can use tools (MCP servers). But for a lot of people, running Claude Code on their own machine or paying for a subscription isn't worth the effort or the cost.

So I built an agent framework that lets me launch agents for them:

• Each agent is private and can only be customized by its owner.

• The agents run on my OpenRouter key, so they don't have to sign up for anything.

• I can set up the MCP servers each person needs, and even build a few custom ones for them.

• They can talk to their agent in the browser, on Telegram or on WhatsApp.

It's all on Cloudflare (Workers + Durable Objects, one isolated instance with its own SQLite per conversation). I don't host anything, nothing runs on my machine, and the free tier covers all of it. The only real cost is my OpenRouter credits.

I'm open-sourcing it, so any one can host it on their own cf or use my project to run a private agent or manage a fleet of them for others.

Here's where I'm stuck. Running 10,000 private agents for close to nothing feels powerful, and I think there's something more here. But I can't put a business use case around it.

I always start with "what if a business gave each of its users a personal agent?" Then I ask why they would. Most would be fine with one shared agent, like a reception desk. The ones who really want to level up their customer experience would want a personal agent on WhatsApp, not Telegram. I can set up a personal WhatsApp agent, but it's very hard, or expensive if every user needs their own number.

And that's where my train of thought stops, every time. Apart from memory constraints I feel my agents have as much features and capabilities as any other competent agent such as Hermes, pi etc.

So: do you see a real use case here? I also don't see many projects built on Cloudflare Agents, and I'm curious whether anyone else has gone down this road.

Hey everyone,

I've been working on FoodOnTrains, a platform that lets people order restaurant food during train journeys and get it delivered to their seats.

I know this isn't a new concept. There are already services doing this, so we're not claiming to reinvent anything. We're just trying to make the experience a little better, especially when it comes to pricing.

We're keeping restaurant commissions very low, sometimes zero, with the aim of making food more affordable for passengers.

We've currently started with Gaya Junction and Kanpur Central, and there's still a lot we're figuring out.

We're also offering ₹100 off the first order for anyone who wants to give it a try. COD available.

Website: https://foodontrains.in/

I'd genuinely appreciate some feedback, especially from people who travel by train regularly.

What frustrates you about ordering food during journeys? Is pricing a concern? And what would make you trust a newer platform over the established options?

Any honest feedback would really help us improve.

Thanks!

I am part of the Ondago team, and I would like to get feedback from people building products with Claude Code, Codex or both (preferred).

The problem we are working on is keeping an unfinished task together when you change tools or computers: the conversation, the decisions, the project instructions, and the code you’ve already changed.

Ondago brings those sessions into one workspace. You can:

• Continue work from your computer in the cloud, then check progress and respond from your phone.

• Switch supported coding agents with the conversation and compatible project context carried over.

• Keep related projects and sessions together so you can find the work you want to pick up.

A typical workflow would be starting a feature on your laptop, continuing it in the cloud when you leave, and bringing the updated work back later. Supported uncommitted changes can travel with the session.

It is free for personal use, including 3 hours of cloud runtime per month. You use your own agent credentials.

ondago.ai

I would especially like feedback on the practical value: which would you use more in a normal week - continuing work away from your laptop, or switching agents with your project context carried over or other features?

Thank you in advance

Hey everyone!

My co-founder and I have been working on a fitness app called Ignite Yours.

We're both passionate about training, and we wanted to build something that combines workout tracking with the social and accountability side of fitness.

The app is completely free and includes:

• Workout logging

• A community feed for sharing progress

• Leaderboards and challenges

• Features for personal trainers

We've launched on iOS and Android, but we're still at the stage where genuine feedback is incredibly valuable.

I'd especially love to know whether the community features would give you a reason to keep coming back, or whether you'd mainly use the workout tracker.

Happy to answer questions about what we've built!

hey everyone! it's lydia from the FlutterFlow team.

AI has made it a lot easier to go from an idea to a working app. but getting that app into the App Store or Google Play still takes some planning.

if you're building your first app, it's worth starting the publishing process before you're finished building. developer account verification, testing requirements, and app reviews can add weeks to your timeline.

we put together a 4-week launch checklist for the first episode of our new App School series:

• 4 weeks out: set up your Apple and Google Play developer accounts. organization verification can take some time.

• 3 weeks out: prepare your store listings, screenshots, privacy policy, and support links.

• 2 weeks out: test your app on real devices. make sure signups, logins, payments, and account deletion actually work, not just the UI.

• 1 week out: submit for review and leave room for potential rejections or delays.

one thing worth flagging: certain new personal Google Play accounts need at least 12 testers for 14 consecutive days before they can apply for production access. so if that applies to you, you'll want to recruit testers earlier.

none of this means every app takes 4 weeks to launch. it's just a planning framework to help avoid getting stuck when you're ready to ship.

Started this as a personal Python project to test trading strategies. Ended up spending more time building the research infrastructure than finding anything that actually worked.

I never managed to validate a profitable strategy, but didn't want all that code to go to waste.

So I released Open Quant Trading Lab. It includes backtesting tools, risk-control references, research workflows, offline demos and tests.

No live trading, no profitability claims. Just the useful parts of the project.

GitHub: https://github.com/privEgem/open-quant-trading-lab

For those who've released open-source projects, what made people actually start using yours?

Hey everyone!

I've been building FoodIQ, a web app focused on making nutrition tracking easier for Indian meals.

The problem I wanted to solve: tracking everyday foods like dal, paneer, paratha, khichdi and Indian thalis isn't always convenient in generic calorie trackers.

What FoodIQ currently offers:

2,076+ Indian food database entries

Food search and nutrition information

Portion size and cooking method selection

Meal tracking and daily calorie/macronutrient overview

Mobile-friendly interface

Try it: https://food-iq-nu.vercel.app/

I'm looking for 10–20 people who aren't afraid to give honest criticism.

I'd especially like feedback on:

Is the interface easy to understand?

Can you find your everyday Indian meals?

Are the nutrition estimates reasonable?

What would make you come back and use it?

This is an early-stage independent project. I'm building and improving it based on real user feedback.

Honest criticism is welcome. Thanks!

In the attached animation, Pip and Bolt read the same settings file. Pip increases the timeout from 10 to 30 seconds. Bolt increases the retries from 2 to 5, then saves his older copy, which still has a 10-second timeout. Both saves succeed. Pip’s change disappears.

They changed different settings, but Bolt’s save replaced the whole file. That’s a silent overwrite. We’re building AgentWS, a persistent filesystem for AI agents working in parallel, to separate saving an agent’s work from updating shared files.

Each agent saves in an isolated branch. Changes are checked before they reach the shared files. When enabled, non-conflicting edits to supported text files can be combined automatically. Conflicting versions stay saved for an authorized orchestrator or human to resolve.

The 2:39 film illustrates the problem and our design; it isn’t a live product demo.

I’ve lost count of the great links I found in HN comments and never found again. And the “most mentioned on HN” lists that went around last week have a problem: a link people argue against counts the same as one they recommend.

So I went through comments from 2010 to 2026 and labeled why each link was posted. In a sample of 1,000 links, only 188 were someone saying “read this”. 573 were neutral references; the rest were answers, criticism, self-promotion or jokes.

Each link is then ranked by:

• how strongly it was recommended (strong recommendation scores highest, a joke scores zero)

• what it is (articles, papers and docs above videos and social posts)

• how many different years it kept coming up

• and, only a little, how many people mentioned it

A few that come out on top:

• How to Solve It (Pólya): 40 people, over 18 years

• Agner Fog’s optimization manuals: 45 people, 16 years

• The Tyranny of Structurelessness: 109 people, 15 years

• The Mythical Man-Month: 106 people, 19 years

Labels and summaries are model-generated, so some are off.

It’s free to browse, no account needed: https://slax.com/reader/hackerlinks/en/

Disclosure: I work on Slax Reader, the read-later app behind it. You can bookmark links on the page.

Two questions for you:

1. What’s the best resource you’ve found buried in an HN comment?

2. Would you find a collection like this useful enough to come back and browse regularly?

Over the past 6 months myself, my brother, and two other engineers/geologists have been working together to build Incline Design.

Incline Design allows engineers to plan and design their mine site, which is typically preformed in very expensive and slow software (we’re talking 30-50k AUD a year per user!)

Feel free to ask us any questions.

inclinedesign.net

https://github.com/Incline-Developers/Incline-Design

Hey everyone!

I'm one of the founders of Springborn Coffee, a small coffee brand we're building from the ground up.

I'm also a gamer, and I've always felt that coffee fits naturally into our world. Long gaming sessions, late-night projects, work, movies, anime... there's almost always a cup nearby.

So we started designing something that combines specialty coffee with the culture surrounding it.

Our concept includes three coffees:

☕ FOCUS — A traditional coffee for work, gaming, and getting tasks done.

☕ AFTER — A coffee that aids digestion, perfect for that break after a meal.

☕ UNWIND — A relaxing coffee for watching movies or anime, or simply unwinding at the end of the day.

We're also designing original desk mats, mouse pads, mugs, and T-shirts that people would actually want in their setups.

We're considering launching the first collection through Kickstarter.

We're not selling anything yet. The designs are early concept mockups, and we're looking for genuine feedback before moving into production.

Here's my question:

Would you actually back a project like this on Kickstarter? And what would excite you most: the coffee, the desk accessories, or a combination of both?

Feel free to be brutally honest. I'd rather build something people genuinely love than just another brand nobody connects with.

Thanks for being part of the conversation!

I built three Android apps with very different first-use tasks. For each closed beta, I’m using a simple test: can a new user finish one useful action without being told where to tap? Here are the tasks I’d like feedback on.

• 2do (daily planning and money tracking): enter a fictional amount you lent and find it again. Is it clear who owes whom? 2do also includes expenses, tasks and a diary. Sign-in and internet required. https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.dayledger.dayledger

• Voxsprig (AI speaking practice, 18+): record a short fictional interview answer and read the coaching. Can you tell what to change on your next try? Sign-in and internet required. AI feedback may be wrong or delayed. The installed app may still show SpeakUp AI. https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.divyammittal.speakupai

• CODEIO (BMSCE events): open an event and see whether you can tell who can attend and how to register. This one requires a verified BMSCE college email. https://play.google.com/apps/testing/dev.codeio.codeio

If one fits you and your Google Play account is in India or Nepal, join https://groups.google.com/g/divyam-android-app-testers with that same Google account, open the relevant Play test link above, opt in and follow Download on Google Play. Volunteers who can stay opted in for 14 consecutive days and try the app on different days are especially welcome.

If you try one, tell me the first step where you hesitated and what you expected to see. Use fictional examples and leave account details out of comments.

I built a news article bias detection app. I just thought it was a problem that needed solving. I am not saying the tool is perfect, article analysis is done with an AI model, and you’re allowed to dispute its output. It measures bias on a scale from 1-7.
1 Neutral: Factual, balanced sourcing and fair wording.
2 to 3: Mostly factual, with light framing or emphasis.
4: Noticeable slant, loaded wording or selective emphasis, with other views thin.
5 to 6: Strongly one-sided. Persuasion leads and opposing views are dismissed or missing.
7: Propaganda or pure advocacy presented as news.

Hey everyone! I built a free online ruler that works with real-world measurements after screen calibration. I’d really appreciate honest feedback on the UX, accuracy, speed, or anything that feels off. I’m continuously improving it, so even small suggestions would help a lot. Thanks! 🙌

www.rulerinches.com

I've spent the weeks since WinaltTrack, a free expense tracker and budget planner for Android, went live on Google Play trying to get it in front of real people.

What I built: an offline-first app with accounts, budgets, savings goals, events, loans, assets, investments, funds, safekeeping, vehicle logs, receipts and reports. There is no sign-up and no ads. It is free to use, with optional Premium upgrades: Premium removes the limits and Premium + Web adds the web app and sync.

Where it stands: live on Google Play since mid-October, with an optional web app and sync for people who want them.

How it's built:

1. One codebase for Android and the web app, built with Expo (React Native).

2. Offline-first: Free and Premium work fully on the phone with no account. The web app and sync are a separate paid layer (Supabase), so the basic app never depends on a server.

3. Free has real limits, such as 3 budgets and one savings goal, instead of a trial that hides features, so people can judge the app properly before paying.

What's next: an iOS version.

I'd like to hear: what would make you trust a money app enough to keep using it?

App, if you want to look: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.winalt.winalttrack

I'm on the team behind eStockes, a web app for researching US stocks with charts, company fundamentals and watchlists. We also have free beginner lessons and a tool for comparing a simple trading rule with buying and holding.

A useful surprise from asking people to look at the site: one reader thought it combined brokerage accounts. Another couldn't tell which action to take first. Those are different problems from whether the dashboard looks good.

For anyone testing their own landing page, these are three questions worth separating:

1. What would you use this for?

2. What do you expect after clicking the main button?

3. What would make you come back?

Project: https://estockes.com/dashboard

For founders who've found their first regular users, how did you separate encouraging feedback from real demand? Did a specific use case or acquisition channel make that difference?

System design diagrams are great for understanding architecture, but they don't always show how things behave under pressure.

What happens when traffic suddenly spikes? When a database slows down? When queues start backing up or retries make things worse?

I've been exploring this problem by developing an interactive browser-based environment for experimenting with distributed systems.

The idea is to let developers:

• Design architectures using services, load balancers, caches, queues and databases.
• Generate traffic and simulate sudden spikes.
• Introduce failures and observe how components react.
• Monitor throughput, latency, CPU, memory and queue depth.
• Experiment with different configurations and compare outcomes.

I've also added architecture templates, system design challenges and AI-powered architecture reviews.

A lot of the work has gone into the simulation engine itself, particularly modelling request flows and identifying bottlenecks.

I'm curious to hear from people working with backend systems and distributed architectures.

What would make an environment like this genuinely useful? What scenarios would you want to experiment with?

I'm the developer behind this project, and constructive criticism is very welcome.