JamieWatters.work

jamiewatters.work is my personal build-in-public headquarters—a living portfolio that tracks my mission to build a billion-dollar portfolio of AI products by 2030. 🎯 Core Features 📊 Real-Time Metrics Dashboard: Live MRR, user counts, active projects, and portfolio valuation displayed on the homepage 📁 Dynamic Project Portfolio: Each product in my portfolio has its own page with live metrics, tech stack, lessons learned, and progress screenshots ✍️ The Journey Blog: Weekly updates documenting wins, failures, and lessons—written transparently with actual metrics 👤 About Page: My systematic approach explained—multiple bets, AI leverage, transparent learning 🔐 Admin Panel: Full CMS for managing projects, blog posts, and metrics with markdown editor 🛠️ Technical Highlights ISR (Incremental Static Regeneration): Pages revalidate hourly for fresh data without sacrificing performance SEO Optimized: Structured data (JSON-LD), dynamic meta tags, sitemap generation Admin Authentication: Secure bcrypt-based login for content management Progress Report Generator: Pulls from development progress files to auto-generate blog content Dark-first design: Built with a modern dark theme and semantic color tokens 📈 Content Sections Section Purpose Homepage Hero, metrics dashboard, featured projects, recent posts Portfolio All projects with filtering and detailed pages Journey Chronological blog of the build-in-public process About Background, approach, and credibility building

Build-in-public is broken for busy founders. Most founders who want to share their journey face these problems: 📉 No single source of truth: Metrics scattered across Twitter, spreadsheets, and notes ⏱️ Time-consuming updates: Writing progress posts takes 30+ minutes each 🤷 No credibility proof: Claims without verifiable metrics don't build trust 🔄 Inconsistent posting: Life gets busy, the public journey goes silent 🎨 Ugly portfolio sites: Generic templates that don't reflect professional competence The result? Founders either abandon build-in-public or do it inconsistently, losing the accountability and audience benefits.

jamiewatters.work solves this by creating a centralized command center for transparent entrepreneurship:

1. 📊 Single Source of Truth All metrics (MRR, users, projects, portfolio value) stored in one database and displayed live on the homepage. No more screenshot-hunting or manual updates.
2. ⚡ Streamlined Content Creation Admin CMS with markdown editor for quick blog posts Progress Report Generator that pulls from development logs Daily Update Generator to auto-create content from progress files
3. 🏆 Credibility Through Transparency Real metrics displayed publicly (not vanity numbers) Achievement timeline showing completed milestones Project pages with actual screenshots, tech details, and lessons learned
4. 🎨 Professional Presentation Custom-designed dark theme with semantic color system Responsive layouts optimized for all devices SEO-optimized for discoverability
5. 🔧 Built With My Own Tools The site itself is built using AGENT-11 (my AI development framework), demonstrating the approach I'm documenting.

1. 🔄 Content Blockers Kill Momentum The hardest part of build-in-public isn't writing—it's the friction before writing. Building the Progress Report Generator removed my biggest excuse: "I don't have time to summarize what I did."
2. 📝 Database > Markdown Files Started with markdown files for blog posts. Switching to Prisma + PostgreSQL made the admin panel possible and unlocked filtering, sorting, and dynamic features. Worth the migration pain.
3. 🎯 Ship the Ugly Version First The first version of this site was embarrassingly basic. Publishing it anyway created accountability to improve it. Perfectionism is the enemy of building in public.
4. 🐛 Hardcoded Placeholders Bite Back Found a bug where blog posts showed placeholder text instead of actual content. The fix was one line: const contentToRender = post.content || placeholderContent. TODOs in code are liabilities.
5. 📈 Metrics Create Accountability Displaying $0 MRR publicly is uncomfortable. That discomfort is the point—it motivates action more than any private goal-setting.
6. 🏗️ Design System Pays Dividends Investing in semantic color tokens (text-primary, bg-surface, brand-accent) early made the dark theme consistent and changes trivial. Random hex codes would have been a maintenance nightmare.