Outside Calm, Inside Chaos

My Very Real, Very Chaotic Journey of Building Elevate

Hey, this is Nishant. I’m into design, allergic to code (seriously, I tried), and somewhere in between a massive overthinker and someone who randomly starts projects at 3 AM. This is my first-ever project. No team. No experience. Just me, music, Figma tabs, a lot of late-night doubts, and a dream of making something that actually ships.

This is the story of how I built Elevate — a habit and productivity tracker with a sarcastic AI twist.

Backstory: Where It All Started

So here’s the deal. I’ve always been interested in tech, design, and building stuff (thanks to my elder sibling constantly being two steps ahead of me in life). I remember seeing 16-17 year olds back then shipping cool products, running startups, hitting 4-figure MRRs, and I was like, Wait... how?! My jaw dropped at least once a day.

That made something click inside me — a kind of creative urgency. I wanted to build too. Do something. Ship something real. Not out of jealousy, but out of inspiration that hit just the right nerve.

No-Code or No-Clue?

At first, I barely knew anything about how to even build something. I knew design. I was playing around with Framer. But when it came to the real product stuff — logic, databases, user auth, payment flows — it was like my 5-year-old cousin trying to solve JEE math questions.

YouTube became my university. ChatGPT became my annoying but helpful mentor. I tried every no-code tool I could find. First Bubble (nah), then WeWeb + Xano (cool but too much setup). It still didn’t feel like I was building the way I wanted.

Then I stumbled upon this YouTube video by Builder’s Central that changed everything. That was my gateway to Vibe Coding. It looked clean, fast, intuitive — and most importantly, beginner-friendly.

That’s when building Elevate really got easy

The "WTF am I doing" Phase

I designed wireframes in Figma. Crafted the dashboard. Nailed the flow. Everything looked beautiful. But when it came to actually building it?

Absolute chaos.

Cursor + Lovable + Supabase + MailerLite + Gemini AI.
Yeah, I picked a pretty spicy tech stack. But I wanted to do something cool. Even if it meant breaking things. Rebuilding. Crying. Staring blankly at terminal windows and wondering if I’m cut out for this.

There were so many times I thought about quitting. When nothing worked. When I had zero clue what was causing an error. When I questioned if I was even building the right thing.

But...

The First Win (aka my "holy sh*t, I made this" moment)

The moment I saw the dashboard come alive, with the habit list and the streak logic actually working... I felt like Iron Man in the cave building the first suit.

Was it perfect? No.

But it worked. And I made it. From scratch.

And I couldn’t stop smiling.

What I Sucked At (and What I Learned Anyway)

Integrations were painful.
Backend logic made my head hurt.
Cursor was magical but hard to tame.

And don’t even get me started on launch anxiety. Writing the copy. Designing the social assets. Scheduling things. Wondering if anyone will even see this.

But I pushed. Slowly. One feature at a time. One bug at a time. One doubt at a time.

And here we are.

If You’re Reading This...

Maybe you’re someone like me.
Maybe you’ve got ideas but feel stuck.
Maybe you’re scared you don’t know enough.

Here’s the truth:
You don’t have to know everything to build something that matters.

Start with what you have. Learn by building ( just watching tutorials won’t help ).Learn the rest as you go. It’ll be messy. You’ll want to quit. But if you care about it enough, you’ll ship it. No matter if it is a success or not (even I don’t what will happen with Elevate)

That’s what Elevate is to me.
Not just a project.
It’s proof that someone who doubted himself 7 times a day... actually did the thing.

Thanks for being behind the screen with me.

Let’s see what I break next.

P.S. If you ever feel like giving up, remember: Even a lazy, code-fearing, 18-year-old with launch anxiety did it. You’ve got this.

On the outside, it’s calm. Inside? Absolute spaghetti.