From UX designer to builder!
Hey IH 👋
I'm Jose, a UI/UX designer with 15+ years in travel tech. I know HTML/CSS but backend? APIs? Databases? Not my thing.
Two weeks ago I launched Homebase Flights — a flight deal alert service. Here's the story.
The frustration
I'm obsessed with finding cheap flights. I was subscribed to every deal alert service out there — Going (Scott's Cheap Flights), Dollar Flight Club, Secret Flying, you name it.
But I kept having the same problem: I'd get an alert like "Paris for $289!" and get excited. Then I'd read the details... departing from NYC. I live in Barcelona.
This happened constantly. Great deals from airports that were 3-4 hours away, or required a connecting flight that killed the savings. I was spending more time filtering out irrelevant deals than actually finding good ones.
The idea
What if there was a service that ONLY sent deals from YOUR airport? Not 5 airports. Not "major hubs near you." Just one — the airport you actually use.
Simple concept. But I couldn't build it. I'm a designer, not a developer.
Enter Claude Code
I'd been playing with Claude for design work and writing. Then I discovered Claude Code and thought... why not try?
I described what I wanted:
Users pick their home airport
System monitors flight prices
Sends email alerts when deals drop
Stripe for subscriptions
Two weeks later, I had a working product. Next.js, Stripe, Resend for emails. All built through conversations with Claude.
The wild part? I understood what was being built. Claude explained the code, suggested improvements, helped me debug. It wasn't just "copy paste magic" — I actually learned.
The launch
Launched 1 week ago. 2 paying subscribers so far. Not exactly ramen profitable 😅
But it works. Real people are paying for something I built. As a designer who always had to wait for "a technical co-founder," this feels surreal.
What's next
Trying to get to 150 subscribers ($1K MRR) by June. Focusing on SEO and a few Meta ads campaigns. We'll see.
Takeaways for other non-technical founders:
Claude Code is legit. Not perfect, but for a simple SaaS? Absolutely doable.
Start with something you personally need. I built this because I was frustrated. That frustration kept me going.
"No code" vs "AI code" is different. With AI, you still learn. You understand your product. That matters.
