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From Tweet to Launch πŸš€ – My Open Source Journey

What you will find in this article?

Are you intrigued about taking your idea from a mere tweet to launching it as an open-source project? In this article, you will walk through my journey of building Papermark, where I'll share the importance of community engagement, lessons learned, and the tools and technologies I used to bring this project to life.

launch gif

Papermark - the open-source DocSend alternative

Before we begin, let me introduce you to Papermark. It's the open-source DocSend alternative that helps you manage secure document sharing, including real-time analytics and custom domains. It's all open-source!

I would be absolutely thrilled if you could support us our launch today! Don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments section ❀️
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/papermark-3

Papermark onboarding

The Tweet

On May 23, 2023, I bet my wife that a tweet would get 50 likes so I can work on an open-source project idea.

The tweet received 265 likes.

Initial Tweet

The MVP

I knew it was possible to build out the MVP in a weekend because of the incredibly powerful tech stack:

  • framework: Next.js
  • styling: Tailwind CSS
  • database: Vercel Postgres
  • file storage: Vercel Blob
  • database ORM: Prisma
  • authentication: Next-Auth

And right on time it was done! The launch tweet received 450 likes and over 95,000 views. I was onto something!

Launch Tweet

Building the product

I spent the next couple of weekends to build more features and polish the UI.

And I took the time to document how I built it open-source out in the public!

Post #1

πŸ‘‰ Building an Open Source DocSend alternative with Next.js, Vercel Blob and Postgres

#1 Dev.to Post

Post #2

πŸ‘‰ Building a Beautiful Product Onboarding πŸ‘‹ with Next.JS , Framer Motion, and Tailwind CSS

#2 Dev.to Post

Post #3

πŸ‘‰ How to send a warm welcome email with Resend, Next-Auth and React-Email

#3 Dev.to Post

Post #4

πŸ‘‰ Building a Real-Time Analytics Dashboard with Next.js, Tinybird, and Tremor: A Comprehensive Guide

#4 dev.to post

Post #5

πŸ‘‰ Building a Document Viewer with react-pdf

#5 dev.to post

Post #6

πŸ‘‰ Build an Expandable / Collapsible Data Table with 2 shadcn/ui Components

#6 dev.to post

Finally, after the product felt "ready", I launched it on Product Hunt.

The Launch

On September 4, 2023, we launched on Product Hunt.

Producthunt launch

Conclusion

From a tweet to a launch, building Papermark has been a rewarding journey. Along the way, I learned the importance of community engagement and the role of choosing the right tools and technologies in building a successful open-source project.

I am Marc, an open-source advocate and the created the open-source project behind papermark.io - the open-source DocSend alternative. Remember, the journey of coding is a continuous process of learning and discovery. So, keep coding, my friends!

Help me out!

If you found this article interesting and maybe inspired you to build your own open-source project, I would be extremely glad if you could show your support on Product Hunt! And don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments ❀️

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/papermark-3

cat thanks

Top comments (15)

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aregtech profile image
Artak Avetyan

I love stories like this, @mfts πŸ‘
Minimum a vote at Product Hunt and a star at GitHub from me.
Cheers 🍻

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mfts profile image
Marc Seitz

Much appreciated Artak πŸ™Œ

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aregtech profile image
Artak Avetyan

You are welcome, Marc. I even created an account at Product Hunt to vote 😁
Good luck!

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giovannimazzuoccolo profile image
Giovanni Mazzuoccolo

I have a question: Is an open-source SaaS product worth more than a disappointed wife? πŸ˜…

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mfts profile image
Marc Seitz

definitely no πŸ₯΅ she is contributing to the open-source project as well :)

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mamunahmed profile image
Mamun Ahmed

@mfts amazing job brother!

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mfts profile image
Marc Seitz

Thanks Mamun πŸ”₯

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lalami profile image
Salah Eddine Lalami

Hi @mfts congratulations πŸŽ‰.
I have questions how long it take you to build this open source projet ?

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mfts profile image
Marc Seitz

The MVP took just a weekend (Friday evening to Sunday night).

The launched product yesterday add around 7 more weekends :)

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nevodavid profile image
Nevo David

Great journey Mark!

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mfts profile image
Marc Seitz

Thanks Nevo πŸ™Œ

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shnai0 profile image
Iuliia Shnai

So excited that we launched Papermark today!

@mfts amazing job

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mfts profile image
Marc Seitz

Thanks for supporting Iuliia πŸ™Œ

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tsikatawill profile image
William M. Tsikata

Amazing work on Papermark πŸ‘

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mfts profile image
Marc Seitz

Thanks William. Keep the contributions coming on GitHub :)