actually post the content

pages/blog/poc-is-not-product.md

@@ -3,9 +3,103 @@ date: 2024-01-28 09:49:57
 templateKey: blog-post
 title: poc is not product
 tags:
-  - python
-  - python
-  - python
+  - startup
 published: True
 
 ---
+
+A poc is **not** a product.  I started focais, not in a rush, but as something
+that I already had a POC for and thought it would be easy.  I wanted to build
+tools to make creating blog posts like this one easier.  I stared with `shots`
+a tool that takes screenshots of websites.
+
+## POC (proof of concept)
+
+For the poc, I made a single fastapi endpoint that takes a url and returns a
+screenshot of the page.  It converts the url into a key that I can lookup to
+see if I have the shot, if I don't I go get it.  With the open source libraries
+out there, this is not too hard of a task.
+
+* /shot
+
+> But this wasn't enough
+
+All it does so far for this first tool is take screenshots of websites, and
+give you a hosted image.
+
+## Users
+
+To bring in users, I need to create a signup flow, with a database to store
+users, login, logout, and email recovery.  I've never had to use an email
+service before that wasn't already mandated by a company or an iternal smtp
+server.  After some searching I chose resend for email.
+
+* email service for account recovery
+* database to store users
+* /login
+* /forgot-password
+* /recover-account
+* /logout
+* /signup
+* /access-token
+* /account
+
+## User Management
+
+Eventually I am going to need some user management for site admins (me), but
+for now I just need to see users and some of their attributes such as
+subscription level, number of shots, and such.  If I'm ever contacted for
+support this will give me some first insight into what happened.
+
+## Subscription Levels
+
+For payment I chose stripe.  I was able to setup subscription levels with
+config inside of stripe.  I setup a pricing page with jinja based on the data
+right out of stripe, a way to create checkout sessions, a page to come back to
+once you have executed a checkout, and a way to cancel your subscription.
+
+* stripe account
+* stripe api integration
+* /pricing
+* /create-checkout-session
+* /checkout-success
+* /cancel-subscription
+* /reactivate-subscription
+
+## Back to the Product
+
+Now that I have users, with subscriptions, and different subscription levels. A
+shot might not be the same per url.  For instance a shot from a low tier
+subscription might have a watermark, while a higher tier will remove the
+watermark.  Now I need a way to track shots per user, and keep them up to date
+with subscriptions.
+
+* POST /shot
+* GET /shot/{id}
+
+## Keeping the internet working
+
+At the end of all of this once a shot is created I want to keep it working for
+users regarless of subscription.  It really bothers me when part of the
+internet just stops working.  I hope to keep running costs low and enough
+monthly subscribers to cover those costs.  And if you decide that fokais is not
+a product giving you any more value your shots will still be here with us.  At
+the moment the biggest cost is compute running headless chrome to take the
+shots anyways, continuing to host them over time is must less of an issue.
+
+## It's a Lot, but not near enough
+
+I'm a couple of months in on building this for a few days at a time here an
+there. I am in no rush for it to start gaining revenue.  I am learning a ton so
+far.  Whether fokais becomes a big thing or not, I will be able to bring these
+skills to a new startup or to my professional career.
+
+It already feels 1000% more complicated than it was just to get the thing to
+work for just me, but in the end it will be worth it.
+
+## It's still not complete
+
+There's feels like quite a bit to do before getting launched, testing out the
+checkout workflow is HUGE thing.  I've never made a product for sale by myself
+before, so I am definitly feeling some pressure when taking money to have a
+product that works, and importantly not loosing the subscription or account.