Building the Fikra Labs website in public: week one
The first week of building our own site in the open — the stack, the decisions, and what shipped.
Most agencies show you the polished result. We're doing the opposite: documenting the Fikra Labs website as we build it, decision by decision, so you can see exactly how we'd treat your project. This is week one.
The stack, and why
We're building on Next.js 15 with the App Router, TypeScript in strict mode, and Tailwind v4. Hosting is Vercel, with Cloudflare in front for DNS and security. None of this is fashion — it's the same stack we shipped Pazuri Homes on, and the same one we'll hand a client at the end of an engagement.
- ✦Next.js + Vercel: fast static pages, zero-config deploys, generous free tier.
- ✦TypeScript strict: the compiler catches the bugs before a client ever does.
- ✦Tailwind for layout, with bespoke styling where the design earns it.
- ✦Self-hosted n8n for the automation behind the forms — wired in Phase 2.
The one rule: ship working, not 'production-grade later'
The trap every solo builder falls into is shipping something fragile and promising to harden it once there's revenue. We don't. The contact form works on the first deploy — it validates input and logs server-side with zero secrets, and the JSON contract is stable so the UI never changes when we wire the real backend. Quality is structural from commit one.
First-time-right delivery: the client sees a working, polished output before they're charged.
What shipped
Eight pages, a full design system, SEO foundations (sitemap, robots, structured data), and a build that passes clean. Next week: the content engine and the first outbound. We'll write that one in public too.
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