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lovelisti: 15 years of an idea, 2 weeks of vibe coding, and a dream reborn

When you cannot code, your idea has been waiting since 2010, and AI finally gives you a hand.

tl;dr

where did lovelisti come from?

Where did the idea for Lovelisti come from? Was it a problem you had yourself, or did you notice a gap somewhere?

Honestly, I am not sure. I wanted to compile everything I love into one list. Just that. Something that feels good. And strangely, nobody was doing it well.

The idea dates back to 2010. Fifteen years of sitting there.

At the time, I asked a developer friend to build it. It took time, it was expensive, and the features I wanted never arrived. Distribution was just as hard. The project eventually died — not because I stopped believing in it, but because I could not build it myself.

I could not code. And it drove me crazy.

why now?

What made you finally decide to launch Lovelisti after all these years?

Vibe coding.

If I had not discovered what AI makes possible today, Lovelisti would still be in a dusty drawer. With coding agents, I can finally build my own projects, directly and at a speed I never imagined.

I code now. Not well, not cleanly, but I code.

the concept: a list of what we love

How would you describe Lovelisti to someone who has never seen it?

It connects people who share the same passions. You list what you love — simple things like Chile, avocado, Spotify, sushi, or vibe coding — and discover who else loves those things.

It is not Instagram. It is not Pinterest. It is smaller and more intimate: a social network for tastes, not egos.

building it

You are not a developer. How did you build it?

I used a mix of Codex, Claude Code, Cursor and Grok, and OpenCode. The stack is Python/Flask, hosted on Railway, with PostgreSQL, Cloudflare R2 for images, and Cloudflare Stream for video.

Minimal. Few dependencies. Fast and light on tokens. That is what I like.

The problem is that I am a perfectionist.

I changed the design at least ten times. I wasted a lot of time on aesthetics. In the end, I went back to the fundamentals: Jakob Nielsen, usability, and functional simplicity.

It is not very beautiful. But it works. And it does the job.

the first steps

74 things loved, 5 people — how has the first feedback been?

The biggest challenge today is not creation — it is distribution. AI agents have made creation accessible to everyone, but the real question is still the same: how do you get seen?

For now, I send the link to friends, and to some of my daughter’s friends — teenagers who might naturally enjoy the service.

And what if nobody comes? Well… I already use it for myself, and I am already happy.

Lovelisti’s power will come from social aggregation, so we will see. But even with one user, the project exists. That is already something.

monetization

Are you thinking about monetizing it?

Yes, because it takes time, even when it is fun. I still need to pay for a roof and food.

I have never been very good at monetization. I like making a living from my passions, that is clear. But I am doing this first of all for the pleasure of sharing and being useful to other people.

The idea would be targeted advertising, rather than premium features: advertisers that make sense for the interests people list. No paywall that breaks the experience.

the everyday work

Do you work on Lovelisti alongside something else?

For now, I am all in. But I have ADHD — I find it hard to stay on one project for too long. I go from one thing to another, give it 200%, and then move on.

Lovelisti feels different. If it takes off, it could become a full-time project that keeps me going.

My days are all over the place. I go to bed late, wake up early, and code from my phone with Codex remotely. It is exciting and sometimes hard to switch off, but there is so much to learn.

With vibe coding, you can do it from anywhere. It is amazing.

the vision

Where do you see Lovelisti in two years?

My wildest dream is for thousands of people to adopt it. But honestly, I have no idea. Every creator wants their product to be useful to people.

If I really let myself dream: make a living from it. And if the adventure is beautiful, maybe sell it and move on to something else.

the advice

If someone has had an idea for ten years and cannot code, what would you tell them?

Go for it.

Stick to one stack. One language. One system. And above all, use AI agents. Artificial intelligence can tell you almost everything now. Ask questions. YouTube plus a coding agent can replace university. It can replace almost anything.

And most importantly: go for it. Just do it.

what comes next

My dream is that thousands of people adopt Lovelisti. But even if it stays a project for one person, that person is me, and the project exists. After 15 years, that is already something.

In the worst case, I will have only one user, myself.

Next episode: the launch.

Have a question or an idea? send me a message.

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