Every product we make starts as a copy of the same project. We call it Lowside Start. A new product has sign-in, teams, email and deploys working before we write a line that is specific to it.
Why one starting point
The first stretch of most products goes to work nobody will notice. Accounts. Password resets. A settings page. All of it has to exist, and none of it is why someone picks your product.
We have built those parts enough times to know how we want them. So we built them once more, with care, and now we copy them. The early work on a new product goes to what makes it different.
A fix in one place helps everywhere
The shared start keeps paying after launch. When we find a better way to do something in one product, we move it back into Lowside Start, and the other products can take it from there.
It also means our products behave alike in the dull places. Sign-in works the same way. Settings are where you expect them. If you use two of our products, the second should feel familiar.
What it does not do
A starting point does not decide what to build, and it does not make a product good. It takes away the excuse that the basics ate all the time. What is left is the real question: is this worth making, and is it pleasant to use?
We still have to answer that for every product.
Why we are telling you
Lowside Start is private today. We are writing about it because it explains how a small company keeps several products healthy at once. Mostly, we refuse to build the same thing twice.
