Tinytown

Role

Founder

Time

2020 ↔ present

Tools

React, Flutter, Firebase, Rust + Axum, gRPC + protobuf, Sentry, Docker, SurrealDB and many, many more.

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tinytown.app

Tinytown is a hyperlocal chat app that I've been working on since 2020. As a solo founder, the work I've done on Tinytown encompasses all areas of business and product development -- from legal and marketing to design and engineering. The start of this project marks the beginning of my journey in becoming a software engineer. Most of what I’ve learned in the past 5 years about software development has been with the purpose of building Tinytown.

The web and mobile apps are built using Flutter while the backend consists of a few microservices built with Rust + Axum and SurrealDB. To tie it all together I’m using gRPC and protobuf following the Google API design guide.

Tinytown style guide with color and fonts

GIF of the Tinytown app showing how to create Shouts

ShoutsShouts are geotagged little messages that only users nearby can see.

GIF of the Tinytown app showing how to create a Squad

SquadsUsers can create or join Squads that they see on the map.

GIF of the Tinytown app showing how to send messages

MessagesEach squad gets a message thread with support for text messages, gifs, and Shouts.