Banadoura is a side project I launched in the middle of January 2024. The goal was to help Instagram Chefs launch their website where followers can search their recipes.

The link to Banadoura and Screenshots can be found at the end.

Co-Founder - No Code Developer - UX/UI Designer - Product Manager

The problem started when my girlfriend and I wanted to cook Lebanese dishes abroad. Our options for recipes were either generic blogs of non-authentic food, or Instagram chefs that post recipes. The problem is that finding the recipes we want was always time consuming since Instagram doesn't allow to search content. The only solution was Instagram Guides allowing chefs to categorize their posts, but that was removed recently by Instagram. Chefs received many complaints after Guides were removed, and chefs get hundreds of questions a week asking them for the links to some recipes.

Some chefs end up building their own website, however most of them do not have the time or budget to hire designers, developers, and maintain the site.

Banadoura makes it easy for any instagram chef to create their own profile and post it through a link in their bio. Their followers would get access to searchable recipes that redirect to Instagram. The goal is to help chefs monetize their platforms better as well as help users cook more at home. We currently charge chefs 100$/year + 50$ optional profile setup fee. We've acquired 6 annual paying clients so far, all very happy with the service. Most of our clients came through a word of mouth network from the first chef.

User Side: Users access Banadoura through a link on the Chefs' Instagram Bio

Strong Search capabilities on 2,000+ recipes using Algolia

Generate Recipe Ideas based on Filters

Search Chefs

Bookmark your favorite recipes and chefs

Receive email alerts when your subscribed chef adds a new recipe on Banadoura

Chef Side: There's a full Admin management system for chefs where they can:

Add, Edit, and Remove Recipes

Create Categories, easily categorize recipes in them

Pin Categories to the top of your profile (Useful for seasonal recipes and/or brand partnerships)

Manage Partner Brands

Add, Edit, Remove, and Share Promo Codes with partner brands

Edit Chef Profile

Tracking & Analytics

- Start Date: 14 Jan 2024 - Estimated hours to first MVP: 5 hours - Estimated Total hours: ~90 hours

Banadoura went through different design iterations. The first version was functional with minimal thought about design. That initial design allowed us to acquire our first chef with 400K+ followers. That meant we'll be getting a ton of feedback from users. We implemented detailed tracking on Mixpanel and spoke with a lot of users to continue iterating the design. The current live design seen on www.banadoura.fyi was released on 22/4/2024 and is currently undergoing testing. We are continuously running experiments to improve certain KPIs (Recipe Clicks / Page View, User Sign Up Rate, etc...) We've experimented with a lot of small design changes that led to an increase of signed up users from <1% on sign up popup.

I do not believe in a single development approach that fits all projects. Different products have different audiences, different value propositions, and different ecosystems surrounding it as well as different priorities at different times. Banadoura's case: Build Fast, Get Feedback, Improve

In Banadoura's case, it is a platform that helps people find recipes faster. The stakes are low, mistakes or bugs do not lead to a big impact on users, and there's no regulatory oversight.

My approach for Banadoura is ship fast, get feedback, and improve. This means that some users might find some small bugs throughout the experience, however at this stage, we are prioritizing accelerating the feedback loop over perfecting the design / build.

This is not an approach that I would take with a Financial product for example where user expectations are high, impact of bugs is high, and regulatory compliance is crucial. Performance, Documentation, and Maintenance

Even while moving fast, my approach to Bubble Development is always about creating a performant and maintainable (no) code base that can be handed over to another developer with ease. I've taken over projects that were not well developed and I understand that a ton of time is wasted in the future for relatively minimal work today. That's why I always put effort to adding proper documentation and thought process wherever needed as well as follow clear naming structures for all elements and workflows, making it easier for the next developer to take over (If the product is successful, there will always be another developer).

Agile Methodologies

I follow the spirit of the Agile Methodology, where every feature is built and shipped independently, giving us complete freedom to edit as well as test and experiment as we develop. If the product is aimed for long term success and not an internal tool for example, I always set up tracking as part of the development experience, whether that's a full-fledged tracking boards on Mixpanel, or basic tracking for key moments in the onboarding for example.

Technical Challenges Banadoura has went through different iterations from a development infrastructure perspective. In our business model, we have a lot of traffic coming in from chefs' instagram profiles. The chef profile also contains lots of images and information from 2000+ recipes (This number will keep increasing). This is a technical challenge as we aim to keep our costs as low as possible. These means optimizing Bubble when it comes to Workflow Units as well as Algolia when it comes to search. We've decreased our workflow unit spend by 90% after the initial build. During the initial build, speed of delivery was prioritized vs optimization as our goal was to acquire our first client and then worry about what's happening behind the scenes.

Number of annual paid chefs: 6 Marketing spend: 0$ Number of monthly page views: 4,000 (January), 19,000 (February), 38,000 (March). Average 150% month on month growth Number of signed up users: 200 (This KPI hasn't been prioritized so far but has been through small testing iterations.)

www.banadoura.fyi