Building the MVP of Hatchgrid — A Creator-Centric Automation Tool

The journey of building Hatchgrid began with a clear frustration: solo creators juggle too many tools to do one thing — deliver content consistently. Whether it’s managing a newsletter, selling a product, or publishing on social media, the process is fragmented. Hatchgrid aims to change that by centralizing and automating the workflow for creators, starting with email.

Why Start with Email?

Email is the most direct, owned channel a creator has. It’s where trust is built and revenue is made. That’s why our MVP focuses entirely on newsletters: writing them, growing a subscriber base, automating welcome emails, and eventually enabling monetization through paid tiers.

Core Features of the MVP

• Newsletter editor (Markdown/WYSIWYG)
• Subscriber management with tags
• Embedded forms for list growth
• Welcome email automation
• Basic open/click analytics
• Stripe integration (optional in phase 1)

Stack Choices

We’re using Astro for the landing (performance and SEO), Vue.js for the application interface, and Spring Boot with Kotlin for the backend — a stack that aligns with both speed and scalability. We also considered Supabase for auth and storage where appropriate.

Our Design Philosophy

We believe in simplicity, speed, and trust. That means clean UX, minimal setup, and no bloated features. Every line of code in the MVP is justified by one question: does this directly help a creator publish and grow faster?

What’s Next

The MVP will be tested by early adopters, whose feedback will shape the next iterations. Future goals include multi-channel publishing, content scheduling, and advanced segmentation.

This blog will serve as our build log — transparent, honest, and frequent. If you’re a creator, a builder, or someone who cares about digital autonomy, we invite you to follow along.

Stay tuned for more posts:

• Why we chose Astro + Vue + Spring Boot
• Lessons learned from building the subscriber model
• How we designed the onboarding to be frictionless