The latest articles on Forem by Merissa Badenhorst (@badmerissa). https://forem.com/badmerissa https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3868518%2F1f694821-1a00-4b4f-a43d-33a1d91e0e65.jpg https://forem.com/badmerissa en Merissa Badenhorst Wed, 08 Apr 2026 20:37:42 +0000 https://forem.com/badmerissa/im-shipping-12-ai-built-apps-in-12-months-heres-where-im-at-2in5 https://forem.com/badmerissa/im-shipping-12-ai-built-apps-in-12-months-heres-where-im-at-2in5 <p>4 months in. 4 apps live. 8 to go.<br> The rules I set myself:</p> <ol> <li>Every app is free.</li> <li>Apps don't have to be perfect, they just have to be shipped.</li> <li>Each app gets a proper write-up about what the AI actually did (and where it fell flat).</li> </ol> <p>So far:</p> <ul> <li>Fasting Tracker — intermittent fasting timer, no fluff</li> <li>Potty Panda — potty training milestone tracker (yes, really)</li> <li>unvAIl — daily game: real image or AI-generated?</li> <li>Timeagotchi — time tracking disguised as a tamagotchi</li> </ul> <p>Just shipped a write-up on building Potty Panda with vibe coding — including where it went sideways.</p> <p>Also just relaunched the portfolio with a full rebrand: dark mode, animated gradients, terminal-style app cards. Developer-native instead of generic.</p> <p>I'd genuinely love constructive feedback — on the apps, the writing, the approach, any of it. I'm building this to learn AI assisted engineering specifically, so honesty and encouragement would be awesome.</p> <p>Check it out here <a href="https://thehelpfuldev.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">thehelpfuldev.com</a></p> <p>What would you build if you had to ship one thing a month?</p> ai webdev beginners react