Could you tell us a little bit about your background and how you ended up starting as a founder?

I am Denis and I work as a frontend engineer something about 9 years already. Software engineering was always my passion.

During my full-time career path, I was always interested in creating small side products. To be honest, I do not remember how many ideas I tried, but just a few of them worked out.

Failures are completely normal when you choose the IndieHacking way.

But I am not the only developer who worked on KeyCaps: we implemented this web app together with my wife. Her name is Van and 1.5 years ago she switched from the marketing area to frontend engineering as well.

So you can call "KeyCaps" a small family project :)

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How did you find the idea?

Actually I came up with this idea while working on another project which is https://jotnpaste.com/

During the development, I realise I need to describe a few shortcut combinations and didn't find any "keyboard image generator" application.

We discussed this idea with my wife and thought since we need it, maybe someone else will find it useful too.

How did you come up with the name for your project?

We just used "keycaps" word as it is pretty self-explanatory, I hope.

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What was your main growth channel?

When the project was done, I posted it on places like ProductHunt, BetaList, MicroStartups, and a couple of design-focused websites.

After release, it was reposted by people on Twitter and ended up in a few email newsletters. The current growth channel is completely organic.

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What tech stack did you use to build the product?

Keycaps is built with Next.js and React. Image generation happens on the client side using Canvas API.

Both Van and I work with this tech stack a lot and think it is the best approach when you use technologies you know the best right now.

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Would you consider selling the project in the future?

Since we both are focused on bigger projects, we actually consider selling KeyCaps to someone who can evolve the product and passionate about design tools.

I will probably list it on microns.io soon

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