Pottery Friends

The Problem

Studio communities are fragmented across group chats, paper schedules, and generic tools like Mindbody that were designed for gyms, not potters. The operations manager at Red Ox was spending hours every week on manual billing and member tracking. Members were missing events because announcements got buried in group chat noise. And the social fabric that makes a studio special — sharing techniques, glaze results, inspiration — had no digital home.

What I Learned from Users

• Embedded in the Red Ox Ceramics community for nearly a year — attending 6 days a week, building relationships with the operations manager, instructors, and members at every skill level
• The operations manager walked me through her entire workflow: Venmo for billing, a spreadsheet for member tracking, group texts for event announcements, and a paper sign-up sheet for kiln reservations. She spent 5+ hours per week on manual admin
• Members who travel to retreats at other studios confirmed the same problems exist everywhere — no studio has purpose-built software
• Members reported missing 2-3 events per month because announcements were buried in group chat noise
• The most common request from members wasn't scheduling — it was 'What glaze should I try next?' and 'I want to see what other people are making.' Community inspiration was the killer feature, not logistics

Why I Built This

After spending nearly a year at Red Ox Ceramics — going six days a week, befriending the operations manager, and becoming embedded in the community — I realized every studio runs the same way: Venmo for billing, group texts for announcements, and spreadsheets for everything else. Members who travel to retreats at other studios told me it's the same everywhere. I built Pottery Friends to mirror the real pain points I heard firsthand, from the admin side (billing, member management, event scheduling) all the way to the end user who wants to know what glaze to try next and find inspiration within their community. The mobile app alone has 59 database migrations, 19 edge functions, Stripe payments, and a gamification system with quests and badges — it's a real product built on real relationships.

Strategy

Target customer: Independent pottery studios with 30-200 members — large enough to need digital tools but too small for enterprise solutions. These studios have a passionate community but no purpose-built software. Competitive landscape: Mindbody and Glofox dominate fitness booking but don't serve craft communities. Mighty Networks and Circle are too generic. No one owns the pottery/ceramics vertical. Go-to-market: Land with a free analytics dashboard (the feature owners asked for most), then expand to the full platform once studios see engagement data. The documentation site doubles as onboarding — studios self-serve setup without a sales call. Business model: Freemium with studio-level subscriptions. Free tier gives basic events and messaging. Paid tier unlocks analytics, payments, gamification, and custom theming. Vision: Start with pottery, then expand to other craft communities (woodworking, glassblowing, printmaking) that share the same studio-and-membership model.

What I Built

Pottery Friends grew out of my time as a member at Red Ox Ceramics in Concord, CA. Over months of daily studio sessions, I became close friends with the members and staff — and got a front-row seat to every operational pain point. The operations manager was drowning in manual billing, paper sign-up sheets, and group texts. Members were missing firings, had no way to track what glazes they'd used, and the community that made the studio special had no digital home. I built a 4-product ecosystem to solve this end-to-end: a native mobile app for members, a marketing site for studios, analytics dashboards for owners, and documentation for onboarding.

Key Decisions & Tradeoffs

• Chose React Native over Flutter for code sharing with the web platform's React/Next.js stack — one mental model across 4 products
• Built on Supabase instead of Firebase to get PostgreSQL and row-level security without managing infrastructure
• Split into 4 products (mobile, web, dashboards, docs) instead of one monolith — each serves a different user and deploys independently
• Invested in a theming system early so studios could customize without developer time — a bet on self-serve onboarding at scale
• Used Nextra for documentation instead of building custom — saved weeks and got search, MDX, and versioning for free

Outcomes & Results

• 59 database migrations shipped — each one a schema evolution reflecting real product learning
• 19 Supabase edge functions handling auth, payments, notifications, and content moderation
• Waitlist-to-launch funnel on the web platform converting studio sign-ups through a multi-step onboarding flow
• Gamification system driving repeat engagement: quests, badges, streaks, and XP leveling
• Stripe integration processing subscriptions and event ticket sales with webhook-driven fulfillment

What Didn't Work (And What I Changed)

• Initially built the mobile app with a feed-first home screen, assuming members wanted a social timeline. Usage data showed they skipped the feed entirely and went straight to Events. Redesigned the home screen around upcoming events and quick actions — engagement doubled
• Spent 3 weeks building a real-time chat system before discovering that studio members preferred async communication. Pivoted to a stories/announcements model inspired by Instagram, which matched how studios actually share updates
• The first version of the gamification system had 40+ quest types — too complex. Members ignored it. Simplified to 8 core quests tied to real studio actions (attend an event, try a new technique, share a photo). Completion rates went from 5% to 35%
• Originally planned a marketplace for members to sell pottery — cut it after interviews revealed owners saw it as competition with their own retail. Redirected that effort into the analytics dashboards, which owners actually wanted to pay for

Technical Highlights

• 4-product ecosystem: native mobile app, web platform, analytics dashboards, and docs site
• Mobile app with stories, events, messaging, materials library, quests, and profile customization
• Stripe payment processing with subscription management and event ticketing
• 59 database migrations and 19 Supabase edge functions powering the full backend
• PostHog analytics pipeline, Sentry error monitoring, and real-time data via Supabase subscriptions
• Admin theming system: studio owners customize colors, typography, and copy without code

Tech Stack

Products Built