Where gakdo is going.
We're building this in the open. Here's what's shipped, what's active, and what's next — pulled straight from the notebook, not dressed up.
The five phases
Click a phase to expandA hand-built demo of a single trip — one person, one set of photos, one flow. Proved the visual and emotional idea before any database existed.
- One trip, hard-coded. Rick's own trip, statically rendered. No uploads, no accounts, no logic.
- Visual-first. Nailed the day-by-day journal layout and photo rhythm we still use today.
- Proof it felt right. Shared with a handful of people. Consistent reaction: "wait, I want one of these."
A real trip uploaded end-to-end. Everyone with the link could contribute photos and videos. First auto-generated recap video. The group-share loop was proven.
- San Diego, end-to-end. Real photos, real journal entries, real days — on production.
- Link-based contribution. Anyone holding the link could add their own photos and videos to the trip.
- Recap video, one tap. Auto-generated montage from the trip's media — shareable.
- The loop worked. One person built the trip, the group filled it in, everyone shared the same page.
Close the gap between "it works for us" and "a stranger lands on gakdo.com and gets it in three seconds." Everything in the backlog below lives here.
- The landing page has to land. Real photos replace gradient tiles; a finished trip is visible, not just feature close-ups.
- Copy in our own voice. Every headline rewritten so it sounds like a person, not an assistant.
- Clarify "one link per trip." Accounts already hold multiple trips — say so. A folder view comes after.
- Build in the open. This roadmap page and a public feedback form.
Onboarding, pricing, positioning. Ready for people outside our circle — the kind of people who'd find us because a friend shared a trip link, not because we asked them to.
- Onboarding for strangers. A first-run flow that doesn't assume someone already pitched you on it.
- Pricing & tiers. A free-to-start shape that lets a trip be public without a credit card.
- Trust & privacy, in plain language. Who sees my photos. How I delete them. What happens if I stop using it.
- One intentional acquisition test. Organic-first — one honest experiment, not a spend spree.
Scoped after Phase 4 has live paying users. Growth loops, deeper multi-trip structure, possibly a native app, possibly tiers. Honest answer: we'll know more when we get there.
- Growth from the product itself. Every shared trip is already an invitation — sharpen that edge.
- Depth in the vault. Seasons, years, countries — the structure that holds a decade of trips, not just one.
- Maybe a native app. Only if the web version stops being enough.
- What users ask for most. Items from the feedback form that keep showing up.
What's in Phase 3
Active backlog · tap to expandShipped Apr 29: the landing page now has a live example link pointing at the public Asia trip.
- One line, one link. "See a live Asia trip" points to the existing public trip.
- Zero new destination build. The linked page already exists end-to-end.
- Sets up R-01b. The inline finished-trip preview now lives below the hero.
Shipped Apr 29: the homepage now shows a compact finished-trip preview using the live Asia trip's route, days, media counts, modules, and link.
- Finished-trip tile. Title, dates, route, day rows, guest media, recap, and download modules are visible inline.
- Built from the public Asia trip. The tile links to the same live example as the hero.
- Mobile friendly. The preview stacks into a scannable trip summary on small screens.
Partially shipped Apr 29: the hero uses unique real trip cover photos and avoids the founder/community image. More sections still need real product media.
- Swap the 3×3 color block for a real photo grid. From Phase 2's trip, curated.
- EXIF day-stamps visible. Subtle, but it proves the product reads your real photos.
- Respect vertical phone photos. The layout bends around portrait orientation instead of cropping.
Partially shipped Apr 29: the hero, multi-trip copy, and finished-trip preview now sound more direct. A full-page copy pass remains.
- Kill the marketing adjectives. "Effortless," "seamless," "beautiful" — gone unless they're earned.
- Write the way we talk. Contractions, rhythm, the occasional incomplete sentence.
- One specific detail per section. Not "share easily" — "one link your mom can open without a login."
- Read it out loud before shipping. If it doesn't sound like a person said it, rewrite.
Partially shipped Apr 29: homepage copy now says accounts can hold multiple trips. The proper trip browser UI remains queued.
- Short term — fix the copy. "One link per trip" becomes something that implies a vault of trips, not a limit. Quick win.
- Medium term — proper trip browser. A shelf of your trips, sorted by date, with covers.
- Long term — seasons & groupings. "Summer 2026" or "Europe" folders you curate yourself.
- Shared accounts. A family or couple account where multiple people own the same trip vault.
Show what's shipped, what's active, what's next — and let early-access users know we're building in the open.
- Ship this exact page. Wire it into the site at /roadmap.
- Link it from the homepage footer. Quiet, always-available entry point.
- Keep it honest. Update it when things ship — not later.
A public page where anyone can drop a thought, question, or gripe. No login. No name required. Goes straight into our feedback file.
- One text field, big and friendly. Optional name, optional email for follow-up.
- Mood chips. One-tap emotional read on each piece of feedback.
- Goes to the vault, not a ticketing system. Every submission lands in our weekly review.
- We reply when it's real. Not auto-responders — actual follow-ups when something ships.
Got an idea or a gripe?
A lot of what you see above came from people sending us thoughts. Anonymous or signed — we read everything.
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