A Builder's Storybook

Neha S. Hussaini

A product builder in Chicago — 6+ years shipping mobile apps, web products, and AI software, idea to App Store.

Prologue

Before the apps

Long before the App Store, there was enterprise engineering. I spent years as a solution integrator and systems administrator — deploying VoIP and PBX systems on customer sites, wrangling WebSphere clusters, SSL certificates, and production support for Alcatel-Lucent, Costco, and Zimmer Biomet. It gave me a real full-stack foundation: hands-on across all three tiers of the architecture — the front end people touched, the application logic in the middle, and the databases and servers humming underneath. More than anything, it gave me the grounding to truly understand web architecture — how a whole system fits together — long before I built one of my own.

I studied Information Systems Management, graduated Summa Cum Laude, and picked up an Alcatel-Lucent “Talent of the Year” award along the way. But the itch was always to build my own things. So I taught myself to, and haven't stopped since.

The toolbox, gathered along the way

Swift / SwiftUIReact Native · ExpoNext.jsSupabase · PostgresAWS · CloudOpenAI · Vision AIAutomationApp Store · Play launch

The chapters

One shipped product at a time

Read it front to back — the oldest work first, the newest page last.

Chapter One·2019 → today

Falaah

The very first app — watch it grow up, frame by frame.

Every builder has a first. Mine was Falaah, a prayer companion I taught myself Swift to make — tracking daily Salah, missed prayers, Umri Qaza, and the rhythm of Ramadan. This chapter is its whole life story in four clips: the first spark of ideation, the little comic that pitched the idea, the humble 2019 build, and finally the app reborn in 2026 with everything I'd learned since. Same idea, grown all the way up.

The story, frame by frame

signal: The origin
stack: Swift · Core Data · Multithreading · Data Backup
where: Personal Project · 2019 → present

Open on the App Store

Chapter Two·2021 – 2024

GOX Labs

Wearables that watch over warehouse workers.

Then came the years inside a startup, building for people whose jobs are hard on the body. As a frontend developer on a Samsung Wear OS app, I pulled health signals from the Android Health SDK, wired in proprietary BLE pods, and built alerts that could see heat stress and falls coming before they happened. It went on to win recognition — my first taste of software that quietly keeps someone safe.

signal: Wearables · safety
stack: Wear OS · Android Health SDK · BLE · Real-time Monitoring
where: GOX Labs · 2021 – 2024

Watch the story

Chapter Three·2022 – 2023

Snaptract

From open-book exam hack to a real expense tracker.

Snaptract began as a small study hack — a way to digitize my handwritten notes for open-book exams. Later, filing travel expenses as a VoIP engineer, I realized the same idea could solve something far more common. Expense reporting quietly asks a lot of people: keep every receipt, match every amount, and produce proof whenever accounting asks — and a single missing slip can stall an entire reimbursement (the emails beside this are a couple I actually got). It struck me that the phone already in everyone's pocket could simply take care of it. So I built that: Snaptract captures a receipt, reads it, categorizes it, and keeps it safe until you need it. It shipped to the App Store with a subscription — the first product I carried all the way to paying users.

The email that started it — “Can you get a receipt showing actual payment for $287.62?” Don't misplace your receipts.

The 12-step expense policy Snaptract was built to survive: save every receipt, copy every receipt, match every amount — or your payment slips a week.

A live demo

signal: Receipts · expenses
stack: Swift · Microsoft Vision API · Core Data · StoreKit
where: Personal Project · 2022 – 2023

Open on the App Store

Chapter Four·2025 → present

Towly

Born from a quick errand that cost me my car.

Towly is personal. I ran into a store for a quick errand, and by the time I came out my car was gone — a spotter had it towed within minutes. Only afterward did I learn the spot was known for exactly this: a place where predatory towing quietly catches people just trying to get through their day. I didn't want anyone else to be blindsided the way I was. So I built Towly to give drivers a heads-up and a voice — document and report an unfair tow, see known hotspots on the map in real time, and add your report to a community database that looks out for the next person who parks there. A small app with a steady sense of fairness.

A live demo

signal: Maps · community
stack: SwiftUI · Core Data · Supabase · MapKit
where: Personal Project · 2025 → present

Open on the App Store

Chapter Five·2025

SixtySecond

A sixty-second reset, once a day.

A quieter chapter. SixtySecond is a private daily ritual — sixty seconds to reset with a voice note, a clip, or a line of writing. It pairs reflective journaling with gentle, intelligent insight so patterns surface on their own. Secure, multimedia, and unhurried: clarity, calm, and steady growth in a single minute.

signal: Journaling · calm
stack: React Native · Expo · Supabase · AI
where: Personal Project · 2025

Open on the App Store

Chapter Six·2025 – 2026

Trivia Phantom

Endless, fresh, AI-spun trivia.

Pure play. Trivia Phantom spins up smart quizzes across any subject — geography, science, whatever you're curious about — and every game is generated fresh. Make your own in seconds, no ads, clean design, just the fun. Proof that AI can make something light and delightful, not only serious.

signal: AI · trivia
stack: React Native · Expo · Supabase · AI
where: Personal Project · 2025 – 2026

Open on the App Store

Chapter Seven·2026 → present

LaunchShot

App Store screenshots that actually pass review.

Having shipped enough apps to know the pain, I built the tool I kept wishing for. LaunchShot generates App Store screenshots that follow Apple's guidelines — professional, compliant, and consistent — so the last mile before launch stops being a slog. A builder's tool, made by a builder who'd been burned.

A live demo

LaunchShot — compliant screenshots, fast

signal: SaaS · store tooling
stack: React · Supabase · SaaS
where: Personal Project · 2026 → present

Visit the site

Chapter Eight·2026 → present

GuideSight

An AI pair of eyes — the latest page.

This one is personal. I watched someone I love slip into retinopathy — and learned that some kinds of sight a prescription can never give back. When it's nerve damage, being short-sighted or long-sighted stops being the point; a new pair of glasses won't bring the world back into focus. What you need then isn't a stronger lens — it's a helper, something to make sense of what's around you when your own eyes no longer can. That's GuideSight: an AI vision companion for iOS that sees on your behalf and gently narrates the world, so no one has to feel lost in it alone. It's the most human thing I've built, and the reason the whole story was always heading here.

A live demo

signal: Vision AI · latest
stack: React Native · Expo · iOS · AI
where: Personal Project · 2026 → present

Open on the App Store

The End — for now

Write to the author

Have a product you want built — from first sketch through launch? Tell me the idea, the platform, and the timeline, and I'll reply with next steps. I work best with founders and small teams who want one builder in the room.