Hakan Deryal
crafted.works
Hakan Deryal
@crafted.works
Freelancer turned solo maker, after building 40+ products for clients. Been through some shit. Burned out. Lost everything. Started again. #buildinpublic
2 years of hell, countless lessons learned. But not giving up. Coming back stronger, wiser, with the right team this time.

New chapter begins! 🚀
January 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
First up: Building what I started with - an app for event organizers. Full circle moment.

Focusing on Turkish market with 3 products total.

Previous projects shelved until financially stable.
January 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
But finally turned corner!

Partnered with my best closer friend - he gets 30% of my company, I get 14% of his agency. Angel investor took 10%.

Perfect combo: I build, they sell. Back to where I'm good at, building.
January 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
My autistic brain is both gift and curse. Great at focusing, thinking, building. Terrible at finishing and shipping my own products.

10 years trying to put a buy button on internet, 2 years failing publicly.
January 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
The plan was perfect: build the product while doing the work manually, pay off debt, have ready customers with a proven product at the end.

Single point of failure: getting paid by the client.

And yeah, they delayed, and eventually cancelled.

Everything came crashing down.
January 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
April '24: Finally recovered. Found amazing idea & opportunity in AI marketing. Duct taped a demo together, validated with 30+ companies, 9 ready to buy when it's ready.

But needed funds to build.

Made risky all-or-nothing bet on a $35k deal with one of them that would've solved everything.
January 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Got beta customers, things looked promising. But I was running on fumes. Years of failures finally caught up - crashed hard.

Spent 4 months in depression, couldn't even open my IDE without physical pain.
January 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Mid-2023: AI boom hits. Tried raising $50k with innovative revenue-share model. Got good feedback but couldn't close enough investors. Managed to get a loan instead (turned out to be a bad idea).

Dove into building an AI website builder.
January 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Team disbanded, I was left holding the bag. Tried launching solo but burned out.

Back to freelancing, but the builder's itch wouldn't go away.

And fell into the classic trap: trying to both freelance and build products without much runway, failing at both.
January 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Dec '22: Wrapped up freelancing to dive into indie journey, started build digital events platform with 3 friends.

Market was hot, customers lined up. I went all-in, built 3 products in 2 months.

But others weren't committed - red flag I ignored. With a great cost...
January 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Quick intro: I'm a solo dev/designer/builder who's been freelancing for 20+ years, built 40+ products end-to-end for clients.

Leaving freelancing behind and earning a living from the products I've built is a lifelong dream of mine.

Now here's where the recent chapter begins:
January 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
So happy to finally see this. Best of luck!
January 24, 2025 at 8:32 PM
AI industry has 3 research areas right now

- Find more nails
- Transmute everything to nails
- Transmute hammer to anything (AGI)

It’s fun to watch 😀
December 25, 2024 at 5:34 AM
Even adults are having problems with that instant gratification offered my digital universes.

Kids have no chance against it.

All those moving things, colors, sounds, fun with little to no effort…
December 24, 2024 at 9:00 PM
Nope, subzero temperatures for the last few weeks.
December 21, 2024 at 2:44 PM
Ankara, Turkiye.
December 21, 2024 at 11:22 AM