WhatIsFresh.com (2009)

WhatIsFresh.com was a solo project I designed and developed because I wanted to understand more intuitively what went into designers and developers building and launching products. It was also a sandbox for exploring marketplace dynamics.

The site let users find anything at NY farmers markets by searching or browsing markets, vendors or products. A few weeks after launch, I cold-emailed the famed NY Times food reporter Florence Fabricant to show her the site. She replied that it was the best tool she'd seen for exactly what I had built it to do. And that's how my little side project ended up in the NYTimes!

But what happened before launch? I spent a lot of time at farmers markets with my macbook. I talked to so many people. Shoppers and vendors. As I built features, I would show people what I was working on and get feedback.

I'd sit with farmers at their stalls and help them add their products to our system. I iterated on a lot of features based on those interactions: systems to let vendors highlight "peak products", a UI to easily add lots of varieties of products, and a feature to post tweet-like announcements.

All that work paid off not just with the NYTimes writeup, but also with users. The site got over a million views, and for a while it was the go-to resource for New Yorkers who shopped at farmers markets, including a lot of famous chefs. Inspired by the vision, we also had some volunteer writers and photographers who contributed to a blog that featured deep-dives on markets, farmers, products and more.

After an initial fail with Flicktribe, WhatIsFresh gave me the confidence to know I could successfully build and launch products people wanted and used. That led to my next project, which turned into Craft Coffee →