Priscilla Tina is a product manager from San Francisco – and used AI to build a postcard business in four hours.
This text is based on a conversation with Priscilla Tina, 28, a product manager from San Francisco. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
By day I work as a tech product manager in San Francisco. In the evenings I am a content creator. I make videos to encourage people to rediscover their creativity. I have always worked on small projects on the side. Side hustles, experiments – that’s part of it for me. And I love everything that is analog. Last November I sat down and built an app with Claude Code: It sends postcards – without stamps and without going to the post office.
Why analogue is suddenly exciting again
Many of us grew up with technology. Me too. At the same time, as a child I still had a lot of analogue things around me – and no smartphone. Today things look different. I feel like I live on my cell phone. We spend a lot of time scrolling mindlessly. Consume AI-generated content en masse. And you realize: It’s not really fulfilling. At the same time, it becomes clear: real encounters work better offline. And many are rediscovering the value of simple, analog moments.
The idea: Digital meets physical
I wanted to close exactly this gap – between the digital and physical world. I’ve been sending postcards to friends for years, especially when traveling. It’s fun and keeps you in touch. At some point I realized: I had a huge stack of postcards at home. But writing them was awkward. You have to buy stamps. Go to the post office. Find a mailbox. So I asked myself: Isn’t there an easier way?
An app in just four hours
I had registered for ProductCon in San Francisco and wanted to show a prototype there. So I built Postcard Press: an app that allows users to upload photos, write a message – and the rest is automatic. A service called Postgrid handles printing and shipping.
The evening before the conference I built the basic version. In four hours. It was running right on my phone. At the conference I showed the app to other product managers. Many immediately asked: “When will it be finished? I want to send postcards for Christmas.” That was a clear signal: there is demand.
I also posted a video on social media. Around 20,000 views. So I plan to finish the app by the end of the year. Over the next two months, I integrated payment functions and launched the product. Since launching in December, more than 100 postcards have been sent. Price per card: about two dollars. The cost: $0.82 for Postgrid, $0.30 for Stripe. There isn’t much profit left. I could switch to a subscription model. But that was never my point.
The biggest hurdles
I have a technical background, but I’m not a traditional developer. That’s why I got help from friends. Before the launch, they tried to “hack” my website. With success: One person was able to send ten postcards without paying. His feedback: “You have to fix this before you go live.”
This helped me close the security gaps. The topic of payments was also difficult. I didn’t know how to integrate Stripe or what the costs would be. A friend said, “You can do this in 30 minutes.” Another bet against it. I sat down – and actually built it in 30 minutes. Normally I would have needed a developer for this. Instead, I had Claude read all of the Stripe API documentation. The tool has the payment function integrated directly into the checkout.
This is just the beginning
Even if the project may not be a great success in the long term, the most important gain is what I learned. And it also brings in a little money on the side. In the meantime I’m already working on new ideas. One of them: Mini Print. Inspired by Polaroid walls at friends’ houses and in cafes. The app turns photos into small digital Polaroids. Users can use it to create their own picture wall – for example as a cell phone background.
I also built this app with Claude. There are already around 2,000 users. I love seeing friends share their walls. Many of my favorite analog experiences are just waiting to be reimagined digitally. That’s exactly what I’m continuing to work on right now.
Next on my list: nature and plants.
