We built a travel journal app while working jobs we hate

Source: Dev.to

Hey Dev community 👋

We’re Sam and Max, two mates from the UK who’ve been building a side project called TripMemo for the past year while grinding through 9‑to‑5s we’re not exactly passionate about.

We wanted to share a bit about what we built and what we learned along the way.

The problem we were scratching

We both love travelling, but we kept having the same annoying realisation:

• After amazing trips we take hundreds of photos, but they sit in our camera rolls forever.
• We forget the name of that restaurant, and the details fade.
• A year later someone asks, “How was Japan?” and we can only say “It was great” with zero actual memories to share.

What we built

TripMemo turns trips into TripBooks, digital travel journals that combine photos, notes, and a map of everywhere you went.

Key features

• Real‑time collaboration so couples and groups can add to the same TripBook simultaneously.
• Fully offline‑first operation, essential when you’re travelling with no signal.
• Polaroid‑style layouts that feel like a physical scrapbook, not another social feed.
• Automatic daily organisation: dump your photos in and they’re sorted chronologically.

Tech stack

• React Native – single codebase for iOS and Android.
• Supabase – backend with real‑time collaboration features.
• MapLibre – open‑source maps.
• Cloud storage with an offline‑first architecture (the biggest technical challenge: syncing data and handling conflicts when users come back online).

Lessons from building while employed

Protect your energy

We only work on TripMemo when we actually want to. Forcing it after a draining work day produces low‑quality code and kills motivation.

Ship ugly, then iterate

Our first version looked awful, but it worked. Getting something real in our hands (and our friends’ hands) taught us more than months of planning would have.

The boring stuff matters

We spent way too long on features and not enough on onboarding, App Store screenshots, and landing‑page copy. Nobody uses your cool features if they bounce in the first 30 seconds.

Side projects over side hustles

We didn’t build this to get rich. We built it because we genuinely wanted it to exist. That mindset keeps you going when motivation dips.

What’s next

We’re still building, still employed (for now). The dream is eventually doing this full‑time, but we’re not rushing it.

If you’re curious, check it out:

Happy to answer any questions about the build, the tech choices, or the general experience of building something meaningful in your spare time.

Cheers,
Sam & Max