Hi HN! I'm a software engineer (25+ years) building this as a side project for my own family.
The idea came from a notebook we pass around at the dinner table - kids draw, parents write, grandma adds her own notes. It became the most valuable thing in our house.
Inklings takes that idea digital (but not really): family members send handwritten notes and drawings to each other, everything delivers once in the morning like mail (no infinite feed), and at the end of the month it all gets compiled and printed into a physical book.
The core constraints are intentional:
* Family circles only, no public anything
* Handwritten/drawn input only — no typing
* Morning delivery, not real-time
* No ads, no algorithms, no strangers
Stack: Next.js, Neon Postgres, Drizzle, Vercel. Running a waitlist with a referral bump system right now.
Would love feedback on the concept, the landing page, or the business model. Is "slow family social network that makes physical books" too niche, or is that the point?
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