13-26 December 2025: Shipping the first build, heaps of learning and even more mistakes.

CaseCrest

This is the first inital dev blog in this series, there have been retroactive edits to make this into a more concise and easily read log.

This fortnight was about turning a rough idea into something workable. The starting point was simple: students needed an easier way to find case competitions and hosts needed a cleaner way to run them without stitching together forms, spreadsheets, emails and file drives.

Product

• Investigated the case competition landscape and clarified the early CaseCrest wedge.
• Started the managed backend, database schema and authentication work.
• Built and rebuilt early frontend/backend iterations while learning the stack.
• Added third-party auth and began wiring the frontend to real backend flows.
• Mapped the high-level architecture and first product roadmap for an end-to-end competition platform.

GTM and operating focus

The highest-leverage defaults became clear early: reach out to societies and organisations, keep shipping the product, and create guides/resources that help students and hosts even before every workflow is automated.

The early GTM thesis stayed intentionally direct. Start with university societies and student organisations, validate that they actually want help running competitions, then use those competitions to create more student-side demand.

Next

The next block is about finishing the first real MVP: shipping the frontend, wiring the backend, and proving that competitions, teams, submissions, judges and results can all live in one system.