Picture this: It's 2023. I'm working with a client in Australia who wants to help students find study-friendly cafes.
The brief was clear: Build a platform where users can discover cafes with good wifi, quiet areas, and available outlets.
Two months later, I built exactly that. Clean code. Solid UX. Ready for launch.
Plot twist: As I write this, I just checked—the site is already down. 📉
I'd pour one out for it, but I'm already drinking coffee. At a cafe. That I found through trial and error because my app doesn't exist anymore.
The Pitch
Study Spot Cafe was supposed to solve a universal problem:
- Where can I work that has good wifi?
- Where won't they glare at me for nursing one coffee for 4 hours?
- WHERE ARE THE OUTLETS?!
The solution:
- Find cafes with good wifi, quiet areas, and available outlets
- Filter by "study-friendliness" score
- Include a cafe owner dashboard for analytics
- Basically Yelp but for laptop warriors
I was convinced it was solid work.
Narrator: The work was solid. The client just didn't renew hosting.
Did You Know?
Trivia: The average cafe visitor in Australia spends 2.5 hours per visit if they're working. But the average cafe only has 3 outlets per 20 seats. The math doesn't math. Somebody fights for that outlet spot every single day.
The Build
I went all in. This was going to be a showcase project. The one I'd screenshot for my portfolio. The one I'd casually mention in interviews.
Tech Stack:
- Next.js — For speed and SEO (because obviously)
- Strapi CMS — For cafe owners to manage listings
- NextAuth — User authentication
- Vercel — Deployment (free tier is a beautiful thing)
- Tailwind + ShadCN — Because I cannot design from scratch and I have made peace with this
I built:
- A search interface with filters (wifi speed, noise level, outlet availability)
- User reviews and ratings
- A "currently busy" indicator (my proud feature—real-time busyness tracking!)
- Analytics dashboard for cafe owners
In 6 weeks, it was live. Deployed. Working.
And I was PROUD. Like, showed-my-mom proud. She didn't understand what it did but she said it looked nice. 🥹
The Handover
When the project was complete, I turned over all the code to the client.
That's the nature of freelance work:
- You build it
- You hand it over
- You move on
- You check on it 6 months later like an ex checking Instagram
- It's gone
I got paid. They got the product. Clean transaction.
Did you know? Approximately 70% of freelance web projects are abandoned within 2 years of handover. Either the client pivots, the budget dries up, or someone forgets to pay the hosting bill. Your beautiful code becomes digital dust.
The Site Is Down Now
Here's the thing about client work: you don't always control what happens after handover.
Maybe they:
- Didn't want to pay for ongoing hosting (understandable)
- Pivoted to a different idea (happens)
- Just forgot about it (also happens)
- Decided cafes don't need tech solutions (valid)
I'll never know. And honestly? That's fine.
I've made peace with the fact that my beautiful "currently busy" indicator is now indicating nothing. On a server that doesn't exist. In the cloud that moved on.
RIP in peace, Study Spot Cafe. 🪦☕
The Lessons
Study Spot Cafe taught me more than any personal project could:
Client Work Is Not Your Work
Once you hand over the code, it's theirs. They can change it, break it, shut it down. Your emotional attachment is irrelevant. It's like sending your kid to college—they don't call, they don't write, and eventually you find out they changed majors to something weird.
Get Paid Before Handover
I learned to structure contracts: 50% upfront, 50% before code transfer. No exceptions. No "I'll pay you after launch." No "the check is in the mail."
Did you know? Freelancers who require upfront payments report 40% fewer payment issues. Shocking that getting money first prevents not getting money later.
Document Everything
I wrote extensive documentation for this project. Not for them—for myself. Future clients get the same approach. When this portfolio piece asks "why didn't you include a live link," I have RECEIPTS.
Screenshots Are Forever
I captured full-quality screenshots and recordings before handover. The site is down, but my portfolio still shows the work.
Pro tip: NEVER trust that the site will be there when you need to show it. Capture everything. The internet is not permanent, despite what your embarrassing tweets suggest.
Would I Build It Again?
The platform idea is still valid. Students still struggle to find good places to work.
But I'd approach it differently:
- Start hyper-local. One city. One neighborhood. Manually onboard 20 cafes. Don't try to solve global problems from your bedroom.
- Partner with a cafe. Co-own the problem with someone who has the audience and the coffee.
- Content-first. Build a TikTok following of "best cafe to study in [City]" before building the app. Distribution first, product second.
The Client Work Reality
Not every project you build will live forever.
Some get shut down. Some get rebranded. Some vanish without explanation.
And that's okay. The skills transfer. The portfolio screenshots remain. The lessons compound. The experience of "I built a real thing for a real client in a different timezone" sticks.
Study Spot Cafe is down.
But what I learned from building it is still running.
And somewhere in Melbourne, a student is still fighting for that one outlet by the window. Without my app. 😔☕
