Two developers earned $87 from a React Native template launch before customer feedback forced a rebuild
Two developers spent a combined 180 hours building a React Native UI template priced at $29, launching it on a Tuesday and earning just $87 before four of five buyers requested refunds. A customer email bluntly pointed out that the template's auth screens were non-functional, all API data was hardcoded, and no backend was included, despite the landing page repeatedly using the word 'full-stack.' An internal audit confirmed that promised features — including Postgres migrations, Supabase Auth, file storage, AI integrations, and row-level security — were either absent or faked with placeholder code. The team used the audit as a rebuilding roadmap, subsequently shipping templates with real database migrations, working Supabase Auth, signed-URL file uploads, and proxied AI integrations. The post serves as a candid postmortem on the gap between marketing language and actual product delivery in developer tooling.
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