I started a side project with my older brother called NanaGram.co that makes it easy to text message photos to a unique phone number, then once a month they get printed and shipped to your loved ones.
If you have kids, it makes a good holiday gift for the grandparents if you're stumped on what to get them.
I've since moved on from it, but my brother makes enough to work on NanaGram full-time now. It's also just been really cool to see the project grow over the years and bring happiness to thousands of grandparents all over the world.
Very cool! Always wondered how solo engineers deal with physical and shipping? I suppose there is some sort of API that allows prints and shipping on behalf?
I started with an API called Pwinty which turned out to be pretty expensive so I ended up basically recruiting a print shop partner based in the US.
I've actually been looking at releasing a 4"x6" photo printing API of my own since we've developed some pretty neat shipping tricks as well as the ability to print on both sides of the photos.
I was actually looking at it from a different business model perspective. There are some APIs that do both print and ship in various formats but there is definitely a markup on top. Aggregating printers that are digital enough is quite a challenge of its own though :)
NanaGram is awesome, used it for a while back in the olden days of 2021. When I visit my grandma she still has pictures on her refrigerator delivered by this service. Cheers to you and your brother!
If you have kids, it makes a good holiday gift for the grandparents if you're stumped on what to get them.
I've since moved on from it, but my brother makes enough to work on NanaGram full-time now. It's also just been really cool to see the project grow over the years and bring happiness to thousands of grandparents all over the world.