Day 12 — Do well by doing good

Nando Rama · Saturday at 2:23 AM

Me> Let’s wire up Stripe so managers bring their own merchant account; we skim a tiny, grandma-safe platform fee, and bake T&C consent into checkout—visible, not buried.

AI> Wow—you’re on a roll, Nando. I’ve tightened the plan; nudge any line and we’ll start shipping.

Day 12 — Do well by doing good

Before today, running a Squares game meant the host had the least fun.
You know the dance: spreadsheets and DMs, “Which square is mine?”, “Did you get my payment?”, “When are numbers drawn?”, “Who pays who?” Then the fourth-quarter scramble to calculate winners, move money, and explain the rules—again. The person trying to make game day more fun becomes the unofficial accountant, referee, and customer-support desk.

Today we fixed the two biggest hassles: collecting money and proving who paid.

Before vs. After

Before

Players call dibs in a chat; the grid drifts out of date.
Payments arrive in five different apps with six different emojis.
Host manually marks “paid,” chases stragglers, and prays the math adds up.

After (what we shipped today)

Manager links their own Stripe account.
Players pick a square → pay → get marked “paid” automatically, all in one flow.
The app keeps a clean ledger; the host keeps their sanity.
I take a tiny per-transaction platform fee (low enough not to scare anyone), and the money itself goes straight to the manager.

It’s the old motto: do well by doing good. Make the host’s life easier, and the whole party gets better.

Why “bring your own Stripe”?

Control and clarity. The manager is the merchant of record; funds land in their Stripe right away. I’m not holding prize money or sitting in the middle—I’m just orchestrating a smoother path from “I want that square” to “Paid.” That single decision removes a ton of compliance and reduces support emails to “How do I link Stripe?” (Answer: one button.)

Prize mode on the horizon

This ties directly into the next unlock: Prize mode.
Once payments are clean and verified, fulfilling prizes stops being a spreadsheet ritual and starts becoming a button press. Winners can be confirmed by the app; payouts can be structured; confusion disappears. That’s when the game starts to feel…professional.

How we work (still vibing)

The rhythm is the same every day:

A spark (“What if we just let managers bring Stripe?”)
A quick vibe-storm with AI
An implementation outline
Build the smallest thing that changes reality

I’m learning Stripe as I go—dashboards, settings, the boring bits—because I’ll need those instincts when real users arrive. Vibe now, understand deeply later. If we hit our two-month goal and go commercial, I’ll be ready.

What’s next

Tomorrow: wire up Prize mode—the skeleton first, the polish later.
Make the host’s job lighter, make game day smoother, and keep shipping while the idea’s hot.

Short version: We turned “host-as-accountant” into tap → pay → play. Fun leads again.

About this journey
I’m a former embedded coder who left Lockheed in the mid-1990s and haven’t seriously coded since. Beyond reading about today’s platforms, I came into this project knowing nothing about React, Next.js, Firebase, Vercel, or modern web app infrastructure. My goal is to have ChatGPT handle 99% of the coding while I guide the design, test the app, and provide feedback. What you’re reading is a day-by-day journal of building “Squares” — a commercial-ready sports squares app — with AI as my development partner.

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Day 12 — Do well by doing good

Nando Rama

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