You can build an app lying on your sofa (in 3 hours)

Hi, and welcome to The Atomic Builder!

This is where product managers, founders, and non-tech creators learn to master AI-powered software building.

This week is about starting tiny - and making it real. 3 hours. One idea. One live product.

I’m writing this lying on my sofa. Foot elevated. Slightly groggy from minor surgery.

In under 3 hours I built an app the day after I had a small operation.

No team.
No plan.
No “perfect conditions.”

It got me thinking…that’s what this is about. Not necessarily building the next great SaaS (more to come on that soon…), but potentially building micro apps, that solve a small but specific problem, for you.

🥗 What I built before lunch one Saturday

So, we’ve been here before. You’re creating a new Insta with aspirations of hitting 100K followers…but you look at your bio and it, well, it blows…I wanted to solve a very specific problem, so I built a social media bio generator.

Introducing…

Name: Social Bio
What it does: Generates engaging and catchy bios for your socials

Key features:

• 6 niches (Books, Fitness, Tech, Food, Travel, Beauty)

• 4 vibes (Professional, Humorous, Adventurous, Minimal)

• Goal targeting (Grow followers, Find clients, Just for fun)

• Smart keyword suggestions

• One-click copy and share

• Confetti celebration 🎉

Built for mobile, desktop, and everything in between. So why would you use it and how does it actually work…?

🟢 Why It Works

Everyone knows they need a great bio. Almost no one enjoys writing one.

That's where ‘Social Bio’ steps in.

You type a few keywords. Pick a vibe that feels right. And instead of staring at a blank page, you get three punchy, first-person bios you can actually use.

It can work for TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, X - anywhere you need a little spark.

And best of all? It’s fast. It’s playful. It makes bio creation feel a little less like homework... and a lot more like fun.

🛠️ How I Built It (and You Could Too)

Building anything is about starting simple. This app is the perfect example of a micro tool - it isn’t complex. But it solves a specific problem.

Lovable recently released a 2.0 version of their platform and I wanted to take it for a spin, following some mixed reactions online to it. That’s a polite, restrained articulation of the challenging rollout that it was (I have some experience in this space!)

Disclaimer: No companies prior or present were harmed during the deployment of said apps 🫠 

Anyway, I followed the below process for Social Bio. Keeping it simple:

My Build Process:

1. Create a simple landing page

2. Connect AI to generate bios

3. Add niche and vibe selection function

4. Layer in tiny delights (animations, confetti)

5. Keep it easy to use, mobile-first, and ready to ship!

🎭️ Behind the Scenes: Prompt Engineering in 5 Lines

The key to something like this being useful is getting a good prompt under the hood - so when you hit that button that calls AI (‘Generate Bio’ in this case) it does something special!

Originally, through sheer laziness, I told the AI something simple like:

The results were... okay, and I should have known better. But they felt generic, flat, and a little boring so i re-wrote the instructions:

What changed? The bios suddenly felt alive. Energetic. Playful. Specific.

Why it matters: The quality of your AI output = the clarity of your input.
Taking a little time to craft the right prompt will get you far.

🔖 You can just do things

So where does this leave us? It’s easy to find reasons to not do things. I’ll remind you of this tweet by Sam Altman from Dec last year.

3 hours. One idea. One live product. I took a small problem and created something to attempt solving it.

Look, I’m not suggesting that everyone should be building micro apps a day after minor surgery…(in hindsight the meds had not quite worn off…what was i thinking…) what I am trying to get across is, things are possible, and mostly in your hands!

You don’t need more time.
You don’t need the perfect idea.
You don’t need anyone’s permission.

You just need one tiny win, that helps you.
Then another.
Then another.

Even if you’re lying on the sofa with an ice pack on your foot!

🚢 Final Thoughts

What’s Your tiny ship? If you could build one imperfect thing this weekend... what would it be?

Hit reply and tell me. I’ll pick a few to reply to personally.

Let’s ship…tiny. 🚀

PS While Social Bio was a fun experiment - I don’t plan to keep it live for long (i feel like i’m spinning plates at the moment with the number of apps I have live…some of which you haven’t even seen yet…).

So play around, while you can. It will hit the deco graveyard at some point…! 🪦 

This Week’s Build Beats 🎵

Each issue, we pair the newsletter with a track to keep you inspired while you build.

This week, because AI building while healing takes a different kind of strength - I’m going with:

🎧 “ICU” – Coco Jones

Grab the playlist on Spotify - I add to it each week!