Build Story · Portfolio site · EN
d9.army: a portfolio you can click into
Ilian Raykov's studio site: a wall of real products, a News Room, a video studio, a skills pack and a way to book a call.
In one look
The problem
A founder who ships many small products needs one place that shows them working. A deck of screenshots proves little, and a list of links goes stale.
What we built
d9.army puts the products on one wall, each card a link to the live site, and its hero zooms through real product screens. Around the wall sit a News Room, a video studio page, a skills pack and a booking page.
Where it is now
Live at d9.army: 46 products on the wall, a studio page with three priced film packages, a pack page and 30-minute call booking. The News Room page is up; its first notes are still in review.
What this would have cost in 2024
About $15k and 6–10 weeks
2024 team: 3 people: full-stack web developer, designer, part-time QA. Built here by one founder working with AI in 26 working days over 20 weeks.
| Piece | 2024 hours |
|---|---|
| Portfolio site: product wall, project pages, likes, sitemap, structured data, RSS | ~88 |
| Private admin: sign-in allowlist, visibility, categories, inquiry inbox, card-image refresh | ~63 |
| Hero rounds: 3D carousels, power-on wall, nested product zoom in a browser window, phone timer | ~73 |
| Video studio page: packages, selected films, quote requests | ~21 |
| Operator Pack: page, checkout, signed-link delivery, purchase email | ~37 |
| News Room: feed service, leak guard with tests, commit collector, review page, /news | ~53 |
| Booking: calendar availability, holiday filter, Meet invites, limits, tests | ~29 |
| Card-image set, search and AI-readability pass, legal pages, security pass, QA | ~42 |
| Total (PERT) | ~406 |
Method: PERT (O+4M+P)/6 per piece; low = O × $25, likely = PERT × $37.5, high = P × $50 (Accelerance 2024 Eastern-Europe band). These are estimates of what a team would have needed in 2024, not invoices.
How it was built
From first commit to current build in 26 working days over 20 weeks
- First commit: a 3D carousel
It started as My Showcase Carousel: project cards on a 3D ring, with a private admin to choose which projects show.
323 commits, mostly automatic saves, in the first three days - Project pages and inquiries
An editorial redesign, a full page per project, an inquiry form with a private inbox, a sitemap, structured data and an RSS feed.
- Real screenshots
The cards switched to real product screenshots. A security pass followed over the summer.
19 product screenshots captured - From carousel to product wall
The homepage became a grid of the products, with likes and spotlights. Card images could refresh from each product's own share image, and the site got its D9 logo.
- One approved image per card
Card images now come from one approved set and carry the product's name and a slogan. Four newer products joined the wall.
39 cards, all with images - A landing, a studio and a pack
The homepage became a landing over the work grid: the problem, three steps from one call to something live, and a FAQ. A video studio page shows selected films and three packages. A pack page presents 15 cleaned Claude skills, with checkout and an emailed download link built in.
3 packages: €790, €2,400, €4,500 - Readable by search engines and AI assistants
An llms.txt file, privacy and terms pages, structured data that lists the products, and cards that link out cleanly so each product can see where its visitors came from.
llms.txt, privacy and terms: 404 → 200 - The News Room
Weekly notes on what changed across the public products, written from real merged commits. A leak guard checks each note twice and fails closed, and nothing goes out without the founder's approval.
a batch of 25 notes staged for review - A hero made of real products
An ink-fractal hero shipped and was pulled the same day as too abstract. Its replacement zooms through real product screens, each nested in the last, inside a browser window beside the copy. Phones get a pausable timer.
checked live at 1440×900 and 390 px wide - Book a call
A booking page for 30-minute Google Meet calls: weekdays 10:00–18:00 Sofia time, 12 hours' notice, Bulgarian public holidays blocked, up to 21 days ahead.
5 unit tests on the availability rules
Who did what
The founder decided
- Visuals show real products: abstract hero concepts were built, then dropped.
- The headline and calls to action stay still in the left third; the products zoom on the right.
- Card images come from one approved set, each with the product's name and a slogan.
- No news note goes public without passing a leak guard and the founder's approval.
- The pack arrives as an emailed link that expires after 24 hours, not a public download.
AI built and checked
- The site, built in Lovable from the founder's briefs: the wall, the admin, the studio, pack and booking pages.
- Claude Code: the hero rounds, the News Room with its feed service and leak guard, the search and AI-readability pass, and the live checks on its releases.
- AI-generated reference images to choose between hero concepts.
Stack
Want something like this for your team?
From one call to something live. The same method is in the Claude Operator Pack.
From the founder
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