trolls.dev has one rule that shapes everything else: we only build products we run ourselves. No client work, no agency projects, no “ship v1 and hand over the keys.” If it has our name on it, we’re the ones carrying the pager.
This sounds like a business-model choice. It’s really a quality mechanism.
Handoffs hide the truth
When you build software for someone else, the project has a finish line: the handoff. And finish lines change behavior. Corners that won’t be visible at delivery get cut. Edge cases become “known issues.” The demo path gets polished while the paths real users take on a Tuesday get whatever time is left.
None of this requires bad intentions — it’s just what happens when the people who build a thing will never have to live with it. The feedback loop is severed exactly where it matters most: after real users show up.
Operating is where the learning is
Running a product teaches you things no spec review ever will. Which features people actually touch. Which “quick” flows have a step everyone stumbles on. What breaks when a link gets shared somewhere unexpected. The emails from real users — we read every one — are worth more than any amount of upfront research, but you only get them if you stick around after launch.
A launch isn’t the end of the project. It’s the start of the part where you find out if you were right.
It forces honest scope
Knowing we’ll operate whatever we ship is the best scope-control mechanism we’ve found. Every feature is a permanent commitment: something to monitor, patch, explain, and keep working for as long as the product lives. That math makes you ruthless about what earns its way in — and it’s a big part of why our products stay small on purpose.
Long-haul software
The quiet crisis in consumer software is trust: tools get acquired, redesigned into ad platforms, or abandoned. The fix isn’t a promise on a landing page — it’s an incentive structure. Ours is simple: we’re tiny, we’re not chasing a flip, and our products are things we wanted for ourselves. DReader stays ad-free because we’re its heaviest users. ganttchart.ai stays fast and simple because we make our own timelines with it.
Build only what you run, and you can’t help but build things meant to last. It’s a small rule. Like everything else around here, that’s the point.