I have an Instagram. I have X. I have LinkedIn. So why am I spending time building a website from scratch when I could just keep posting on platforms that already have the audience?
Because none of them are mine.
Instagram can change the algorithm tomorrow. X can suspend you for something you said three years ago. LinkedIn is a resume with a comment section. None of these platforms let me tell my story the way I want to tell it. They let me rent attention. I want to own it.
The Real Reason
I run Istry. I'm deep in the day-to-day at SuperPlus. I'm building Kemi. I shoot with a Sony A7IV, fly a DJI drone, and 3D print things on my BambuLab at 2 AM. I design in Figma. I code in Next.js. I eat everything.
None of that fits in a bio. None of it fits in 280 characters. And honestly, I was getting tired of introducing myself differently depending on which platform I was on. On Instagram I'm a food guy. On LinkedIn I'm an entrepreneur. On X I'm a tech person.
I'm all of those things. I needed one place where that was obvious.
Why Build It Myself?
I could have used Squarespace. I could have used Framer. I could have hired someone.
But I'm a builder. The whole point of this site is that I make things. So I made the thing. It's built on Next.js and Tailwind, hosted on Vercel, and every line of code is mine. That matters to me. Not because I think everyone should code their own website — but because for me, the process of building it is the point.
I learned things building this site that I'll use in Kemi. I solved design problems that sharpened my eye. I made typography decisions at 1 AM that I'm weirdly proud of. This is how I work — everything feeds into everything else.
What You'll Find Here
This site is my home on the internet. Here's what I'm putting on it:
- Ventures — every business I'm involved in, with the real story behind each one
- Journal — what I'm building, learning, cooking, and thinking about
- Gallery — photos from my camera, my drone, and my life
- About — who I actually am, not the LinkedIn version
I'm not trying to be an influencer. I'm not trying to monetize a newsletter. I just want a place on the internet that's mine, that represents all of me, and that I can point people to when they ask "so what do you do?"
The answer is: a lot. And now there's a URL for it.
This is the first post on this site. More coming. If you want to follow along, you know where to find me.