Štefan Toporcer · product designer

From idea to finished product.

I've been designing digital products since 2009. Today, with AI, I also build them myself, without a development team: small software tools for boring, bureaucratic problems, for local and global markets.

See the engines Why I do this

Engine room8 engines

Running 2Warming up 1Parked 4Stripped for parts 1

Engine room

Boring engines

Every project is an engine: a small automated machine for one boring problem. Some are running, some are warming up, others stand and wait their turn. This is the whole engine room.

Permit SignalRunning

59,721

events in the database

Liveupdated every day

New events by week

12,826facilities tracked

0AI tokens per customer

Poriadok.aiRunning

36regional public health offices in Slovakia

14regional hygiene stations in Czechia

3verified document types

Feed FactoryWarming up

44manufacturers in the research

8confirmations needed to go ahead

Engine status

8engines

Running2
Warming up1
Parked4
Stripped for parts1

How I build

DesignInterfaces and complete product flows in Figma
Vibe codingI write code with AI in Claude Code and Cursor
AutomationMake.com, Supabase and payments
LanguagesProducts in several languages from day one; this site has 11

Running: Live, working every day.Warming up: Built, or validating demand.Parked: Waiting until another engine proves demand.Stripped for parts: Taken apart, its parts reused.

Workshop operating rules

Why I build boring engines

I want to build my own income from my own products. Today I no longer need a development team for that, and I want to make the most of this opportunity. I do business both locally and globally: some engines solve problems in Slovakia and Czechia, others serve customers anywhere in the world. I start with small engines that tackle a clear problem at low cost. I learn something from each one, even the ones that fail, and work my way up to bigger, more complex projects. These are the rules I use to choose and build every engine.

Boring problems are the best problems.

Hygiene regulations, compliance records, product data stuck in Excel. Nobody enjoys this work, so few people do it properly. Companies are glad to pay for a fix, because the alternative is a fine, a lost distributor or a weekend with a spreadsheet.

An engine has to run without me.

I have 10 to 20 hours a week for this. So I only build things that run on their own: the data gets pulled, the document gets assembled, the alert goes out. One more customer must not mean one more hour of my time.

The number decides, not the mood.

My first projects didn't fail on technology. They failed because nobody got in touch. Now every engine has a number, set in advance, that decides whether it continues or stops. Feed Factory, for example, only continues if at least 8 of the 44 manufacturers in the research confirm the problem.

Design is an unfair advantage.

In industries that still run on PDF forms, a clear questionnaire and a well-typeset document are enough to put a product a class above the competition. This is where my years in design pay off the most.

Accuracy before speed.

When an engine produces a legal document, a mistake costs the customer, not me. So I check every mandatory point of a regulation word for word against the official text. I'd rather leave something unsupported than guess. Every document is checked by a person before it is sent, and in Slovakia it is also approved by the regional public health authority.

About

A designer who also builds his products

**Štefan Toporcer**Product designer · since 2009
Get in touch

I'm Štefan, most people call me Steve. I've worked in design since 2009: I started with graphic design, moved on to digital products for fintech and most recently designed for the Můj AGEL patient portal in healthcare.

Alongside design, I spent years in sales and tried running my own businesses several times. Some worked for a while, others not at all. B2B sales in Slovakia, Czechia and Cyprus taught me that a great product isn't about code, it's about a solved problem. And that someone has to want it and someone has to sell it.

Every idea ran into the same wall: without a development team, I couldn't build the product. With AI, I now can. That's how the boring engines started: small products I can build myself, meant to earn money.

I do vibe coding: I build products with AI tools like Claude Code and Cursor, from the interface through the database to payments, and I test and verify every output. The goal is clear: work my way up from small tools to my own app or software that solves a bigger problem.

Type: Product designer who builds
In service since: 2009
Languages: SK · CZ · EN
Markets: SK · CZ · CY · US · UK/IE
Team: led teams of up to 10
Tools: Figma · Claude Code · Cursor · Make.com · Supabase
Education: UX Design Institute; School of Applied Arts Prešov, graphic design
Based in: Slovakia

I design

Interfaces, design systems and complete product flows for healthcare, fintech and B2B tools. I know where people get stuck in a form and how to fix it.

I sell

B2B sales in three countries, including EdenHaus fleet management. Cold emails, follow-ups, negotiations.

I build

With Claude Code and Cursor I build complete products: data pipelines, Make.com automations, document generation and payments. No team, minimal budget.

Newest first

Logbook

Decisions, numbers and status changes. Including the ones that didn't work out.

Site

Launching this site: one place for all the engines and the reasons I build them.

Workshop

Consolidation. Out of nine ideas in motion, three keep running and the rest are parked. I have 10 to 20 hours a week for this, not a hundred.

Poriadok.ai

Every mandatory point of the regulation checked word for word against slov-lex.sk. Added every competent local authority: 36 in Slovakia, 14 in Czechia. Czech food service stays unsupported until its exact content is verified.

Feed Factory

Research ready: 44 small manufacturers in the UK, Ireland and Belgium, and an email with no offer, just a question.

Permit Signal

First outreach to companies in Texas. There are 147 companies on the list.

Permit Signal

getpermitsignal.com is live.

Permit Signal

First 30 real dossiers. Finding: the customers will be small operators, not big remediation firms.

Permit Signal

First data load: 58,000 events from 12,000 facilities in Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina.

Workshop

The “Three boring engines” plan: B2B models with near-zero capital that mostly run themselves once set up.

RealAI.sk

The first engine: a real estate listing rewriter, tested end to end from form to finished copy.

Contact

Got a boring problem?

Write to me if you need a product designer who also builds what he designs, if you have a boring problem that should run on its own, or if you'd like to be the first to try one of the engines.

Describe it in a short formA short form. I usually reply within two working days.

E-mail

toporcer.stefan@gmail.com

I reply in Slovak, Czech or English.