Updates

There’s a special kind of chaos that happens when you’re building solo. You’re the CEO making strategic calls, the developer shipping features, and—somewhere in the messy middle—you’re supposed to be managing a backlog.

Today I did something I’ve been avoiding: I actually looked at that backlog.

The Backlog Truth

Here’s what solo development really looks like: you move fast, you ship things, and somewhere along the way you accumulate a mental list of “things I should probably do someday.” That list grows. It haunts you. But you never actually organize it because you’re too busy building.

I’ve spent the morning wandering through Hong Sun Si Temple (鳳山寺, Phoenix Mountain Temple) in Penang, and I can’t stop thinking about the people who built this place.

Not the architecture—though it’s beautiful. Not the historic designation—though it absolutely deserves one. What’s captured my heart is the story of who these people were and why they came together.

The Coconut Grove Community

Picture this: It’s 1805. George Town is barely a decade old, still rough around the edges. And out in the coconut plantations, far from the merchant houses and trading posts, there are Hokkien farmers from three different districts of Quanzhou (泉州, “Spring Prefecture”)—Nan’an (南安), Yongchun (永春), and Anxi (安溪).

We just completed a major infrastructure upgrade: migrating from separate repositories to a unified monorepo structure.

Dark mode is live across the entire Brandmine platform.

Automatic Theme Switching

We respect your system preferences:

• macOS/iOS: Settings → Display & Brightness → Dark
• Windows: Settings → Personalization → Colors → Dark
• Android: Settings → Display → Dark theme

The site automatically adapts. No manual toggle needed.

What We Optimized

Semantic Color System

• ✅ All colors use CSS variables (--bg-primary, --text-primary)
• ✅ Automatic switching based on prefers-color-scheme
• ✅ Brand teal adjusts from #38B2AC (light) to #4FD1C5 (dark)

Contrast Validation

• ✅ All text meets WCAG AA standards in both modes
• ✅ Light mode teal: Only for backgrounds (fails as text)
• ✅ Dark mode teal: Passes all tests (10.04:1 contrast ratio)

Component Coverage

• ✅ All 50+ components support dark mode
• ✅ Forms, modals, cards, navigation—everything
• ✅ Edge cases: loading states, validation, empty states

Why Automatic?

User research: Most people want dark mode to match their system preferences. Adding a manual toggle creates friction (where should we store the preference? cookies? localStorage? what’s the default?).

When building Brandmine, we needed a database that wouldn’t slow us down. After evaluating several options, we chose Supabase—and 3 months in, it’s proven to be one of our best technical decisions.

Mobile navigation just got better. We’ve added a persistent bottom navigation bar for mobile and tablet users.

What Changed

Before

• Top-only navigation (requires scrolling up to switch pages)
• Hamburger menu for secondary navigation
• Harder to jump between sections while browsing

After

• Bottom nav bar always visible (thumb-friendly)
• Quick access to Brands, Founders, Insights, Markets
• 44px touch targets (iOS Human Interface Guidelines)
• Automatic hide on scroll down (more reading space)
• Reappears on scroll up (always accessible)

Why Bottom Navigation?

Thumb zone optimization: On phones 5.5" and larger, the bottom third of the screen is the easiest area to reach with one hand.

Brandmine is now a Progressive Web App (PWA)—for both our public site and our internal Hub.

What’s a PWA?

Think of it as a website that works like a native app:

• 📱 Install to home screen (iOS, Android, desktop)
• 🚀 Faster load times (cached assets)
• 📡 Works offline (basic browsing without internet)
• 🔔 Push notifications (coming soon)

How to Install

Mobile (iOS/Android)

1. Visit brandmine.ai in Safari or Chrome
2. Tap the share button
3. Select “Add to Home Screen”
4. Tap “Add”

Desktop (Chrome/Edge)

1. Visit brandmine.ai
2. Look for the install icon in the address bar
3. Click “Install”

Hub (Internal Team)

Same process for hub.brandmine.ai—install it for quick access to contact management, deals, and brand research.

Accessibility isn’t an afterthought—it’s a core value. This week, we implemented Lighthouse CI to continuously monitor our site’s accessibility, performance, and SEO.

What We Fixed

Keyboard Navigation

• ✅ All interactive elements now accessible via keyboard
• ✅ Skip-to-content links for screen reader users
• ✅ Visible focus indicators throughout the site

Heading Hierarchy

• ✅ Fixed all heading progression issues (H1 → H2 → H3)
• ✅ Screen readers can now navigate page structure correctly
• ✅ Improved content organization across all pages

Color Contrast

• ✅ All text meets WCAG AA standards (4.5:1 minimum contrast)
• ✅ Dimension tags updated for better readability
• ✅ Interactive elements have sufficient contrast in all states

Colorblind-Friendly Design

• ✅ Timeline uses blue-based spectrum (no red-green combinations)
• ✅ All color coding includes redundant visual cues
• ✅ Accessible to users with deuteranopia, protanopia, and tritanopia

Continuous Monitoring

We’ve integrated Lighthouse CI into our development workflow. Every deployment now runs automated accessibility audits to ensure we maintain these standards.

We’ve officially migrated from brandmine.io to brandmine.ai.

Why the Change?

The .ai domain better represents our commitment to using advanced technology to surface hidden brands. As we build tools to illuminate exceptional founder-led businesses from the Global South, our domain should reflect that mission.

What This Means for You

All links have been redirected automatically. If you’ve bookmarked the site, update your bookmarks to:

• Main site: https://brandmine.ai
• Hub (internal): https://hub.brandmine.ai

Looking Ahead

This is the first step in a broader platform evolution. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue building tools to connect exceptional brands with the people, partners, and capital they need to grow.