I built a 3-hour audiobook streaming platform.  Part 1. Here's how i build it.

Here’s the twist though:
I’m not a designer. I’m not even a developer.
No bootcamp, no CS degree, no “I learned HTML when I was 12” story.

I Built an Audiobook Platform in 3 Hours… Here’s Why

Let’s be honest for a moment…

Most people don’t build because they overthink. They want it to be perfect, beautiful, VC-ready, viral on launch day. And then… they never published.

I’ve been that guy.

I’ve had 100 ideas sitting in Notion. Half-finished Figma files. Codebases with two commits and a README that says “coming soon.”

But one night, I just got tired of it. Tired of waiting for the “right” time. Tired of convincing myself I needed more resources, a team, a better plan.

So I said f*ck it…. 3 hours, no excuses. Let’s see what happens.

I wanted to fix a pain I felt daily… one that hit me in the face every time I tried to learn something while doing real life stuff.

I love books. But I don’t always have time to sit and read. And the audiobook world? Yeah, it’s a mess.

You either pay monthly for something you might not finish… or you dig through sketchy websites with 2008 UI’s that look like they’re held together with duct tape and pop-ups. haha.

Where’s the clean, free, easy “hit play and learn” experience?

So I built it.

No funding. No team. No pitch deck. Just me, 3 hours, and a simple goal: make listening to books feel like music streaming.

Click. Play. Done.

This wasn’t about building the next unicorn. It was about finally getting an idea out of my head and into people’s hands. And the moment it went live…. something shifted.

I’ll get to that in a sec. But first, let me show you what I actually built… and how.

I Didn’t Build Spotify. I Built Something That Works.

Let’s clear this up now… this isn’t some billion-dollar-looking platform with AI voice matching and VC buzzwords flying around. Nah.

This was built solo, in 3 hours, no caffeine-fueled hackathon hype, just quiet execution. haha.

I didn’t have a team. No “growth guy,” no “brand designer,” no “idea validation loop.” Just me, some code, and the will to ship something that wasn’t just another cool-looking placeholder. I deliver the prototype ready to be used.

What I built was a real, working audiobook streaming platform…

You click on a book, you hit play, and it actually plays. No 17-click setup. No “download our app to continue.”

Straight up: this thing is bare-bones on purpose.

It’s fast. It’s simple. And most importantly… it solves the one thing that everyone else overcomplicates: I want to listen to a book. Not beg a paywall for access.

I didn’t build it for investors. I built it for people like me: People who want to learn something while walking, cooking, zoning out on the train, or just escaping the noise for a minute.

And I didn’t need 3 months of strategy to realize this truth: Most platforms fail because they’re too busy trying to impress everyone.

I built mine to help someone. One person. One book. One play button. That’s it.

And guess what? It actually worked. Not perfectly. Not beautifully. But functionally. And that already puts it ahead of 99% of ideas sitting in people’s heads.

Next up?

Let me break down exactly what I built, the tools I used, and where I spent those 3 hours (hint: not writing docs).

Let’s go. →

I Didn’t Reinvent the Wheel. I Just Made It Actually Roll.

Here’s the idea: Stream audiobooks. Like Spotify. But without the mess. Or the paywalls.

That’s it. No downloads. No weird robot voices trying to sound human.

Just tap a book. Hit play. Start learning.

Why? Because I got tired of seeing audiobook platforms act like they’re doing us a favor by letting us listen to a damn book. Half of them feel like museum websites from 2006. The other half look shiny, but you can’t touch anything without dropping your credit card.

I didn’t want that.

I wanted something that respected your time and didn’t insult your brain.

So I built it to be:

• Free (because not everyone’s got Audible money every month)

• Fast (because no one wants to wait 7 seconds for a play button)

• Clean (because design is the experience)

And here’s the real kicker… you can listen and read at the same time if you want. Helps if you’re learning English. Helps if you’re tired. Helps if you just like seeing words hit your ears.

That’s it. No crazy features.

No algorithm. No “for you” section built to mine your soul. Just audio. Just stories. Just books. Working. Playing. Streaming.

Simple on the outside. Smart on the inside.

And that simplicity? It’s on purpose. Because people don’t want more features. They want something that just works.

And this? It does.

Next: I’ll show you exactly how I built it — from tools I used to where the hours really went (spoiler: it wasn’t on making pitch decks).

Ready? Let’s go →

2. Tools I Used (And Why I Don’t Care About “Best Practices”)

People love to flex their tech stack.

They’ll drop words like Next.js, Supabase, headless CMS, and act like that alone makes a product great.

Me? I used what worked. What was fast. What was already in my hands.

Here’s my entire setup:

• Odoo to run the platform

• Google Colab to make up for where Odoo falls short

• Canva for design (yes, Canva)

• And a brain that wanted to build instead of scroll

That’s it.

No fancy frontend framework. No cloud-native, serverless, containerized unicorn magic.

Just tools I actually know how to use…. stacked together to do one thing: 👉 Get the damn thing live.

Let’s break it down real quick:

🧩 Odoo

Yeah, it’s mostly known for ERP stuff… invoicing, CRM, blah blah. But I’m using it like a rebel: pushing it to behave like a modern streaming platform.

Why? Because it’s modular, open, and already has a structure I could hijack and flip into something new.

Is it perfect? Nope. Does it fight back sometimes? 100%. But it gave me just enough to build what I needed.

⚙️ Google Colab

Odoo has limits. I wanted automation. I wanted ways to manipulate data, run scripts, and handle stuff like audio syncing or subtitle formatting. Enter Colab.

It’s basically me whispering to Python in the cloud, asking it to do the dirty work. No setup. No servers. Just Google doing the heavy lifting while I test fast.

🎨 Canva

I know, I know. “Real designers use Figma.” Cool. You know what real builders use?

Whatever helps them ship faster.

I opened Canva, picked some type, cleaned it up, and moved on. No “design sprint.” Just vibes and instinct.

The takeaway?

Don’t let tools be the reason you’re stuck.

Don’t wait to “learn the right stack” or build in public until it’s perfect.

I built this with what I had.

And honestly, most people could too… if they dropped the obsession with doing things “the right way.”

You don’t need more tutorials.

You need to start.

Next, I’ll tell you where the real time went during those 3 hours… and what slowed me down way more than code ever did. Spoiler: it’s not what you think.

Let’s go →

What Took Me the Longest (Hint: It Wasn’t the Code)

People think building a product is all backend, logic, and clever features.

Nah.

For me?

The hardest part… the one that ate up most of those 3 hours… was making sure it looked good and actually felt like something you’d want to use.

Not just usable. But smooth. Clean. Easy on the eyes. Visually fun to scroll through.

Here’s the twist though:

I’m not a designer. I’m not even a developer.

No bootcamp, no CS degree, no “I learned HTML when I was 12” story.

I come from math and sales. Straight up. Spreadsheets, deadlines, conversations… that’s my zone.

So yeah, building something that looked and felt like a real streaming platform? It wasn’t just “drag and drop.” It was war.

Fonts, spacing, colors, shadows, button sizes, what shows first, what doesn’t… bro, I was in Canva and Odoo tweaking things pixel by pixel like I was defusing a bomb.

It’s easy to underestimate design… until you try doing it yourself. Because bad design breaks trust. Even if your platform works, if it looks janky? People bounce. Fast.

So I obsessed over: Keeping it simple but not boring

Making the interface speak instantly (no need to “figure it out”) Making sure nothing looked like it came out of a 2010 blog theme

Meanwhile, the backend?

That part was chill. Odoo handled the bones. Google Colab helped fill the gaps.

I wasn’t writing some genius-level algorithm. I was just connecting pieces that worked.

But making the site feel alive? That’s where most of my energy went. The hardest part wasn’t building. It was caring about the little things long enough to actually fix them.

And when you’re not a dev, not a designer, and not backed by a team… That sh*t hits different.

But here’s the thing:

Most people use “I’m not technical” as an excuse. I used it as fuel.

You don’t have to be a pro to make something clean.

You just have to care more than most people do.

And I did.

Next, I’ll tell you what this 3-hour build taught me faster than any course, class, or tutorial ever could.

And trust me… some of it might make you rethink how you work too.

Let’s keep going →