How I'd build StorageAI
I'd reach for Next.js on the frontend, FastAPI on the backend, Postgres for the data layer, and Stripe for billing. Twilio handles SMS notifications and Resend handles outbound email. For the job queue, Bull on Redis handles scheduled delinquency notice generation. All of it runs on Railway. I'm estimating roughly 100-120 billable hours to get from zero to a working MVP that can acquire and retain a first customer. That's two to three weeks if I'm focused, maybe four if there are integration delays.
Day-by-day plan
Day 1: Provision auth schema, multi-tenant facility model, and the core tenant/unit/lease data structure in Postgres. Get sign-up and login working with a basic RBAC layer.
Day 2: Wire Stripe billing. Three pricing tiers (Starter, Professional, Enterprise), each with its own feature gates. Test webhooks locally first.
Days 3-4: Build the customer onboarding flow. Facility setup wizard that walks a non-technical operator through adding their facility name, address, timezone, and tenant count. No friction here.
Day 5: Tenant data import. CSV upload page that parses tenant contact info, lease start dates, and rent amounts. Validation is strict; bad rows get flagged, not silently dropped.
Days 6-7: AI-powered communication generation. Build a template system for delinquency notices and gate-access notifications. Claude generates state-specific language, but a human still reviews before we fire any notice.
Day 8: SMS and email delivery. Integrate Twilio for SMS, Resend for email. Webhook handlers log delivery status and bounce.
Day 9: Analytics dashboard. Occupancy, collected revenue, and a timeline of which notices fired and when.
Day 10: Compliance layer. State-specific legal templates and disclaimers. Operators confirm state and tier before generating a notice.
What's hard about this build
The legal minefield is the real blocker. One automated delinquency notice in the wrong state creates liability before you hit twenty customers. Self-storage lien law varies wildly state to state: notice timelines, required recipient lists, and when you can actually execute a lien differ. I'd need a lawyer to bless the templates before release. Integration is also messy. Tenant contact data lives in fragmented spreadsheets and legacy platforms. Import and sync will leak bad data at first; you need retry logic and manual override paths. Third, the sales problem. Sitelink, StorEdge, and DoorLoop already own the daily operator workflow and tenant relationship. Operators see StorageAI as a second UI to learn, not a better workflow. Churn will be fast if the value prop isn't crystal clear by month two.
What's fast because of AI
Claude scaffolds form validation, API endpoints, and data models in minutes, not hours. I'd have Postgres schemas and Stripe integration code 80 percent done via prompting. Test generation is huge: Claude writes integration tests for the entire billing flow, cutting manual QA time by half. Copywriting is faster too. Product UI microcopy, email templates, and onboarding guides all come from Claude prompts. Edge case enumeration saves days: I ask Claude to list all the ways delinquency calculations can fail across different lease types and payment schedules, then build guards around each one. Debugging integration issues with Twilio and Stripe webhooks is faster because Claude contextualizes error logs and suggests fixes. The part Claude can't do is the legal review and the sales calls, so that's where I need domain expertise on your end.
How I'd hand it off
I'd record a Loom walkthrough of the admin panel, the onboarding flow, and how to generate a notice safely. Runbook for common operations: adding a facility, inviting an operator, testing a notice in staging before live. Linear board with known issues, the compliance checklist, and the roadmap. You get database credentials, Stripe API keys, Twilio API keys, and Railway deployment access. I'd do a 30-day pager rotation so I'm on call for critical bugs. After that, it's your ops team's problem. Code is clean, tests pass, and deployment is one click via Railway.