From Technical Dependency to Founder Freedom in 90 Minutes
By Brad Hart - Founder of Optimus
Copyright 2025 All Rights Reserved
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Apply to Work With UsI started out like a lot of people — tinkering with AI tools, building workflows, trying to solve problems on my own. It's been called vibe coding — that flow state where you're in the zone, ideas are firing, and you're building cool shit just for the fun of it.
But I quickly realized something was missing: people.
Everyone's talking about how "the billion-dollar businesses of the future will be built from a basement by a single founder." And sure — that might be technically true. But honestly? That sounds lonely, boring, and shitty.
I'd rather build cool stuff with my friends.
That's where Tribe Coding™ comes in.
It's the evolution of vibe coding — taking that creative spark and turning it into something collaborative, feedback-driven, and way more fun. Whether you're with family, friends, or a mastermind crew, Tribe Coding is about testing, improving, and building together — with real-time support and shared momentum.
Your vibe attracts your tribe. And together, you build better.
When I was 4, I had a Tandy computer that plugged into our TV. Copied BASIC code from a manual to build a game: two clowns, trampoline, balloons. Then my Dad and I discovered the glitch - put the trampoline in exactly the right place at the right time, unplug the controller mid-bounce, game keeps playing. Points climbing. 10,000... 100,000... 1 million... rolling to zero.
We would watch it run overnight.
That was my first 'infinite money glitch'.
Life happened. Mom and dad split up, mom left. No money for computers. By the time I had another computer, at 16, I had different priorities. Missed the dot-com boom. Zuckerberg is my age - he's the 3rd richest person in the world.
Now I'm 40. And I'm back.
This time it's real money accumulating while I sleep. Instead of BASIC from a manual, it's AI and cloud infrastructure. Same principle: Build the system. Let it run. Watch the numbers climb.
And above all: Help a lot of people, make a lot of money, have a lot of fun.
Textbook Approach: Study Spanish for 2 years, still can't order coffee
Immersion Approach: Land with a local guide, order coffee day one
ProTip 1: Always make ANY AI give you confidence scores (required in the system prompt) and be sure to question all important decisions before committing - measure twice, cut once. When in doubt, chunk it down.
ProTip 2: Make use of Artifacts (like Canvas in Claude) - this is the right hand side window that pops up when it writes copy, emails, code etc - that allows you to easily find stuff later by just going to the artifacts menu in the sidebar, and lets Claude make minor edits instead of major rewrites for simple stuff. Saves you tokens and brain damage.
HTML = Your menu board (what customers see) - this is a lightweight, responsive, easy to read coding language that tells the computer what to display on the screen when customers visit your website or app.
API = Your suppliers (Apollo for leads, Stripe for payments, etc) - this is simply an interface to connect apps and softwares together and send information back and forth. Typically these cost money, but a lot of them have generous free tiers and you only pay for what you use.
Workers = Your employees (work 24/7 in background) - this is what Cloudflare uses to handle tasks that require more than just a simple call and response.
KV Storage = Your filing cabinet (remembers user data) - this is just memory of important stuff that can be called back later.
Cloudflare is a service that handles all of this for you and Claude can help you talk with it in its native language - you build the code together and deploy. They give you so much room to run for free or at cost, it's crazy. They offer domain registration at cost ($8/year) and redundant global hosting, DDoS protection and more for free, and you can be live with your site or app instantaneously across the entire internet in a couple minutes.
All without ever leaving their service.
That's it. Four concepts, one platform that houses them and one local guide to empower you so you can start building. Everything else is details.
⚠️ IMPORTANT SECURITY 101: NEVER put API keys (like a password to access the API) in frontend code - use environment variables or Workers - you can always ask Claude to run a security audit and escalate to someone who knows if you're not sure.
In plain English - if you give people access to your API keys, it's like giving them access to your wallet, ok if there are limits in place, but if you get a bad actor they can cause a lot of havoc. When in doubt, log into the service and rotate or delete keys, so there's no chance of abuse.
Now let's build something already!!
Watch my screen. I'm going to:
Total time: 90 seconds from code to live site.
Now we'll do it together. Everyone:
Helpers are walking around - raise your hand if stuck. First 3 people live get a high-five.
Now create your own:
Show off the cool thing you just built!
(Fill in highlighted parts and paste into Claude)
I need a professional landing page deployed on Cloudflare Pages.
Build a simple lead generation tool for Cloudflare Pages.
Create a tool that calls an external API and displays results nicely.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are on Windows, there is a known bug on Windows right now that doesn't let it play nice with Cloudflare Wrangler. We created a comprehensive debugging guide here, but it's still a pain in the butt. Might be best to wait until it's fixed for the sake of time right now, just use Method 1 below.
We're going to learn BOTH methods, but start with the easier one first.
METHOD 1: Cloudflare Dashboard (Clicks Only)
Best for: First-timers who want to see it work before learning Terminal
METHOD 2: Terminal (Faster - Once You Know It)
Best for: Repeat deployments and rapid iterations
IMPORTANT: Think in Projects, Not Files
Before we start, understand this: You're not just creating files, you're creating projects.
A project is a folder that contains your website files. Even if you only have one file (index.html), it lives inside a project folder.
Why this matters:
For today: Every site you build = One folder on your Desktop with index.html inside
my-first-site (no spaces, use dashes)index.html INSIDE your project folder (Desktop/my-first-site/index.html)dash.cloudflare.commy-first-site (match your folder name)https://my-first-site.pages.devTerminal is the text-based interface to talk to your computer. It existed before there were mice, and was the original way to control computers before the PC boom. Instead of clicking through Finder or apps, you type commands directly. It's a LOT faster once you know what you're doing, but for today you're literally just copy/pasting a few lines. If you can text, you can use Terminal.
Open Terminal (⌘ + Space, type "terminal", press Enter)
Copy/paste these 3 lines ONE AT A TIME and hit Enter after each:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"npm install -g wranglerwrangler loginWhat just happened?
✅ You're done with setup forever on this computer
my-second-site (or whatever you want, no spaces)index.html inside your project folderOpen Terminal and type these two commands (replace my-second-site with your actual project folder name):
cd ~/Desktop/my-second-sitenpx wrangler pages deploy . --project-name=my-second-siteWhat just happened?
cd = "change directory" - you moved into your project foldernpx wrangler pages deploy = deploy everything in this folder to Cloudflare. means "everything in the current folder"--project-name= tells Cloudflare what to call your sitehttps://my-second-site.pages.devindex.html in your project foldercd ~/Desktop/my-second-site
npx wrangler pages deploy . --project-name=my-second-site| Method | Speed | Difficulty | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dashboard | 🐢 2 mins | Easy | First site, learning the flow |
| Terminal | ⚡️ 15 secs | Copy/paste | Updates, iteration, speed |
Brad's Take:
Start with the Cloudflare Dashboard to see how it works and build confidence. Once you've deployed one site and seen it live, try the Terminal method on your second site. Terminal feels scary but it's literally just copy/pasting two lines - and it's 8x faster once you get the hang of it.
The pros use Terminal because when you're making 20 updates to a site, clicking through the dashboard gets old fast.
.html (not .html.txt)?.txt if presentcd ~/Desktop/your-project-name first--project-name=my-second-site-v2sudo before the command (you'll type your Mac password)sudo npm install -g wranglerDrag project folder → Name it → Click deploy
cd ~/Desktop/your-project-name
npx wrangler pages deploy . --project-name=your-project-nameRemember: Project name = Folder name = URL name. Keep them the same to avoid confusion.
The goal: Get comfortable thinking in PROJECTS, not just files. Every website or tool you build is a project with its own folder. This is how you'll scale from 1 site to 10 to 100. 🚀
BONUS: Here is a simple system prompt for "Tribe Coding" Claude Sessions (insert this in settings → profile)
yourdomain.com| Total Time | 60 seconds |
|---|---|
| Total Cost | $8/year |
| Hosting Cost | $0 forever |
Remember: That infinite money glitch from 1989? You're building the 2024 version. Let it run. Watch it grow.
Paste everything into Claude with:
Claude will explain what broke and how to fix it.
Don't like Claude's choices? Just say what you want:
Pro tip: Keep everything in one artifact so Claude can make small fixes without rewriting everything.
When you deploy code to Cloudflare Workers, you lose the immediate console.log visibility you have in local development. wrangler tail solves this by streaming live logs from your production worker directly to your terminal.
# Start monitoring your live worker
npx wrangler tail
# Or for a specific environment
npx wrangler tail --env productionCmd+T (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+T (Linux) to open a new tabKeep one tab for monitoring (wrangler tail) and another for deployments (wrangler deploy).
console.log() statements in your worker codewrangler tail, not for your usersThis real-time visibility is crucial when debugging production issues without affecting your users. You can easily copy paste or screenshot what's going on, feed it back to claude with your notes and debug in real time.
When you start recognizing patterns:
Remember: You literally cannot permanently break anything. Every mistake is reversible with ⌘+Z or your backup.
Be specific about what you want. Claude reads your mind about as well as your spouse does. The clearer you are, the better the result.
Errors aren't failures - they're free education
BONUS: Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for Tribe Coding so you can go 3x faster than hunt and peck typing.
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