# mintel.me relaunch concept: freelance engineer site

Scope: this website, plus the videos made from it (`apps/video`, see section 6). Goal: a visitor understands
what I sell within 10 seconds and writes an email within 2 minutes. Low sales overhead, more bookable hours.

Status note: sections 3 to 6 describe the site as built. Sections 2 and 9 are kept as history and are marked as such.

## 1. Positioning

**The senior developer who builds web apps and websites that keep working.**

"Senior developer for web apps, interfaces and websites. You talk to me directly, you see progress every week, and what I build holds up when it grows."

### Copy rules for everything a client can read (owner decision)

- **Never mention AI as my own tool.** How I work is none of the client's business: no "AI-built", "AI-accelerated", "AI-code rescue", no FAQ about AI tools. The one exception is the automation service, where AI steps are part of what the client gets (sorting, summarising, reading documents).
- **Modest and factual.** No promises I have not made (response times, weekly updates, start dates, search ranking). Only state what the owner confirmed. No superlatives.
- **No internal method vocabulary** on client-facing pages: no specs, TDD, mutation testing, coverage, pull requests. Translate into what the client gets: changes do not break things, predictable cost.
- Do not say: "everything", "fullstack for anyone", "vibe coding". No location or tax talk; say "remote, available during European business hours".
- Pick the visitor up: introduce me first, then let them choose their need (developer for a product, make an app reliable, just a website), then explain for that need what they get, how it runs, what it costs.
- Language (owner decision, 2026-10-04): German is the main language at the root, English lives under `/en`. The language is detected from the browser and can be switched in the header. The videos and their post texts exist in both languages too (`apps/video/src/content/videos.ts`).

### Audiences (priority order)

1. Startups and founders (DACH/EU) who built with AI and now need it stable and extended.
2. Agencies with overflow capacity (recurring blocks; my team-lead and agency background is the argument).
3. Web3 teams (frontends, dashboards, wallet flows, WebSockets).

### What I offer / do not offer

- Offer: websites and web apps (Next.js/TypeScript, strong design), light backend (APIs, auth, integrations), CLI tools and automation, AI agents/MCP servers, architecture and code review, the spec/test/mutation process for teams, Web3 frontends. macOS apps on request only.
- Do not offer (state it plainly): Windows apps, mobile apps, running client infrastructure, database-heavy work, email/DNS administration.

## 2. Differentiator: verified AI speed (internal, not shown on the site)

This is how the work is done. Under the copy rules above none of it appears in client-facing copy, and the pages
named below (`/process`, the sample report) were not built: the site is one page (section 3).

Anyone can generate code. The scarce thing is code that survives production.
Spec first -> red -> green -> refactor -> mutation check on changed code -> coverage as gap finder -> a delivery report with exact commands and results on every PR.

Site treatment:

- "How I ship" on the homepage plus `/process` with one real example report ("N cases, N mutants caught, changed lines X%").
- A downloadable sample delivery report.
- Evidence uses measured numbers only. Never claim: "100% coverage" (flash-loans measures 87.5%), "property-tested" (none found), or mutation scores that have not been run in full.

## 3. Site structure (owner decision: one page)

Everything is on the homepage. The header has the logo and one button ("Get in touch") that jumps to the contact section. Contact is the address hello@mintel.me: the owner rejected a calendar integration as unnecessary. No `/about`, `/process`, `/notes` or `/book`.

1. **Hero:** headline "WEB APPS / & WEBSITES." (says what I do; "Ship fast. Break nothing." was rejected as unclear), availability, one button.
2. **Hello:** portrait fading out of a dark surface with the introduction set over it, then the career line.
3. **Services, four typical cases:** developer for a product, make an app reliable, automate a process, just a website. Each case explains what you get, how it runs (four steps with an animated drawing each), what it costs.
4. **Technology:** which projects I am right for (good fit / also possible / not my field), what I work with, and an illustrated explanation of why I test my work (no code).
5. **Working with me:** one contact (diagram) and four plain principles.
6. **My work:** live previews of klz-cables.com and e-tib.com (both cleared by the owner).
7. **Questions**, then the closing call to action.

The old site (`/blog`, `/case-studies`, `/contact`, `/websites`, `/technologies`, `/tags`) is deleted, together with its content, tooling and the code only it used. Its URLs redirect to `/`. Legal pages: `/imprint` and `/privacy` (owner details taken from the old terms document; the privacy text is a draft from what the code actually processes and has not been checked by a lawyer).

## 4. Design

- Light, the original look of the site: white, oversized type, binary texture, one accent (the yellow marker).
- The hero headline is built from running binary digits ("WEB APPS / & WEBSITES."). The owner approved the design: do not change it.
- One left axis for logo, navigation and content. No sidebars. Few sections, each with one job.
- No availability line and no booking bar: both were dropped with the calendar. The hero shows two facts instead (15 years in web; remote, EU core hours).
- Dark surfaces carry light: `BitAura` (light along an edge, digits drifting off it), `BitSeam` (lit top edge of a dark section) and `BitGlow` (light following the pointer on `data-glow` surfaces, including the dark button).

## 5. Offers and pricing

### Pricing per case (owner decision: hour packages like 15 vs 20 h are meaningless to buyers)

| Case                    | Model                                | Shown on the site                                                                               |
| :---------------------- | :----------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Developer for a product | By effort, on agreed days per week   | 100 EUR/hour, 800 EUR/day, net; two weeks notice to month end                                   |
| Make an app reliable    | Fixed week                           | 3,500 EUR for 35 hours (derived from the rate, not yet confirmed)                               |
| Automate a process      | Estimate, then a budget              | 100 EUR/hour; no price before the process has been seen                                         |
| Website                 | Estimate, then a budget (contingent) | from 3,800 EUR; extras at 100 EUR/hour; monthly fee for hosting agreed up front (no amount yet) |

The hourly rate is public now. Rate: 100 EUR/h. DACH freelancer average is about 103 EUR/h (freelancermap Freelancer-Kompass 2026).

### Entry offer: make an app reliable (1 week, 35 h; internal name "rescue")

Audit of an AI-built codebase, test foundation, mutation baseline, prioritized report. Easy to buy, converts into a block.

### Website sprint plus subscription (for clients who want zero involvement)

- Sprint: time-boxed package (example 40 h, 3,800 EUR) with a clear scope list. Extra work is a follow-up block, not open scope. 50% at start, 50% at launch.
- Site: static Next.js, no CMS, no server, no database.
- Care after the launch (owner decision 2026-10-05, replaces the managed-platform idea): one offer,
  "Betreuung", 89 EUR per month net, cancel monthly. Hosting on the owner's own servers in Germany (EU
  hosting matters to German clients; no Vercel or Cloudflare), domain, security and updates, and small
  changes by email (a text, a picture, opening hours; internally about 30 minutes a month). No CMS and no
  login for the client. The first three months are included in the project price. Anything bigger (a new
  page, a new feature) gets a price first. Reply within two working days, no on-call. The client can leave
  and take everything along.
- Larger clients: the same care with all non-editorial changes included, about 250 EUR per month (one
  existing client pays 3,000 EUR a year). Offered in the quote, not listed on the website.
- CMS only as an exception and at extra cost (file-based first; Payload only when the site lives on
  maintained data such as a product catalogue).
- Operations: serve client sites as static files from one shared web server, not one container per client.
- Not on the website yet: "green hosting". The owner wants it as an argument; state it only once the
  provider's proof (renewable energy) is at hand.
- Changes: by email or message, no CMS training.
- Domain: client is the registrant; transfer-out and source handover on request.
- **Email and DNS are out of scope.** Never switch nameservers. Only the two records `A/CNAME` for apex and `www` are changed, after exporting the existing records, and mail delivery is checked afterwards. Mailboxes stay with the client's provider.
- No SLA, no on-call; changes within 2 business days. Cap the number of subscription clients (for example 10) to protect bookable hours.
- Open decision: offer the subscription, or only handover plus 14 days of bug fixes.

## 6. Getting clients (low effort first)

1. Own network: former colleagues from i22, Trusted Shops, sdox.io, Sevenval. Ten personal messages.
2. LinkedIn first; plan, rhythm and measures in `plans/content-strategy.md`. A set of short looping videos, one per service, with post texts in English and German, is produced in `apps/video` (`node scripts/export.ts` writes `out/library`).
3. Google Ads for German clients: search campaigns for "website" and "automation". Concept, ad texts and open prerequisites in `plans/google-ads.md`.
4. Platforms (freelancermap, freelance.de, Web3 job boards) as a secondary channel.
4. Direct outreach: 10 targeted messages a week with one template.
5. Testimonials: one line each from existing clients.

## 7. Proof usable on the site (measured facts only)

- Liquidation system: 7 chains, Rust plus Solidity, 1,339 commits since 2026-09-16, 6,365 test markers, mutation gate with zero-survivor policy, coverage ratchet (badge 87.5%). Revenue to date is 0 EUR; show engineering and architecture only, no profit claims, no strategy details.
- Trading engine: spec-first structure, functional-style gates with self-test.
- Live references: klz-cables.com, e-tib.com.
- Still to measure before quoting: full mutation run and real coverage on the main system.

## 8. Risks for the site itself

- This repo currently has no tests and tracked tmp/log files in the root. The rigor pitch needs a tested site: spec tests for availability logic, booking flow and redirects, plus a CI gate.
- Impressum needs a serviceable address (DDG section 5); settle it with a tax advisor. Do not publish tax, visa or payment-provider details.
- Scheinselbststaendigkeit: prefer 15-20 h blocks over one client at 35-40 h.

## 9. Implementation order (history: superseded by the one-page site in section 3)

1. Cal.com event and `/book`.
2. Spec tests for availability and redirects, then new hero, nav and offers; remove old SMB sections.
3. `/process` with the sample report.
4. First two notes with diagrams.
5. English copy pass, then `/de`; SEO/OG basics; redirect `/websites` to `/`.