Invite-only booking for Hollywood’s beauty talent, in two months.
- 2 months from brief to an MVP ready to launch
- 2 full-stack engineers, design and architecture included
What did Bushido build for SWANS?
SWANS is an invite-only platform where Hollywood stars and their managers find and book elite hair and makeup artists. Two Bushido full-stack engineers took it from brief to a launch-ready MVP in two months: architecture and UX, invitation-gated sign-up with Clerk, artist profiles and portfolios, search by name and skill, availability and direct booking, and Stripe payments from booking to checkout. Stack: Airtable, Next.js, Clerk, Tailwind and Stripe.
We build products,
not just tech.
Beauty and Personal Care Services, Professional Networking, Talent Management
2 months, 2023
2 full-stack engineers
Technical architecture and design documents
UI and UX design mockups
User authentication system
Payment processing integration
Artist and client profiles
Post-launch support and update schedule
Airtable, Next.js, Clerk, Tailwind, Stripe
The starting point
A US-based founder wanted a meeting ground for high-profile clients and the best beauty artists in the business — a place where Hollywood stars and their managers discover and book talent for hair, makeup and more.
The brief was an MVP, fast and on a tight budget, that felt both intuitive and exclusive: artist listings, service details, portfolios, and booking and payment that just work.
What we built
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Chose the stack for the deadline and the budget.
Airtable as the database, for its flexibility and built-in automations, and Next.js with Tailwind for the front end — fast to build, solid to run — so two engineers could ship the whole product in two months.
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Kept the door invitation-only.
A gated invitation system and Clerk sign-up and login, so only verified users get in and the platform stays exclusive.
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Made each artist’s page their portfolio.
Services, fees, availability, past engagements and client history on one page, so a manager can judge an artist from one page.
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Search that finds the right artist.
Clients search by name, skill set or other criteria, so the right match is one search away.
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Booking and payment in one flow.
Direct booking from the artist’s availability, with Stripe carrying the client from booking through to checkout.
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An interface that knows who is looking.
Navigation changes with the signed-in user, so clients and artists each see their own way through the platform.
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Handed over ready to launch.
Architecture and design documents, UX mockups, demos and training materials, and a post-launch support and update schedule, so the founders could run and launch it themselves.
The brief and what shipped
| The brief | What shipped | |
|---|---|---|
| Artists | Artist listings and service details | Profiles with services, fees, availability and client history |
| Portfolios | A portfolio for each artist | An artist page with past engagements, schedule and direct booking |
| Booking and payment | Seamless booking and payment | Booking from availability, Stripe from booking to checkout |
| Exclusivity | Intuitive, but exclusive | Invitation-gated sign-up with Clerk, verified users only |
Every deliverable in the brief, in two months, with two engineers.
Questions people ask about SWANS.
Why build the MVP on Airtable?
To meet the deadline and the budget. Airtable held the data and its automations while Next.js carried the product, so two engineers delivered every deliverable in two months without building a database layer from scratch.
How was the platform kept exclusive?
With a gated invitation system in front of Clerk sign-up and login, so only verified users get in. Once inside, the interface adapts to who is signed in.
How do clients book and pay an artist?
From the artist’s page: they check availability, book directly, and pay through Stripe, which runs from booking to checkout.
Yours is next.
Same team, sharper tools. Tell us where you are and we will tell you what it takes — scope, shape and a timeline we would actually hold ourselves to — on a 30-minute call with an engineer.