A 1-hour experiment: vibe-coding an app to break the ice at a networking event

It’s 5pm. My event starts in an hour.

Plenty of time to build an app, right?

I’m currently exploring a new project idea. Still early, still messy.

One of the most common pieces of advice when building a product is to validate early by talking to potential users.

So I thought: why not use this networking event to start?

The problem is, walking up to people and asking them to answer questions about your idea can feel awkward.

I wanted something lighter. Something that would make the interaction feel natural instead of forced.

So I built a simple app.

A spin-the-wheel game where people could either:

• win a prize
• or answer a short survey

It may or may not have been slightly rigged 🤫

But the goal wasn’t the prize.

It was to create a moment.

A small interaction that lowers the barrier, gets a smile, and opens the door to a real conversation.

And surprisingly, it worked.

It made approaching people easier, sparked a few genuinely interesting discussions, and helped me collect my first real signals on the idea.

The quick technical setup

I used:

• ChatGPT for ideation
• Codex for implementation

Stack:

• Expo
• React Native
• TypeScript
• React Navigation
• AsyncStorage

Here is me setting the content with Chat:

After the ideating, I find it useful to generate the prompts for Codex from Chat so I can just paste them over sequentially:

Then the implementation happens with Codex:

The app itself was simple:

1. wheel screen
2. short survey
3. responses view
4. profile screen with a QR code for LinkedIn

Expo Go was what made this possible in such a short time. Instead of building a full native app, I ran the Expo dev server locally and opened the project on my phone through Expo Go.

In practice, Expo Go provides the native container, while my app code is loaded as a JavaScript bundle from the local development server. That meant I could build and test the app on a real device almost instantly, without dealing with native build setup.

For a low-stakes prototype like this, that tradeoff was perfect:
fast iteration, real-device testing, and just enough functionality to get the job done.

Here is a quick visual recording of the app itself:

Learnings from this experience

For me, this is a great use case for vibe coding: building a very low-stakes prototype that solves a simple problem and can be put together quickly.

It also reminded me that small tools can make everyday situations more interesting. Sometimes the best projects are not the most ambitious ones, but the ones that make a real interaction easier, lighter, or more fun.

Discussion

How do you approach networking in a more natural way?

Do you have any original tactics/stories to collect customer interviews?

And how are you using vibe coding in your day-to-day?

I’ll introduce the project I am ideating for in my next post, document the learnings as I go, and eventually open-source the project so others can learn from it, reuse it, or take it further.

If you had to guess, what do you think this project is about?

Curious to hear your thoughts 🙂