Building Trip Threads: The NLP Journey From Regex to LLMs
How I evaluated four different approaches to natural language parsing for Trip Threads and what I learned about building AI-powered products.
Users can create a 'tribe' of close friends and family to share updates, photos, and videos in a private, ad-free environment.
Q2 2025
completed
Users can create a 'tribe' of close friends and family to share updates, photos, and videos in a private, ad-free environment.
Features for tribe creators include multiple upload channels (email, SMS, Whatsapp) and the ability to compile their updates into digital (and eventually physical) collectibles.
Recipients can choose how they want to receive updates - via email digests, SMS or Whatsapp, what frequency and signifcance of updates they would like.
An AI assistant compiles the updates into a beautiful gallery format tailored to the recipients preferences.
As I was sharing updates of our newborn child with multiple groups scattered across different platforms I realised that there should be a way to consolidate this manual uploading process.
The problems we are solving are for users - to simplify uploads by consolidaitng multiple user groups into a single upload channel.
For recipients - to give them control over how they want to receive updates and what frequency/significance of updates they would like to receive.
The platform prompts users to share mindfully by giving them ideas on what to share. The media that is shared is compiled into a digital collectible that can be treasured forever.
Freemium.
Blog posts about this project and related topics
How I evaluated four different approaches to natural language parsing for Trip Threads and what I learned about building AI-powered products.
Notes from building Trip Threads — a personal experiment in making travel planning and coordination simpler, smarter, and a bit more human.
How Claude Code on the web turned my dog walks into productive coding sessions.
How I rebuilt my workflow in 2025 | from chasing speed to building with direction.