Pop That Pantry
A food brand's pre-launch page built on the client's own brand system — with a subscriber list she owns outright rather than rents from a marketing platform.
- My role
- Designer and developer — the rebuild, the subscriber system, the security model, and production deployment.
- Built for
- Food & hospitality
- Current status
- Pre-launch. The page and subscriber system are live; email sending is built and deliberately switched off until launch.
- Built with
- Vercel Functions · Neon Postgres · Argon2id password hashing · Resend
The story
What problem existed, and what we built.
The problem
The brand was on a template site that didn't look like the brand, and its mailing list lived inside a marketing platform's tools. A launch was coming, and the most valuable asset — the list of people waiting for it — was somebody else's to hold, price and shut off.
What I built
A rebuild on the client's own brand system, cut down to a focused pre-launch page, with an email subscription system built from scratch on her own database. The list is hers. The delivery provider is a replaceable part.
What it had to achieve
- Look like the brand, not like a template
- Own the list
- Say less — thirteen sections became five, then one focused page
- Be ready to send on launch day without being able to send by accident before it
The customer's experience
A visitor sees a brand-true page, learns something is coming, and leaves an email address. They confirm it. That's the whole ask — no navigation maze, no premature product pitch.
What customers can do
- A pre-launch page that says what's coming and asks for one thing
- Double opt-in — you confirm before you're on the list
- One-click unsubscribe that actually works
- A countdown page for the launch itself
The owner & staff experience
Both owners have administrator access. The subscriber list is theirs, exportable and portable. When launch day arrives, sending is already built and tested — it just needs turning on.
What the business can do
- Administrator access for both owners
- The subscriber list in a database the client owns
- An activity trail showing what happened, without logging anything secret
- Sending built and held behind three separate safety guards
How it works
The system, explained without the jargon.
If a technical term is needed below, it's explained right where it appears.
The database is the record, not the email tool
Subscribers live in the client's own database. No list, audience or contact is synced to the delivery provider — that provider only delivers. Switching providers would not cost the list.
Privacy by construction
The rate-limiting ledger is keyed on a one-way hash of the visitor's address, so no raw IP address is stored anywhere. The activity trail deliberately records nothing secret.
Three guards before anything sends
A missing postal address refuses the send rather than warning about it; an allow-list restricts recipients while it is set; and consent is re-read from the database at the moment of sending, not trusted from earlier. Each guard is verified by a test that deliberately breaks it.
Design decisions
The choices that shaped it — and why.
Thirteen sections cut to five, then to one page
A pre-launch page has one job. Everything that didn't serve 'leave your email' was removed rather than shrunk.
No photography at all
The client is shooting new imagery. Rather than fill the gap with stock food photography that isn't hers, the design works without photographs entirely.
Sending is off by construction
It isn't off because nobody has pressed the button. It's off because three independent guards would each refuse — so it cannot go out early by accident.
How it was built
Development process
- 1Rebuilt on the client's own brand system, replacing the previous template site
- 2Cut the pre-launch page down to what it needed to be
- 3Built the owned authentication and subscriber system, retiring two rented platforms
- 4Established both administrators and ran production checks with the client
- 5Added double opt-in, grandfathering existing subscribers
- 6Built the sending system behind three guards, held until launch
Where it stands
Status & outcome
Current status
Pre-launch. The page and subscriber system are live; email sending is built and deliberately switched off until launch.
Outcome
The client will arrive at launch owning her subscriber list outright. The launch date is set for November 8, 2026.
Related projects
You might also want to see
Howard Wealth Planning
Practice website with a client portal · Client project
A financial planner's public practice site with a private client portal and advisor workspace behind it — documents, homework, check-ins and messaging in one place instead of an email chain.
Read the case study
MJ Collection
Hospitality landing page · Demonstration build
A dark-luxury hospitality page serving two audiences at once — travellers booking stays and owners looking for property management.
Read the case studyWant something like this for your business?
Tell me how your days go and what you'd like to stop doing by hand. I'll tell you honestly what would help.