What I Learned Building a Startup App with uni‑app, egg.js, and antd‑vue

Background

In June 2022 the author joined a very small startup whose founder lacked technical and managerial expertise, relying on enthusiasm and industry knowledge of physical transportation. The company faced cash flow problems and eventually dissolved, leaving the team unpaid for the final months.

Initial Tech Selection

With only a fresh front‑end graduate and a UI designer on the team, the author leveraged personal experience in front‑end and Node.js to choose a rapid‑development stack:

Use uni-app for cross‑platform mobile app development, allowing future mini‑program extensions.

Use egg.js + MySQL for the backend, offering quick development and sufficient performance for a niche domain, with a later migration path to midway.js.

Use antd-vue for the admin console to keep the front‑end stack unified and reduce conversion costs.

The combined stack ( egg.js + MySQL + uni-app + antd-vue) enabled the team to deliver two apps and an admin backend from zero to one quickly.

App Development Options Considered

Native iOS/Android development was rejected due to high hiring and testing costs.

Flutter was deemed sub‑optimal because it required learning from scratch or hiring specialists.

React‑Native/Taro were similar to uni‑app, but uni‑app was chosen for familiarity, ease of use, and development speed.

Why egg.js for the Backend

The decision prioritized cost and familiarity: mature frameworks like Java, PHP, or Go were too expensive for the founder, while egg.js was simple, fast, and matched the team’s JavaScript skill set, keeping the learning curve low for new members.

Mid‑Project Adjustments

Changed the app packaging strategy.

Introduced midway.js for new business modules, building on the team’s existing egg.js knowledge.

Created internal npm packages and a component library for shared business logic.

Standardized code style and development processes.

Hiring and Team Management

Recruiting for a tiny, low‑budget startup proved difficult, but the unified JavaScript stack allowed flexible role swapping between front‑end and back‑end tasks, reducing resource waste.

Management insights included:

Adopt a business‑oriented, realistic approach from the start.

Prefer full‑stack development to avoid coordination bottlenecks.

Define lightweight coding standards based on existing habits.

Follow a clear workflow: product evaluation → task allocation → technical assessment → development → testing → code review → release → post‑release monitoring.

Measure performance through deadline adherence, documentation quality, bug count, and careful database changes.

Encourage knowledge sharing, timely feedback, and open communication.

Final Advice

Ensure the founder is reliable and decisive; otherwise the project is unlikely to succeed.

Even if a project fails, a trustworthy founder may create future opportunities.

Focus on generating revenue; without cash flow, survival is doubtful.

Prioritize solving core business problems over polishing technical choices.

Maintain transparent communication with leadership to align expectations.

Extract learning from every experience; each step adds value to personal growth.