Houzz: Clone

Houzz’s killer feature was the ability to "clip" any photo from anywhere on the site into a user’s personal folder. Leo tried to implement it using a library called dragula . It worked on desktop. On mobile, every photo turned into a screaming gray box. Mira spent three days rebuilding the drag-and-drop from scratch, muttering, "Why didn't we just use Firebase storage and call it a day?"

Leo was a freelance full-stack developer known for “clones”—functional replicas of successful platforms built on a fraction of the budget. His specialty was turning "We want a Pinterest-for-X" into a six-week sprint. But a Houzz clone was different. Houzz wasn't just a gallery. It was a hybrid monster: part social network (ideabooks), part e-commerce (shop by photo), part directory (find a pro), and part AR try-on (though they wouldn't need that, Marcus assured him). houzz clone

Two months later, Leo was at a coffee shop when he saw an Instagram ad: "ApexBoard — Save ideas. Shop your project. Find a pro." Houzz’s killer feature was the ability to "clip"