Taewon Kwon

Linqd

I worked a NYC trade-show booth, watched buyer interest go onto paper and get lost after the show, and built the tool that replaces both.

Role
Founder: research, product, engineering
Type
In-house product, with a design partner
When
2026 [TK: start month] – Sep 2026
Status
On hiatus after the Sep 2026 demo
Stack
Next.js, Vercel, Supabase, Drizzle
Partner
A Korean apparel brand selling at Coterie, NYC

Linqd started as a broad B2B platform for Korean brands selling abroad. Standing in a booth narrowed it to one job: record buyer interest fast during the show, and turn it into orders after. The narrower version turned out to be mostly built already.

The problem

I worked a Korean apparel brand’s booth at Coterie, a wholesale fashion trade show in New York, and heard the owner’s frustrations during and after it.

At the booth, staff log buyer interest on paper: name, company, what was discussed, items and quantities. After the show, turning those notes into orders is manual follow-up, with no visibility into who has looked or responded.

That brand became my design partner.

Image: the booth, or a paper interest sheetPhoto from Coterie, with buyer details obscured [TK]
Where it started. [TK: caption]

Train of thought

The filled markers are where the plan changed.

  1. First versionA broad B2B platform for Korean brands selling abroad: catalogues, deal links, order confirmations, invoices and payments. Everything a cross-border wholesale deal might need.
  2. Strip the money outThe partner’s pain was at the booth and in the follow-up, not in payments. I narrowed to digital line sheets that work at the show and after it. Invoicing went behind a feature flag rather than being deleted.
  3. Back at the booth“Show mode” was designed as a buyer-facing catalogue. But the products are already on the racks, so buyers don’t need a catalogue. The team needs a faster way to record interest. Show mode became an internal lead-capture tool.
  4. Mapping the new flowMost of the post-show flow already existed. The new build was small: notes on buyer records, a capture form that saves drafts locally so a flaky show-floor connection loses nothing, and a “submitted” status on deal links.
  5. Sep 2026I demoed a working version loaded with the partner’s real catalogue, a week before their next show.
  6. After the demoThe owner agreed it was a good tool, and that live use at shows would need more features. Building them properly needs full-time attention I can’t give it right now, so I put it on hiatus instead of half-building them.

The reframe

Each step removed something. The last one left a small build.

  1. B2B platformCatalogues, deal links, confirmations, invoices, payments
  2. Digital line sheetsFor the show and after it; invoicing behind a flag
  3. Show mode, reframedNot a catalogue for buyers; lead capture for the team
  4. The small buildNotes, offline-safe capture, a “submitted” status
From platform to tool. The struck-through items were cut from the first version.

What I built

Show floor to order. The paper sheet and the post-show chase become one tracked flow.
  • Show-mode lead capture on a laptop, where each record becomes a reusable buyer.
  • Post-show deal links for a captured buyer or a new one.
  • Deal-link tracking on the dashboard: created, opened, submitted.
  • An order confirmation generator that turns a submission into a formatted document.
Image: show-mode capture formScreenshot with the partner’s catalogue, if they approve [TK]
Lead capture. [TK: caption]
Image: deal-link dashboardCreated, opened and submitted states [TK]
Who has looked, who has answered. [TK: caption]

Under the hood

Next.js on Vercel. Supabase for Postgres, auth, row-level security and signed-URL storage. Drizzle for migrations.

Outcome

I demoed a working version loaded with the partner’s real catalogue in September 2026, a week before their next show. The owner agreed it was a good tool, and that live use at shows would need more features.

I put it on hiatus rather than build them. The gap is real, but running it properly needs full-time attention I can’t give it right now.

[TK: which features the owner named, if you can share them.]

What it shows: user research done in person, narrowing scope to the real job to be done, and a clear call on when to stop building.