How a Commodore VIC-20, a family business, and a simple truth about people shaped a free dating app.
🐟 This is the story of MegaFish — built by one person, from a bedroom, on an old laptop. No corporation. No investors. Just a guy who believed real connections still matter.
My earliest memory of using a computer is when the Commodore VIC-20 came out.
It had 5KB of RAM. That's not a typo — kilobytes. You could only use about 3.5KB of it for programming. You saved programs on cassette tapes. You plugged it into a television.
That was 1981. I was 12 years old.
Back then, a computer was something you typed commands into. You didn't click icons or swipe screens. You wrote code in BASIC, line by line, and hoped you didn't make a mistake — because there was no "backspace" when you were programming.
Fast forward to today. I'm 56. I'm building a dating app called MegaFish from my bedroom on an Asus Vivobook with 4GB of RAM.
That's roughly 400,000 times more memory than that old VIC-20.
And I'm using it to connect people.
My parents were high school sweethearts. They bought a home furnishings business called Dixie Independent Supply Company when my dad was just 26 years old. The business was already over 100 years old when they got it.
They ran it together. They worked hard, and they played hard. It was clear they were on the same page.
My younger sister Pam and I had a happy childhood. We didn't have everything, but we had enough. More importantly, we had parents who showed us what partnership looked like. They were a team.
That's rare. And it's something I've never forgotten.
"They were clearly on the same page."
That's what I'm offering with MegaFish — a space for people to find someone they're on the same page with. Just like my parents.
We always hear: "Treat others as you would have them treat you."
But here's the thing — they're not you.
Their needs are different from yours. What you want isn't necessarily what they want. What you fear isn't necessarily what they fear.
That sounds obvious. But most people don't really understand it.
That's why I built MegaFish the way I did:
"The problem is they are not you, their needs are different from yours."
I built it for them — not for me.
The big dating apps today are built by corporations. They're designed to keep you swiping, not to help you find someone. They make money when you stay on the app, not when you find love.
MegaFish is the opposite. It's built by one person who actually cares about real connections. It's free. It's private. It's simple.
And it exists because I've been a builder my whole life — starting with a VIC-20 with 5KB of RAM.
| Then | Now |
|---|---|
| Commodore VIC-20 (1981) | Asus Vivobook (2026) |
| 5KB of RAM | 4GB of RAM |
| Cassette tape storage | SSD storage |
| Programmed in BASIC | Built with Flask, Python, SQLite |
| Plugged into a TV | Connected to the internet (Cloudflare tunnel) |
| 1 user (me) | 16 users and growing |
| Just a kid in a bedroom | A 56-year-old building a dating app in a bedroom |
Some things change. Some things don't.
No email. No phone number. No paywalls. No data selling.
🐟 Join FreeBuilt by one person. For real people. Not for sale.
We met on March 6, 2011. You were 46. I was 41. Your profile said "Party hard." We're still together.
Thank you for being my partner, my "user zero," my reminder that simple connections work.