About Valistia

Hi, I'm Matt Van Horn. I started out as an architecture student, then apprentice, and then I got into multimedia and UI/UX. After a few years of building primitive websites in the early 90s, I got into software engineering, and I've been working at it for over 30 years now. I've recently started a company, Stalwart Studios , where I hope to help teams build better software.

I've also had ADHD for as long as I can remember, which means I'm intimately familiar with the challenge of keeping multiple projects moving forward without letting them slip through the cracks.

Valistia started as a personal experiment in what is generally called "vibe coding" - using AI tools as a force multiplier to bring ideas to life faster. I wanted to explore how far I could push development with Claude Code and Tidewave - treating AI not as a replacement for thinking, but as a collaborator that does the mechanical work faster than I can while I focus on the creative decisions, and review the quality of what is generated.

But more importantly, I built Valistia because I need it. I had the same problem I'm trying to solve for others: too many projects and hobbies, not enough sense of momentum, and a constant regret about not pursuing the ones that had fallen through the cracks. I wanted a tool that would help me see at a glance which projects were actually moving forward and which ones had gone dormant.

The approach I'm taking here - building with AI assistance, shipping early, iterating based on real use - is partly exploration and partly a philosophy I believe in. Software doesn't have to be perfect to be useful. It just has to solve a real problem for real people.

This means it can be pretty rough, but I'm actively using Valistia myself (the technical term is "dogfooding"), so I should get a sense of what needs fixing pretty quickly. Every feature I add is something I personally need or want. This keeps the app focused and prevents feature bloat. If I didn't feel it was useful for me, I wouldn't be sharing it.

I wanted something that captured the essence of "valuable lists" - a system that helps you track what matters. I played around with variations until I landed on "Valistia" (valuable + lists), checked if the domain was available (it was), and that was that.

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one. It's a name that sounds pleasant, hints at what the app does, and wasn't already taken. Good enough.

Right now, Valistia is both a portfolio piece for Stalwart Studios and a tool I use daily. That dual purpose keeps me honest - I can't ship half-baked features because I'll have to live with them myself.

I'm shipping features as I need them and as they make sense. The roadmap is driven by real use, not speculation about what users might want. I'm keeping the core simple and focused: help people maintain momentum across multiple projects.

I'm also very open to feedback and suggestions. If you're using Valistia and have ideas about what would make it more useful, I want to hear from you. Not every suggestion will make it into the app, but I promise to thoughtfully consider each one.

The best way to shape where this goes is to use it, see where it falls short for you, and let me know. I'm building this in public, learning as I go, and I'm genuinely interested in making it work better for people who struggle with the same challenges I do.