I created an app last year that gained some popularity on Hacker News thankfully. I'm in a transition phase. I work full-time and I have a side job I'm finishing up for a client. Soon I can concentrate on building my next version.<p>My problem is it's shared on Twitter, but it has bugs and it's not good enough to begin marketing yet. I'm learning Swift to build the 2nd version, but I'm not an iOS coder, so the build is slow going. I've had a ton of feedback and I have the design and features of the next version planned.<p>Should I pursue seed funding? Should I apply to an accelerator? Should I look for a partner to help with coding? I don't have much money, but should I hire someone? I've looked at the analytics and the market segment is pretty clear. It makes me a little nervous to see the social sharing without much real ability to capitalize on it. I'm not sure how long Buffer will keep it in the suggested articles rotation (although it seems like it's been 6 months now). It's shared on Twitter and LinkedIn almost everyday for at least 3 months. I feel like the opportunity is slipping away.<p>I may be overreacting, but hopefully you can understand my anxiety. You can see the shares by searching Twitter for "rememberwinapp.com".
Try to fix the bugs. Don't rewrite the app from scratch. Keep updating it and keep momentum.<p>The other questions are harder and really something you have to figure out for yourself. I can say a partner can help and turning a side project into a business is a ton of work. At the same time don't let fear of missing out force a rash choice and only work with someone you trust and have a track record with.<p>You have built something people seem to want and that's a great first step.
<i>> it has bugs and it's not good enough to begin marketing yet</i><p>Measure and prioritize the bugs. If you don't know how many people are dealing with them you can't figure out how many you need to fix.<p><i>> I'm learning Swift to build the 2nd version</i><p>I won't tell you what to do, but software history is full of 2nd versions the morphed into death marches.<p>tl;dr Figure out the fewest amount of bugs you need to fix to make it work for 80% of your users and then market aggressively. Do not rewrite right now.
Fix your bugs, etc etc but save all of these mentions to a Twitter list or favorite. Basically capture the interest so you can reach out to them when the app is closer to product market fit.<p>This is a good problem to have and there's not much you have to do to 'fix' it, just capture interest, improve product, and tell interested parties.
Im not an iOS programmer, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you could interop swift code with obj-c. In that case, write new functionality in swift and fix the obj-c with the intention to convert it to swift later down the track. A rewrite would be overkill, just fix and update where appropriate.<p>Also, if you need someone to port it to Android, feel free to give me a yell :P
You do know that maybe 20, 10, or even less than 1% of the people who Buffer'd it actually visited your site and downloaded the app, right? Most people use their suggestions on auto-pilot.<p>I would be excited if you saw people spontaneously praising it on Twitter, not Buffering it. When i search on Twitter, I only see the automated Buffers, not tweets like "Just found out this app.. love it!" or "Has anyone else used this app?".
Don't rewrite it - yet. Keep incrementally improving it. Find your users and engage them - improve it.<p>n.b., rememberwinapp.com is a pretty cool idea. You can definitely spin it along at least two angles: "life hack" approaches and "better mental health" approaches (work with a professional counselor on this one).
I'm in the same spot with my app (digitaldetachapp.com).<p>I found an awesome developer overseas, but I'm at a point where I'm not sure how much money I want to put into it. I've decided to slowly keep improving based on customer feedback (I'm self-funding this). It's a great learning experience at the very least.<p>Here's what I suggest:<p>1) Fix the bugs and 2.) Consider charging more (I'd probably triple the price if I was you)<p>It seems like you're delivering quite a bit of value. Don't be afraid to charge more.
Hey! I remember your app from your HN submission. Glad to see it's working out well for you.<p>This is tangential and not really an answer to your question, but you should probably work on your icon a little bit. At the moment, it reads to me like "sketchy website companion app". It'll be miles better just by removing the white/azure background and having the goblet a little bigger and by itself. (IMO.)
I'm somewhat biased, but you should consider using a crash monitoring tool like Bugsnag (<a href="https://bugsnag.com" rel="nofollow">https://bugsnag.com</a>) to help you find and fix the bugs :)<p>Have you spent any time working out the total market size for your app? Doing some basic modeling might help you make your decision!
From coaching and positive psychology, it wouldn't surprise me if there are ten more apps just like this one ... Or it's a new market opening up!<p>Either case, you seem to have an opportunity here.
You should start with a business plan! Do not worry about the bugs right now.<p>An idea for business plan is that you can let people get a kickback for each purchase they referrer. You can start with the ones giving you feedback.<p>After some sense of market and estimated budget you should hire a freelancer. Not trying to offend you here, but you have been working on this for six month, a freelancer would probable be able to fix the bugs in six hours for $15 an hour or less.<p>If I was in the phone app business I would probably rip off your idea and have an app out by tomorrow :P
First, this is a great problem to have! Enjoy it.<p>More to the point, is there a business entity that owns the app? If so (or if you can create one), giving some equity to someone in exchange for helping you complete the app (either the current version or the next) is a way to pay without any cash outlay.<p>Since you're already finding some success in the marketing department I'd think finding someone who'd "invest" in your business in that way would be a possibility.<p>Last... definitely not accusing you of anything, but I was just musing on the fact that this would make a good marketing campaign: young upstart with too much success and not enough capital -- it's like a cinderella story ;)
Congrats on the organic growth! Many app makers can't even <i>pay</i> to see this kind of traction!<p>Some of these are quick fix questions, others are more life questions. Sure, applying to an accelerator is a great idea, but it is a life commitment you really need to think about. See if you can fix the most noticeable bugs that folks seem to be talking about or ticketing. From there you can start to think more clearly about your goals.
This is how startups are unfortunately supposed to feel. The fact it's spreading without you having to do much is a good sign. Just keep going as much as you can and don't worry too much. Easier said than done, but you're on the right track.<p>You don't have to optimize every part of the project for it to be successful. You're not going to miss out on anything if you don't perfectly execute right now, just focus on getting better a little at a time.
How many monthly active users (or even daily) do you have? As far as I'm seeing through Twitter, it's just people sharing the link, but using it?<p>I'm in a similar situation with <a href="http://petithacks.com" rel="nofollow">http://petithacks.com</a> Launched it last september while learning Rails, and got some traffic peaks that bring among 2-3k users/month (but only 100 active - liking, saving stuff).
Firstly, great idea for an app -- I often tell myself I need to take the time to enjoy the wins but there is always the next thing to move on to. Being reminded of them at a later date makes perfect sense, and I'll download the app to give it a try when I'm next on my ipad.<p>In terms of advice -- everyone's already said it: don't rewrite now, just fix the important bugs and give it a push.<p>Good luck!
I downloaded the app and started using it. I really like it -- I keep a physical notebook for exactly this purpose -- it's a journal of highlights of the day.<p>I didn't see any issues in my usage -- just fix what you think is wrong -- polish up what you have and work on spreading it (not more features).
Getting a technical co-founder might be a really good idea! That co-founder may be able to start sooner than you can. But you should definitely think about cutting bait on work and side project soon if you want to double down.<p>The fact that you already have market validation is huge! Many startups burn ask their energy and money just getting there.
On your app website or store page, mention about the bugs and let people know that you are aware with that. This will give impression that you're still care about the app and hear users' feedback. Also share about your time problem to buy more time before you can fix it.
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Fix whatever bugs you can now. To make lots of downloads sustainable you have to be able to hold whatever rankings you achieve. Otherwise this will be a peak and you will be trying to fix the fall while you try to do anything else.
OMG I want an Android version of this SO BAD. Maybe I'll build it... Don't worry, if I do it'll be for personal use, I obviously wouldn't release it and screw you over.
Would like to say that this app looks sweet, and that I hope to see an Android version (I've been periodically checking the webpage for updates).<p>Keep up the momentum!
Release it under GPL if you can, put it on github or bitbucket, document the bugs as "issues," focus on fixing show stoppers and high-visibility user complaints, don't worry too much about it (all these apps are buggy, we just don't like show stoppers), ask for donations and for volunteer drive-by coders.