28 ms·

Tell HN: I made $1000 with my app and now making $500/mo

578 points by strongpigeon 4y ago

Edit: Wow #1 on HN. Y'all are making my day. Hey HN, I'm mostly a lurker on HN who's always super inspired by other people's small project that end-up making money. (Huge fan of Ben Stoke's Tiny Project [0]) After being burnt-out in big tech, I decided to write my own weightlifting app and set myself a humble goal of reaching $1000 in total proceeds. See [1] for my initial launch post. I've now surpassed that goal and am now making about 500$/mo by selling premium features in the app. Android version is coming soon too. Doing the whole thing end-to-end (code, launch, marketing, support) was super gratifying and taught me a whole lot. I have to admit that I got almost teary eyed the first time someone bought one of my IAPs. I'm not making a killing out of the app, and that was never the goal. But the personal satisfaction I got out of it was worth everything. I can't pretend to have derived any life lesson that applies to everybody from this, but this whole mini-journey was worth it for me, and I hope it will be for you too, should you embark in a similar one. [0] https://tinyprojects.dev/ https://tinyprojects.dev/ [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27507452 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27507452

silvi9 4y ago
Congratulations! That's incredibly impressive, and is so inspiring, especially for all us fellow indie hackers out there. What were your main ways of acquiring new users? Do you have any marketing advice that helped you out? Well done again, and wishing you continued success with your app!
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  Thank you! Initially I would use Instagram and follow some hashtags and like people's posts and follow them to get them to look at my profile (I got about 150 downloads that way). One day I decided I wanted to try out ReactJs and so I made a web calculator version [0]. The goal was to make something better than the current incumbent (Black Iron Beast). This turned out to be super helpful. It usually ranks number 2 on most Google queries for 5/3/1 calculators and lead to about 200 downloads for the app. I also started using Apple App Store Search Ad with their $100 credit and honestly the result are great. Having your app show up first for some keywords is a huge boost. [0] https://fivethreeone.app/calculator https://fivethreeone.app/calculator
- whelton 4y ago
  Another indie hacker here, to add to OP’s reply, I’ve been using Syften[0] to monitor relevant keywords across various sites to find people my product can be of value to, or I provide answers to their related questions (which can lead them to checking out my profile and then product). I’m building Conjure[1] a habits, behavior and goals platform, so I track everything from ‘habits’/‘productivity’/‘quantified-self’ type keywords, to people looking for alternatives to XYZ product name, to specific questions I’ve answered before (eg organization, time tracking, building exercise habit, achievement, etc). [0] https://syften.com https://syften.com [1] https://conjure.so https://conjure.so
bitxbitxbitcoin 4y ago
Congrats! That is a significant milestone.
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  Thank you!
reducesuffering 4y ago
Congrats! What does your tech stack look like? How long did it take you?
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  The app is written in Flutter. There is no backend except that I use Firebase Crashlytics to catch bugs that make it to releases. The web calculator is built using ReactJS and uses Firebase hosting (still low enough traffic to be under the free tier)
  - csunbird 4y ago
    If there is no backend, and also if you are not collecting any personal data, maybe you can add a “privacy friendly, your personal data is not collected” marketing section as well. Although I am not sure if your users would care about that.
    - strongpigeon 4y ago
      That's a good point. My app store Privacy Section is pretty clean, but I might put it on the front page of my marketing site.
  - 999900000999 4y ago
    Yay Flutter! Any reason you had to use ReactJS embedded in Flutter, I imagine you could of done that with Dart
    - strongpigeon 4y ago
      Sorry if I wasn't too clear. I haven't embedded ReactJS in Flutter. I just made an online calculator [0] in ReactJS for people who prefer not using apps. Could I have use Flutter for that? Probably, but I wanted to try React so I did. [0] https://fivethreeone.app/calculator https://fivethreeone.app/calculator
      - 4y ago
TameAntelope 4y ago
Congrats! I am always super excited/impressed by people who can take something all the way like this, just because I know how monumentally hard finishing any project is. I'm at least decently familiar with the first half of "end-to-end" but don't have a lot of experience in the back half. Was there something cool/unintuitive you learned while having to figure out how to market and support your weightlifting app that you'd be willing to share?
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  Everybody says it, but the marketing part of it matters a lot. As a shape rotator, I struggle with putting myself out there and really have to force myself to "just do it". The app store is a big, noisy marketplace, so having other channels to get people to try your app and give you ratings is crucial. That really help me get through the initial wall and now my app is showing up pretty high in the search result.
  - binkHN 4y ago
    > ...get people to ... give you ratings is crucial. How were you able to promote this? Thanks.
    - strongpigeon 4y ago
      iOS has this control to prompt users to rate your app. I made it so that the prompt appears after the user has completed a workout, at which point they are probably happy with the app (and aren't getting jarringly interrupted).
RankingMember 4y ago
Congrats on the success! Any chance of an Android version of that app? I'm glad you made a 5/3/1-specific app; I've always had to shoehorn 5/3/1 into some other "Build your own routine" apps and it's always been clunky at best.
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  I'm actively working on the Android version. I'm waiting on some Material 3 component for Flutter to be done [0], but it's almost ready to test! [0] https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/91605 https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/91605
  - travisgriggs 4y ago
    Curious why you chose Dart/Flutter over Kotlin/Jetpack (not necessarily Compose though). Could you share? I hope you’ll share in the future what your usage/downloads look like as well as where you make money, between the two phone types.
    - strongpigeon 4y ago
      Mostly because I wanted to give Flutter a shot. The instant hot reload really got me hooked. As I also said elsewhere, I was already super familiar with Dart given that I worked on Google Ads (where the front-end is built using Dart). I'll try to share some data on the Android version compared to iOS. My gut feeling is that the rate of purchase for IAP is going to be much lower, but I think it could help with getting the app known (thus leading to more iOS downloads as well).
  - RankingMember 4y ago
    Great to hear
- conradfr 4y ago
  Personally I use FitNotes to track my workouts (5/3/1 or not) and keep (the totally not responsive) http://lift.eha-ab.ca/ http://lift.eha-ab.ca/ open in my mobile browser.
newbie578 4y ago
Congrats! This is really no small achievement, being able to make a profit while making mobile apps is no little thing. I saw your comment that you made the app in Flutter, how come that you didn't release it then for Android? Also a separate question, I do wonder what was your thought process for coming up with the idea for the app? Do you keep somewhere a list of app ideas, or was this one you have been dreaming about some time? Keep going and I wish you much more success!
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  I'm using the Cupertino widget to have an iOS look and feel. I care a lot about the experience and I didn't want to release an Android app that feels like an iOS one. That being said I'm almost done making the app look great on Android. I'm just waiting for some Material 3 widgets to be done by the Flutter team. My thought process was simple : I don't like any of the apps on the App Store for 5/3/1, so I'm going to make my own!
  - LocalPCGuy 4y ago
    I personally would argue that shipping (and being available) > than purely looking like it's 100% platform specific. But it's your app, and congrats on the success so far.
bambax 4y ago
Excellent, congrats! Can you elaborate on IAPs (or other insights)? The app is free, yes? Then what can users buy while using the app?
- flanbiscuit 4y ago
  Found this on the iOS App store page: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/five-three-one/id1560266240 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/five-three-one/id1560266240 Features include: - Planning and scheduling your whole 5/3/1 cycle - Charting your progress - Rest timer with notifications - Automatic plating calculation - Calculating your next cycle based on your performance - Notes associated with each sets - Home screen widget showing your your current and upcoming workouts - Lbs/kg support Optional paid features: - Customize which plates you're using and change your barbell's weight - Customize templates assistance work and define your own exercises - Beyond 5/3/1 templates and options, from Joker Sets to FSL, Pyramid and much more!
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  My thinking was that unless you have a killer video / app store page, people won't pay for a brand new app. I'm not really good at this part, so I figured I'd just make the base app for free (you can do most workout templates from the first book), and charge for features. If people like the app, they'll feel invested and will want to invest more by buying features. Right now there are 3 Premium Features : - Custom Plating [0]: Which allows users to define which weight plates they have for the calculator - Custom Assistance [1]: Which allows users to customize the assistance sets they have - Beyond 5/3/1 Pack [2]: Which contains stuff from the Beyond 5/3/1 book. The thinking was that most of the stuff from the base app, you can easily do with the tools already out there (e.g. the black iron beast calculator), but that people would pay for new capabilities. [0] https://fivethreeone.app/custom-plating https://fivethreeone.app/custom-plating [1] https://fivethreeone.app/custom-assistance https://fivethreeone.app/custom-assistance [2] https://fivethreeone.app/beyond-pack https://fivethreeone.app/beyond-pack
- danuker 4y ago
  https://fivethreeone.app/ https://fivethreeone.app/ Custom Plating Custom Assistance Beyond 5/3/1 Pack: Joker Sets, First Set Last, Boring But Big Challenges...
lwhi 4y ago
Great work! This is inspiring .. great to hear. What are you thinking next?
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  I'm almost done with the Android version and will start working on an Apple Watch companion app right after that (which I think I could charge $15-20 for). I was semi-hoping they'd announce Flutter for wearables at Google I/O alongside the Pixel watch, but looks like I'll have to learn a bit more iOS stuff.
newbie578 4y ago
Can anyone share what is their thought process regarding on deciding what app to build? Say you have a Word document with 15 different ideas, how do you decide which one is worth investing?
- ffhhj 4y ago
  In my case, the one that has a larger community where it can be promoted at low cost.
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  I built this app because I wanted to use it. Being user 0 is really helpful and is quite fun I can say.
allenu 4y ago
Well done! $500/mo, though not crazy money, is significant. How did you market your app and how long did it take you to build out the app? I've built an app as well while I was doing my regular day job and recently quit the day job, mostly due to being burned out working in big tech as well. During my break from work, I decided to try to get my app sales up, but it's challenging. (During my best month, I think I got up to $200/mo but it's more like $100/mo right now.) As many others before me have found, marketing is the key, and I'm still learning that game. So, $500/mo is really good stuff. That said, building the app and making my users happy is something that is incredibly gratifying, and something that was missing in my previous 9-5.
- dheera 4y ago
  Yep, all money is money and can make a difference to anyone. I live in the bay area, and though my rent is a lot more than $500/mo, if I put $500/mo more toward rent I really could have a much nicer apartment, for example. Or it could be the monthly payment for an EV. $500/mo can be a nice quality of life boost even in the most expensive parts of the world even if it's not enough to live on just that. Back when I was doing my PhD, on a $2300/mo research assistantship salary in Boston, I also built a webapp that got me ~$200-300/mo for several years and close to $900/mo for one of those years. That alone allowed me to do lots of things I wanted to do at the time (e.g. ~2 overseas vacations a year and several self-supported long distance bike trips). Savings wasn't a huge concern at the time because I knew I could get a decent-paying job post-graduation.
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  Thank you! I feel you 100% when you say that keeping user happy is incredibly gratifying. The app took me about 300-400 hours to build. Regarding marketing, I've said it elsewhere in the thread but here it is again: - Created an instagram account for the app and started following some tags. I liked post on the tags and started following some users to get them to look at my profile. Got about 150 downloads from that. - Made a 5/3/1 Calculator website. The goal was to make something useful to boost the SEO of my domain. What really ended up happening is the calculator ranks usually number 2 on Google and then users see the link to the app in there and click on it. Got about 200 downloads from that. - Apple Search Ads gives you $100 credit. Got a bunch of downloads with this - I used Bing Ads credits but wasn't too impressed with what I was getting from there though
itslennysfault 4y ago
Awesome. Congrats! Did you do anything to promote the app? (other than posting it here and organic searches on the app store)
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  Thank you! See my other comment for what I did to promote the app [0]. Short version: Instagram account to follow people and have them look at my profile. Useful website with a link to my app as "content marketing" and Apple Search Ads. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31508328 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31508328
OnlyMortal 4y ago
We’ll done! Keep going. Be aware that you may find premium feature take up/download ratio lower on Android.
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  Thank you! That's what I'm expecting. I'm mostly doing the Android version for my friends and for the "brand awareness" of the app. I'm curious to see how that'll turn out.
  - SoftTalker 4y ago
    I'm on Android, and would possibly use this. Would your app work for tracking the Starting Strength program (3x5 sets 3x/week, not 5/3/1) or is it very exclusive to 5/3/1 tracking?
    - strongpigeon 4y ago
      Right now it’s only 5/3/1. But the 5’s progression template from Beyond 5/3/1 is similar enough. Feel free to look at the online calculator to get a sense of the template. https://fivethreeone.app/calculator https://fivethreeone.app/calculator
afrnz 4y ago
Very impressive and bravo on your success! I love seeing indie hackers launching their projects and get positive feedback in the form of revenue. Also appreciate the weightlifting focus, will check out the app for sure.
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  Thank you!
bgroat 4y ago
$500/mth is $6,000/yr At a 4% safe withdrawal rate what you've built is the equivilent of saving $150,000. You should be EXTREMELY proud of yourself, and never underestimate the power and value of the asset you've built
- andymcsherry 4y ago
  This is a business, it's not passive income. It requires maintenance, support, etc. If he were to just let it ride, income might increase for a while but ultimately wither out and die.
- quickthrower2 4y ago
  You wouldn’t get $150k on flippa though. Maybe $15k?
- POiNTx 4y ago
  Can you breakdown this calculation? I'm familiar with FIRE and SWR but how do you get to the $150,000 number? [EDIT] Thanks got it!
  - Jake232 4y ago
    4% of $150k is $6k, which is $500 * 12.
  - jdasdf 4y ago
    6000/0.04 = 150 000 Essentially, those 6K a year is the equivalent of a 150K portfolio
    - cinntaile 4y ago
      I want to push back against this a little. He gets $500/month now, there is no guarantee he will keep receiving that number when he stops maintaining and improving his app. I would assume the number will go up if he keeps improving it, but if he stops it will eventually become 0$/month.
FredPret 4y ago
Great app. I’m using it tonight. Well done on the cash flow, well deserved. A good workout app can be life-changing.
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  Thank you and hope you enjoy it! My email is in my profile if you have any feedback!
ge96 4y ago
Nice to hear Side note I think 'Tell HN:' is for problems, vs. 'Show HN:'
- Koffiepoeder 4y ago
  I perceive it more as `interesting story` vs `interesting project`. OP's project-story is right on the edge between the two for me. At least for Show HN there is an official guideline [0] which mentions: > Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. HN users can try it out, give you feedback, and ask questions in the thread. Does anyone know whether there is an official `Tell HN` guideline? The HN guidelines and FAQ pages don't specify anything as far as I could tell. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
  - ge96 4y ago
    From what I've seen on here usually 'Tell HN:' is used for things like "this company banned my account for no reason" or "this service is down" etc... Anyway I only mention it because I looked at this post and I was like "what happened/what went wrong".
    - OJFord 4y ago
      'tell' to me is more like a warning that it's not an external link (and 'ask'/'show' don't fit). 'show' is when the point of the post is to show off the project; whereas here (partly by the fact that it is 'tell'!) the point is sort of tangential to the actual project, it's just an example of the topic rather than the topic itself.
boplicity 4y ago
A question, from someone who used to start lots of projects, but now finds himself busy from all of those (some now quite successful) projects: How much daily "mental load" does something like this take? Are you able to work on it when you want, and otherwise ignore? Any tips for starting a small project that doesn't require ongoing mental effort?
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  The fact that I'm not running a service does make it a lot better. But being somewhat of a perfectionist, I do stress out a lot when a user email me with a bug. Being a user of the app myself reassure me that it's working and that even if there might be bugs, it's probably working well for the vast majority of folks.
m12k 4y ago
>I can't pretend to have derived any life lesson that applies to everybody from this Part of what attracted me to software engineering in the first place was an interest in "how things work", and being able to move between levels of abstraction (e.g. I know how IP, DNS, TCP, HTTP and JSON works, but most of the time I can just treat it as "sending objects"). So it was a bit of a eureka moment for me to realize that running a company is really just expanding the levels of abstraction that you operate with. It doesn't matter how well you code if people can't understand the user interface, so I got an interest in UX and usability. But it doesn't matter how user friendly it is, if it doesn't solve the right problem for people, so I got an interest in product development and customer research. It doesn't matter how good a product is if people never hear about it, so I got an interest in marketing and sales. And it doesn't matter how well I do all of that if I can't pay the bills, so I got an interest in pricing and monetization strategies. Juggling all those needs, and trying to shape the company and all its aspects into a cohesive whole is just as demanding and interesting as doing the same for a software project - it's just expanding the scope of which requirements and concerns you bring into the equation. For me at least, it's also been very rewarding to do the whole thing end-to-end, and it's felt like more of a natural extension of my ever-broadening interests than I would have expected. Bookkeeping can be as annoying as debugging, but in the end I'm really grateful that I understand how each detail works.
- chrisweekly 4y ago
  Good analogy, and cool story. IME real-world events rarely follow such a linear narrative but I found your company from your profile, and like that its blog -- https://www.hrvey.com/blog https://www.hrvey.com/blog -- shares insights from an "entrepreneurial journey" perspective. Congrats!
- rambambram 4y ago
  Thanks, this was a nice read. And closing with... > Bookkeeping can be as annoying as debugging, but in the end I'm really grateful that I understand how each detail works. ... hits home for me, haha. Never thought I was going to understand - let alone like - bookkeeping. What maybe helped, was me making my own bookkeeping app, it also forced me to understand the rules.
FooBarBizBazz 4y ago
Congrats! At 4% yield, that's like you've made (and invested) $150k, after tax. Before tax that'd be a yearly salary of well over $200k. If you can do 2 of those every year, you're on par with mid-level FAANG comp, once you include RSUs. There's probably a benefits and self-employment tax angle I'm leaving out though. And surely it's more volatile. But if you can keep it up it seems pretty solid.
- savorypiano 4y ago
  While I like the thinking, it's not quite the same as an index returning some yield is far more likely to give returns indefinitely, whereas an app can become obsolete.
ronyeh 4y ago
Congrats! Downloaded. Relevant to today's discussion, did you use SwiftUI or the ol reliable UIKit? Here's the url for those who are looking: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/five-three-one/id1560266240 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/five-three-one/id1560266240
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  The app is built using Flutter, but I'm using SwiftUI for the home screen widget.
  - mylons 4y ago
    why did you use Flutter?
    - strongpigeon 4y ago
      I wanted to give it a shot. The instant hot-reload got me hooked. I was already super familiar with Dart too (I worked on Google Ads before, front-end is in Dart).
Knufen 4y ago
Super cool project man, congrats. I was unable to figure it out in the app, but is it possible to build your own routine instead of 5/3/1? I have been looking for this kinda of app and am willing to pay for it.
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  Custom Templates is a feature I go back and forth on, mainly because it'd complicate the data model a lot, but also some parts of the product. I might get around to it, but I'm going to work on other things (Android version, Apple Watch companion) first.
  - Knufen 4y ago
    Does the data model have to be changed? Can't it just be a simple "fill exercise and how many reps/kg you want" type of thing? And understandable with your limited time!
dimitrios1 4y ago
I love that there is so much opportunity in the indie space, and hope it doesn't go away. There are a ton of great apps to be made, with better UIs and functionality than existing entrants that aren't made by big companies because they don't offer enterprise-sized war chests and moats. Can't make enough to pay for a bunch of MBAs, managers, and SEO, Creative, and Engineering teams, so they don't get made. But it's certainly enough for a few driven people.
sound1 4y ago
> I can't pretend to have derived any life lesson that applies to everybody from this, but this whole mini-journey was worth it for me, and I hope it will be for you too, should you embark in a similar one. You have a new fan. Hearty congratulations and wish you a continued success!! You are an inspiration :-)
ushakov 4y ago
now sell that to businesses and turn it into $500/day instead!
shreyshnaccount 4y ago
Congrats on the launch! Its always inspiring to see small indie tech projects solving real life problems for real people, and getting paid for it! That's the magic of technology! I too loved Ben's tiny projects and appreciate the love that's goes into making these!
Zababa 4y ago
> I can't pretend to have derived any life lesson that applies to everybody from this Kudos for being honest about this, it's rare these days. Congratulations and I wish you the best.
unity1001 4y ago
> Doing the whole thing end-to-end (code, launch, marketing, support) was super gratifying and taught me a whole lot Yep. Just putting out one single app by doing everything teaches you a LOT about tech and makes you start giving due respect to every single specialization that exists in tech - from development to support to marketing.
izolate 4y ago
Great job! This is inspiring to all us indie hackers out there.
Xeronate 4y ago
Grats. That's awesome! How did you market it? Seems like weightlifting apps has to be a pretty saturated market. Also assuming its a native iOS app since there isn't an android equivalent. Were you an iOS developer in big tech? Building UIs feels so much nicer with the native frameworks, but I'm always hesitant to do so because writing the same app twice seems so grueling.
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  I agree that "weightlifting app" as a whole is pretty saturated and some of the apps are pretty good too. I figured I'd have more chance to stand out in a niche, namely 5/3/1 specific apps. I was previously a full stack SWE on Google Ads before. The app is built using Flutter, so porting it to Android isn't too hard. I built it using the iOS looking widget first that's what I use. The Android version should be out pretty soon.
- h4waii 4y ago
  I wrote my first full-blown mobile apps (fairly simple and spartan) with React Native, I target both iOS and Android, and it was a breeze using Expo. It's seriously good, I have no affiliation, just a happy customer (I tested the paid tier out but currently use the free one).
egypturnash 4y ago
Congratulations, if you were me then your app would be covering your rent!
- deathanatos 4y ago
  … where I am it's $2,700/mo. … my brother just moved to Podunksville, TN, and the rent on a 1 bd is $900/mo…
  - egypturnash 4y ago
    man, I left Seattle when my shitty 2br in the U got up to like $1200/mo after climbing $100/mo like clockwork every year. You are a couple orders of magnitude richer than I am if you can afford that. Which is not surprising given that I'm a lazy freelance artist who mostly draws furry porn and your last few comments indicate you're a Senior Software Engineer at a FAANG. Now my husband and I are splitting $950 for a 3br in New Orleans. It's pretty nice once you get inured to the fact that everything you own and love in this world, including you, could be washed away in a hurricane. And the "holy shit I am a trans living in the one queer-friendly hotspot in what is otherwise a very red state" thing. The place is full of artists who could stop worrying about where most of their rent is coming from if they got $500/month coming in from somewhere.
    - uuggghhhhh 4y ago
    - TMWNN 4y ago
      >Which is not surprising given that I'm a lazy freelance artist who mostly draws furry porn I've heard that that's very lucrative. So much so that I've read accounts by more than one who finds creating such art (and the customers) disgusting, but can't stop because of the huge market demand.
      - egypturnash 4y ago
        It can be a pretty good market! Personally I've spent my entire career as a furry artist drawing stuff I enjoy bringing into the world, and the vast majority of my clients have been pretty chill. Lots of slightly-socially-awkwards IT types with active imaginations who are happy to pay me a pretty good rate to put their dreams into concrete imagery.
Ventito 4y ago
Cool app. Very impressive that it makes that much :) I thought about an fitness app myself. I'm curious when it will be available: With ML you could really analyse what someone is doing and counting and basically playing fitness coache for you including proper counting of your things.
davidkuennen 4y ago
Very good. Congrats. I made an app 2 years ago and make around 10,000$/month currently with it. Keep going!
- ayewo 4y ago
  Go on, tell us more …
nchudleigh 4y ago
This is awesome, I love workout tracking and am currently doing a 5/3/1 program- wish that I had a iOS device to try your app out. Love the way you have structured the IAPs and the look of the app from the screenshots. Currently using Strong (more than 400 workouts logged). Curious, how did you go about marketing this?
kebsup 4y ago
Good job! I know exactly the feeling. I'll once again shamelessly plug my project, since it's vaguely relevant. I'm making about 200 USD/month by selling watermark removals on https://gifmemes.io https://gifmemes.io. What I've learnt is that I'm very bad at marketing & design and will much rather spend hours programming useless features. For example I've spent like 10 hours getting an wasm ffmpeg converter of gifs to mp4s and webms, which was not used AT ALL, while most of my traffic still comes from cold-writing (is it even a term) for 1 hour random people to put links on their websites or subreddits. The scene in the Sillicon Valley series, where Richards enhances the algorithm by 1 % is quite accurate. On the other hand, being the solo developer and product owner is quite powerful. My implementation of billing into the app took around 2 hours, which is probably less than a meeting about it would take in a company. Finally, I can run silly experiments. There is a button in the "Buy watermark removal" page that says "It's too expensive", which leads to 50 % discount. Around 70 % people still buy the full price.
- telchior 4y ago
  I love the "too expensive" button. I'm the sort of person who'd probably want to test a dozen variations of that, half of them being jokes, and try to figure out exactly why it works. Do you know how many of the full price buyers ever click the button and find out it has a discount?
  - kebsup 4y ago
    Nope. I have some more ideas to try, but with my sale frequency once in 1-2 days, it's quite difficult to make any statistical conclusions. However, since it's a meme website, I don't think there are any limits on creativity of psychological experiments. :D
- volsa_ 4y ago
  I love the "But internet stuff should be free!" button, got a chuckle out of me :P
- OJFord 4y ago
  > Finally, I can run silly experiments. There is a button in the "Buy watermark removal" page that says "It's too expensive", which leads to 50 % discount. Around 70 % people still buy the full price. I don't find that silly at all. At most it's a fun example of price discrimination. A fairly big online-only florist in the UK (Bloom & Wild) for example does something similar, if you enter a valid voucher code but it's only for new customers, it pops up telling you that 'but click here to apply 10% off instead' (where the voucher might've been for 25 or whatever). Clever I think - stops you thinking 'oh sod it' and shopping around.
s-xyz 4y ago
Well executed app
bm-rf 4y ago
side note, I love the strong pigeon website! What a team!
aryamansharda 4y ago
Congrats on the success! I just started a newsletter - Indie Watch (http://indie.watch/ http://indie.watch/) - that features cool apps built by indie iOS developers. Would you mind if I featured your app in our first release? Since it's our first release, I can't guarantee any results or conversions, but the mailing list has a few hundred people on it, so it couldn't hurt...
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  Thank you! For sure! My email is in my profile
ta3411 4y ago
Can I ask about your experience implementing Stripe Connect Express, especially how did you choose that over Stripe Connect Standard? My understanding is you have to do more heavy lifting integration work, pay monthly fee per account, KYC, and are responsible for refunds for Express. Whereas a lot of that are taken care of in Standard.
yboris 4y ago
Thank you for sharing! I wish more people were transparent about money (to know what's possible). In my example, I created Video Hub App that sells for $5 (and $3.50 goes to a cost-effective charity). I'm averaging about $500 for over a year now (with almost $15,000 donated to charity). https://videohubapp.com/ https://videohubapp.com/ & https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App (MIT open source)
- rebelos 4y ago
  Wow this is cool. How long did it take to build it?
  - yboris 4y ago
    About 4 months for the version 1.0.0 - all outside of a full time job (I was really excited and spent maybe 20-30 hours per week on it maybe). Since then it's been about 3 years of intermittent work - adding features, fixing bugs. The announcement post on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17587992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17587992
MrDresden 4y ago
Congrats! I hope to follow your lead one of these days
sjskwaiwn 4y ago
5/3/1 is a powerlifting/strength training/weight training/weight lifting program. Weightlifting refers to Olympic weightlifting. Weightlifters are those who snatch and clean & jerk.
gigatexal 4y ago
Congrats. 500 a month is nothing to laugh at. Relocate this a few times and you’re living the indie dev’s dream!
vegesm 4y ago
Congrats! It's about the same I make with Android with my app (a graphing calculator) [1]. Everyone says on Android you can earn less, I'm curious what's your experience will be. [1] https://androidcalculator.com/ https://androidcalculator.com/
- strongpigeon 4y ago
  That’s one SEO friendly domain name. Nice work on the app!
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
aschismatic 4y ago
I checked out your app because I've been wanting something like it but hadn't bothered looking at what was out there yet. Looks great! One thing I noticed though is that both barbell weight customization and plate customization is coupled together in one purchase. I feel like you may want to separate barbell weight into a free customization option because barbells made specifically for women tend to be lighter (~33lbs). By charging for barbell weight customization, you're inadvertently creating a difference in experience between men and women (for the base app, no purchases).
- OJFord 4y ago
  Alternatively (I know nothing about the domain) perhaps allow the choice for free? (Needn't be 'tell me your gender here's data sharing agreement blah blah blah', could just be a choice between '~33lb' and ..whatever the current is that's apparently more appropriate for men.)
  - aschismatic 4y ago
    Yeah that's what I meant, sorry if I wasn't clear!
    - OJFord 4y ago
      Ah sorry - I read it as 'offer the full free-form weight [that it is/I assumed it is with payment] for free'.
whalesalad 4y ago
Congrats! 5-3-1 is a great name and a great program.
NKosmatos 4y ago
Bravo to you!!! Most of us have half started, unfinished projects and once more you show to all of us that we should make some time from our daily routines and finally just ship it ;-) I know that for US and other high paying countries 500$/mo is not much but for most countries it’s a very respectable amount. I’m a huge fan of Ben’s tinyprojects and reading his posts, stories like yours and other similar HN posts/comments give us courage and some of the missing determination.
- OJFord 4y ago
  > I’m a huge fan of Ben’s tinyprojects and reading his posts, stories like yours and other similar HN posts/comments give us courage and some of the missing determination. Personally, I felt that very briefly; then like crap for my years old WIPs or worse! It's nice to read there can be decent outcomes for 'little' things; it's not so nice to see how quickly some people can turn them around (compared to oneself)! 'analysis paralysis' is my problem I think, I'm sure there are years old ideas floating around back there (that I was/am really excited about) that I still haven't quite figure out how to store the (non-existent!) user data for. It's also a curse of it being your own side project, not something with a deadline/external expectations, I suppose.
mrlagmer 4y ago
Hey nice work. I have been getting into weight lifting once I hit 40 and really enjoy it. I suggest looking at stronglifts app if you want to see how to grow this. That app is great and after a week I had gone to the premium subscription. I feel you are missing customers with the site saying that the app assumes you know how to do 5/3/1. You should have a how to page on your site. Anyway great work congrats.
tough 4y ago
Awesome and congrats, I might use this if I start training again (company pays the gym now!)
pdmfz 4y ago
This is really cool. I've worked on a lot of side projects in my free time, and my most successful one (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1607228378 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1607228378) pulls in just $11 in MRR. Even though it's so little, I get really excited when I get a new subscription or a subscription renews. I've had a lot of trouble trying to market the app. I've experimented with Instagram ads, but the conversion rates were really bad. I'll try the Instagram accounts strategy you mentioned and hopefully that helps.
amohajerani 4y ago
I do 5-3-1 workouts using a spreadsheet and that has been a mess. I really appreciate your solution.
a_square_peg 4y ago
That's fantastic - congrats!
r0b05 4y ago
Congrats and great work!
DeathArrow 4y ago
Does anyone have an opinion on web apps/websites vs mobile apps for small projects generating small incomes? Which is easier to pull off? I do have the feeling that competition is tougher on Play Store / App Store and you need some kind of luck for your app to become visible and potential users getting to use it.
kristianp 4y ago
> Squat – 5/3/1 sets/reps, 5x5 @ First Set Last ( or FSL) Can someone decode this for me? [1] I can't see an explanation despite this claiming to be for beginners. [1] https://www.jimwendler.com/blogs/jimwendler-com/101065094-5-3-1-for-a-beginner https://www.jimwendler.com/blogs/jimwendler-com/101065094-5-...
- greazy 4y ago
  > First Set Last (FSL) is a rep scheme for supplemental work within the 5/3/1 programming framework. It programs the percentage of a lifter’s training max used for their first 5/3/1 working set for 5 sets of 5 reps (5×5). https://liftvault.com/resources/first-set-last-fsl/ https://liftvault.com/resources/first-set-last-fsl/
  - kristianp 4y ago
    What about 5/3/1? I assume it's 5 reps, then 3 reps then 1 rep, but at what weight?
asthar 4y ago
Hello, many, many congratulations! This is a big W.
dirtyid 4y ago
Great job. Lots of lifting tracking apps out there, but kind of wonder legality around naming apps around popular systems. Not sure if Wendler has trade mark on 531 or even official app. I think there was some drama over Sheiko app when it was released, but he's Russian so maybe too much jurisdictional PIA to resolve. That said, it does feel kind of not right there's so many 531/SS/StrongLifts apps out there brazenly using the routine name for their app.
lee 4y ago
That's amazing and inspiring. I had thought about making a 5/3/1 app when I got into powerlifting but thought to myself "nah, no one would pay for it and there're so many apps out there already". The inspiration here is that I need to validate my assumptions or really be skeptical about them. Congrats!
jangjorim 4y ago
Congrats! I saw your initial ads in the gym I go to, highly likely we go to the same gym :)
neill 4y ago
> It's easy to go on Instagram and forget how long you've been resting for. Don't worry, we'll notify you once your rest is over. Will this notify through a connected Apple Watch? So that I can just get up and take a breather and get a vibration on my wrist when it's time for my next set? That'd be awesome. A thought- the notification in the screenshot tells you your next weight, but it seems that it's telling you after your rest- not after your last set. A notification to set your next weight before you rest would be helpful, so that you're ready to go when rest is over.
jamil7 4y ago
Very cool, I only made it to $50/mo before hitting a dead end on one of my apps. I hope the next one I can reach $100/mo. Despite all the (warranted) criticism of the AppStore I still find it pretty easy to get a consumer app into people's hands and getting them paying for it as a solo dev. The web is a lot harder in that respect but does make up for it in the B2B SaaS area.

578 points by strongpigeon 4y ago

silvi9 4y ago

Congratulations! That's incredibly impressive, and is so inspiring, especially for all us fellow indie hackers out there. What were your main ways of acquiring new users? Do you have any marketing advice that helped you out? Well done again, and wishing you continued success with your app!

strongpigeon 4y ago
Thank you! Initially I would use Instagram and follow some hashtags and like people's posts and follow them to get them to look at my profile (I got about 150 downloads that way). One day I decided I wanted to try out ReactJs and so I made a web calculator version [0]. The goal was to make something better than the current incumbent (Black Iron Beast). This turned out to be super helpful. It usually ranks number 2 on most Google queries for 5/3/1 calculators and lead to about 200 downloads for the app. I also started using Apple App Store Search Ad with their $100 credit and honestly the result are great. Having your app show up first for some keywords is a huge boost. [0] https://fivethreeone.app/calculator https://fivethreeone.app/calculator
whelton 4y ago
Another indie hacker here, to add to OP’s reply, I’ve been using Syften[0] to monitor relevant keywords across various sites to find people my product can be of value to, or I provide answers to their related questions (which can lead them to checking out my profile and then product). I’m building Conjure[1] a habits, behavior and goals platform, so I track everything from ‘habits’/‘productivity’/‘quantified-self’ type keywords, to people looking for alternatives to XYZ product name, to specific questions I’ve answered before (eg organization, time tracking, building exercise habit, achievement, etc). [0] https://syften.com https://syften.com [1] https://conjure.so https://conjure.so

bitxbitxbitcoin 4y ago

Congrats! That is a significant milestone.

strongpigeon 4y ago
Thank you!

reducesuffering 4y ago

Congrats! What does your tech stack look like? How long did it take you?

strongpigeon 4y ago
The app is written in Flutter. There is no backend except that I use Firebase Crashlytics to catch bugs that make it to releases. The web calculator is built using ReactJS and uses Firebase hosting (still low enough traffic to be under the free tier)
- csunbird 4y ago
  If there is no backend, and also if you are not collecting any personal data, maybe you can add a “privacy friendly, your personal data is not collected” marketing section as well. Although I am not sure if your users would care about that.
  - strongpigeon 4y ago
    That's a good point. My app store Privacy Section is pretty clean, but I might put it on the front page of my marketing site.
- 999900000999 4y ago
  Yay Flutter! Any reason you had to use ReactJS embedded in Flutter, I imagine you could of done that with Dart
  - strongpigeon 4y ago
    Sorry if I wasn't too clear. I haven't embedded ReactJS in Flutter. I just made an online calculator [0] in ReactJS for people who prefer not using apps. Could I have use Flutter for that? Probably, but I wanted to try React so I did. [0] https://fivethreeone.app/calculator https://fivethreeone.app/calculator
    - 4y ago

TameAntelope 4y ago

Congrats! I am always super excited/impressed by people who can take something all the way like this, just because I know how monumentally hard finishing any project is. I'm at least decently familiar with the first half of "end-to-end" but don't have a lot of experience in the back half. Was there something cool/unintuitive you learned while having to figure out how to market and support your weightlifting app that you'd be willing to share?

strongpigeon 4y ago
Everybody says it, but the marketing part of it matters a lot. As a shape rotator, I struggle with putting myself out there and really have to force myself to "just do it". The app store is a big, noisy marketplace, so having other channels to get people to try your app and give you ratings is crucial. That really help me get through the initial wall and now my app is showing up pretty high in the search result.
- binkHN 4y ago
  > ...get people to ... give you ratings is crucial. How were you able to promote this? Thanks.
  - strongpigeon 4y ago
    iOS has this control to prompt users to rate your app. I made it so that the prompt appears after the user has completed a workout, at which point they are probably happy with the app (and aren't getting jarringly interrupted).

RankingMember 4y ago

Congrats on the success! Any chance of an Android version of that app? I'm glad you made a 5/3/1-specific app; I've always had to shoehorn 5/3/1 into some other "Build your own routine" apps and it's always been clunky at best.

strongpigeon 4y ago
I'm actively working on the Android version. I'm waiting on some Material 3 component for Flutter to be done [0], but it's almost ready to test! [0] https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/91605 https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/91605
- travisgriggs 4y ago
  Curious why you chose Dart/Flutter over Kotlin/Jetpack (not necessarily Compose though). Could you share? I hope you’ll share in the future what your usage/downloads look like as well as where you make money, between the two phone types.
  - strongpigeon 4y ago
    Mostly because I wanted to give Flutter a shot. The instant hot reload really got me hooked. As I also said elsewhere, I was already super familiar with Dart given that I worked on Google Ads (where the front-end is built using Dart). I'll try to share some data on the Android version compared to iOS. My gut feeling is that the rate of purchase for IAP is going to be much lower, but I think it could help with getting the app known (thus leading to more iOS downloads as well).
- RankingMember 4y ago
  Great to hear
conradfr 4y ago
Personally I use FitNotes to track my workouts (5/3/1 or not) and keep (the totally not responsive) http://lift.eha-ab.ca/ http://lift.eha-ab.ca/ open in my mobile browser.

newbie578 4y ago

Congrats! This is really no small achievement, being able to make a profit while making mobile apps is no little thing. I saw your comment that you made the app in Flutter, how come that you didn't release it then for Android? Also a separate question, I do wonder what was your thought process for coming up with the idea for the app? Do you keep somewhere a list of app ideas, or was this one you have been dreaming about some time? Keep going and I wish you much more success!

strongpigeon 4y ago
I'm using the Cupertino widget to have an iOS look and feel. I care a lot about the experience and I didn't want to release an Android app that feels like an iOS one. That being said I'm almost done making the app look great on Android. I'm just waiting for some Material 3 widgets to be done by the Flutter team. My thought process was simple : I don't like any of the apps on the App Store for 5/3/1, so I'm going to make my own!
- LocalPCGuy 4y ago
  I personally would argue that shipping (and being available) > than purely looking like it's 100% platform specific. But it's your app, and congrats on the success so far.

bambax 4y ago

Excellent, congrats! Can you elaborate on IAPs (or other insights)? The app is free, yes? Then what can users buy while using the app?

flanbiscuit 4y ago
Found this on the iOS App store page: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/five-three-one/id1560266240 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/five-three-one/id1560266240 Features include: - Planning and scheduling your whole 5/3/1 cycle - Charting your progress - Rest timer with notifications - Automatic plating calculation - Calculating your next cycle based on your performance - Notes associated with each sets - Home screen widget showing your your current and upcoming workouts - Lbs/kg support Optional paid features: - Customize which plates you're using and change your barbell's weight - Customize templates assistance work and define your own exercises - Beyond 5/3/1 templates and options, from Joker Sets to FSL, Pyramid and much more!
strongpigeon 4y ago
My thinking was that unless you have a killer video / app store page, people won't pay for a brand new app. I'm not really good at this part, so I figured I'd just make the base app for free (you can do most workout templates from the first book), and charge for features. If people like the app, they'll feel invested and will want to invest more by buying features. Right now there are 3 Premium Features : - Custom Plating [0]: Which allows users to define which weight plates they have for the calculator - Custom Assistance [1]: Which allows users to customize the assistance sets they have - Beyond 5/3/1 Pack [2]: Which contains stuff from the Beyond 5/3/1 book. The thinking was that most of the stuff from the base app, you can easily do with the tools already out there (e.g. the black iron beast calculator), but that people would pay for new capabilities. [0] https://fivethreeone.app/custom-plating https://fivethreeone.app/custom-plating [1] https://fivethreeone.app/custom-assistance https://fivethreeone.app/custom-assistance [2] https://fivethreeone.app/beyond-pack https://fivethreeone.app/beyond-pack
danuker 4y ago
https://fivethreeone.app/ https://fivethreeone.app/ Custom Plating Custom Assistance Beyond 5/3/1 Pack: Joker Sets, First Set Last, Boring But Big Challenges...

lwhi 4y ago

Great work! This is inspiring .. great to hear. What are you thinking next?

strongpigeon 4y ago
I'm almost done with the Android version and will start working on an Apple Watch companion app right after that (which I think I could charge $15-20 for). I was semi-hoping they'd announce Flutter for wearables at Google I/O alongside the Pixel watch, but looks like I'll have to learn a bit more iOS stuff.

newbie578 4y ago

Can anyone share what is their thought process regarding on deciding what app to build? Say you have a Word document with 15 different ideas, how do you decide which one is worth investing?

ffhhj 4y ago
In my case, the one that has a larger community where it can be promoted at low cost.
strongpigeon 4y ago
I built this app because I wanted to use it. Being user 0 is really helpful and is quite fun I can say.

allenu 4y ago

Well done! $500/mo, though not crazy money, is significant. How did you market your app and how long did it take you to build out the app? I've built an app as well while I was doing my regular day job and recently quit the day job, mostly due to being burned out working in big tech as well. During my break from work, I decided to try to get my app sales up, but it's challenging. (During my best month, I think I got up to $200/mo but it's more like $100/mo right now.) As many others before me have found, marketing is the key, and I'm still learning that game. So, $500/mo is really good stuff. That said, building the app and making my users happy is something that is incredibly gratifying, and something that was missing in my previous 9-5.

dheera 4y ago
Yep, all money is money and can make a difference to anyone. I live in the bay area, and though my rent is a lot more than $500/mo, if I put $500/mo more toward rent I really could have a much nicer apartment, for example. Or it could be the monthly payment for an EV. $500/mo can be a nice quality of life boost even in the most expensive parts of the world even if it's not enough to live on just that. Back when I was doing my PhD, on a $2300/mo research assistantship salary in Boston, I also built a webapp that got me ~$200-300/mo for several years and close to $900/mo for one of those years. That alone allowed me to do lots of things I wanted to do at the time (e.g. ~2 overseas vacations a year and several self-supported long distance bike trips). Savings wasn't a huge concern at the time because I knew I could get a decent-paying job post-graduation.
strongpigeon 4y ago
Thank you! I feel you 100% when you say that keeping user happy is incredibly gratifying. The app took me about 300-400 hours to build. Regarding marketing, I've said it elsewhere in the thread but here it is again: - Created an instagram account for the app and started following some tags. I liked post on the tags and started following some users to get them to look at my profile. Got about 150 downloads from that. - Made a 5/3/1 Calculator website. The goal was to make something useful to boost the SEO of my domain. What really ended up happening is the calculator ranks usually number 2 on Google and then users see the link to the app in there and click on it. Got about 200 downloads from that. - Apple Search Ads gives you $100 credit. Got a bunch of downloads with this - I used Bing Ads credits but wasn't too impressed with what I was getting from there though

itslennysfault 4y ago

Awesome. Congrats! Did you do anything to promote the app? (other than posting it here and organic searches on the app store)

strongpigeon 4y ago
Thank you! See my other comment for what I did to promote the app [0]. Short version: Instagram account to follow people and have them look at my profile. Useful website with a link to my app as "content marketing" and Apple Search Ads. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31508328 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31508328

OnlyMortal 4y ago

We’ll done! Keep going. Be aware that you may find premium feature take up/download ratio lower on Android.

strongpigeon 4y ago
Thank you! That's what I'm expecting. I'm mostly doing the Android version for my friends and for the "brand awareness" of the app. I'm curious to see how that'll turn out.
- SoftTalker 4y ago
  I'm on Android, and would possibly use this. Would your app work for tracking the Starting Strength program (3x5 sets 3x/week, not 5/3/1) or is it very exclusive to 5/3/1 tracking?
  - strongpigeon 4y ago
    Right now it’s only 5/3/1. But the 5’s progression template from Beyond 5/3/1 is similar enough. Feel free to look at the online calculator to get a sense of the template. https://fivethreeone.app/calculator https://fivethreeone.app/calculator

afrnz 4y ago

Very impressive and bravo on your success! I love seeing indie hackers launching their projects and get positive feedback in the form of revenue. Also appreciate the weightlifting focus, will check out the app for sure.

strongpigeon 4y ago
Thank you!

bgroat 4y ago

$500/mth is $6,000/yr At a 4% safe withdrawal rate what you've built is the equivilent of saving $150,000. You should be EXTREMELY proud of yourself, and never underestimate the power and value of the asset you've built

andymcsherry 4y ago
This is a business, it's not passive income. It requires maintenance, support, etc. If he were to just let it ride, income might increase for a while but ultimately wither out and die.
quickthrower2 4y ago
You wouldn’t get $150k on flippa though. Maybe $15k?
POiNTx 4y ago
Can you breakdown this calculation? I'm familiar with FIRE and SWR but how do you get to the $150,000 number? [EDIT] Thanks got it!
- Jake232 4y ago
  4% of $150k is $6k, which is $500 * 12.
- jdasdf 4y ago
  6000/0.04 = 150 000 Essentially, those 6K a year is the equivalent of a 150K portfolio
  - cinntaile 4y ago
    I want to push back against this a little. He gets $500/month now, there is no guarantee he will keep receiving that number when he stops maintaining and improving his app. I would assume the number will go up if he keeps improving it, but if he stops it will eventually become 0$/month.

FredPret 4y ago

Great app. I’m using it tonight. Well done on the cash flow, well deserved. A good workout app can be life-changing.

strongpigeon 4y ago
Thank you and hope you enjoy it! My email is in my profile if you have any feedback!

ge96 4y ago

Nice to hear Side note I think 'Tell HN:' is for problems, vs. 'Show HN:'

Koffiepoeder 4y ago
I perceive it more as `interesting story` vs `interesting project`. OP's project-story is right on the edge between the two for me. At least for Show HN there is an official guideline [0] which mentions: > Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. HN users can try it out, give you feedback, and ask questions in the thread. Does anyone know whether there is an official `Tell HN` guideline? The HN guidelines and FAQ pages don't specify anything as far as I could tell. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
- ge96 4y ago
  From what I've seen on here usually 'Tell HN:' is used for things like "this company banned my account for no reason" or "this service is down" etc... Anyway I only mention it because I looked at this post and I was like "what happened/what went wrong".
  - OJFord 4y ago
    'tell' to me is more like a warning that it's not an external link (and 'ask'/'show' don't fit). 'show' is when the point of the post is to show off the project; whereas here (partly by the fact that it is 'tell'!) the point is sort of tangential to the actual project, it's just an example of the topic rather than the topic itself.

boplicity 4y ago

A question, from someone who used to start lots of projects, but now finds himself busy from all of those (some now quite successful) projects: How much daily "mental load" does something like this take? Are you able to work on it when you want, and otherwise ignore? Any tips for starting a small project that doesn't require ongoing mental effort?

strongpigeon 4y ago
The fact that I'm not running a service does make it a lot better. But being somewhat of a perfectionist, I do stress out a lot when a user email me with a bug. Being a user of the app myself reassure me that it's working and that even if there might be bugs, it's probably working well for the vast majority of folks.

m12k 4y ago

>I can't pretend to have derived any life lesson that applies to everybody from this Part of what attracted me to software engineering in the first place was an interest in "how things work", and being able to move between levels of abstraction (e.g. I know how IP, DNS, TCP, HTTP and JSON works, but most of the time I can just treat it as "sending objects"). So it was a bit of a eureka moment for me to realize that running a company is really just expanding the levels of abstraction that you operate with. It doesn't matter how well you code if people can't understand the user interface, so I got an interest in UX and usability. But it doesn't matter how user friendly it is, if it doesn't solve the right problem for people, so I got an interest in product development and customer research. It doesn't matter how good a product is if people never hear about it, so I got an interest in marketing and sales. And it doesn't matter how well I do all of that if I can't pay the bills, so I got an interest in pricing and monetization strategies. Juggling all those needs, and trying to shape the company and all its aspects into a cohesive whole is just as demanding and interesting as doing the same for a software project - it's just expanding the scope of which requirements and concerns you bring into the equation. For me at least, it's also been very rewarding to do the whole thing end-to-end, and it's felt like more of a natural extension of my ever-broadening interests than I would have expected. Bookkeeping can be as annoying as debugging, but in the end I'm really grateful that I understand how each detail works.

chrisweekly 4y ago
Good analogy, and cool story. IME real-world events rarely follow such a linear narrative but I found your company from your profile, and like that its blog -- https://www.hrvey.com/blog https://www.hrvey.com/blog -- shares insights from an "entrepreneurial journey" perspective. Congrats!
rambambram 4y ago
Thanks, this was a nice read. And closing with... > Bookkeeping can be as annoying as debugging, but in the end I'm really grateful that I understand how each detail works. ... hits home for me, haha. Never thought I was going to understand - let alone like - bookkeeping. What maybe helped, was me making my own bookkeeping app, it also forced me to understand the rules.

FooBarBizBazz 4y ago

Congrats! At 4% yield, that's like you've made (and invested) $150k, after tax. Before tax that'd be a yearly salary of well over $200k. If you can do 2 of those every year, you're on par with mid-level FAANG comp, once you include RSUs. There's probably a benefits and self-employment tax angle I'm leaving out though. And surely it's more volatile. But if you can keep it up it seems pretty solid.

savorypiano 4y ago
While I like the thinking, it's not quite the same as an index returning some yield is far more likely to give returns indefinitely, whereas an app can become obsolete.

ronyeh 4y ago

Congrats! Downloaded. Relevant to today's discussion, did you use SwiftUI or the ol reliable UIKit? Here's the url for those who are looking: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/five-three-one/id1560266240 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/five-three-one/id1560266240

strongpigeon 4y ago
The app is built using Flutter, but I'm using SwiftUI for the home screen widget.
- mylons 4y ago
  why did you use Flutter?
  - strongpigeon 4y ago
    I wanted to give it a shot. The instant hot-reload got me hooked. I was already super familiar with Dart too (I worked on Google Ads before, front-end is in Dart).

Knufen 4y ago

Super cool project man, congrats. I was unable to figure it out in the app, but is it possible to build your own routine instead of 5/3/1? I have been looking for this kinda of app and am willing to pay for it.

strongpigeon 4y ago
Custom Templates is a feature I go back and forth on, mainly because it'd complicate the data model a lot, but also some parts of the product. I might get around to it, but I'm going to work on other things (Android version, Apple Watch companion) first.
- Knufen 4y ago
  Does the data model have to be changed? Can't it just be a simple "fill exercise and how many reps/kg you want" type of thing? And understandable with your limited time!

dimitrios1 4y ago

I love that there is so much opportunity in the indie space, and hope it doesn't go away. There are a ton of great apps to be made, with better UIs and functionality than existing entrants that aren't made by big companies because they don't offer enterprise-sized war chests and moats. Can't make enough to pay for a bunch of MBAs, managers, and SEO, Creative, and Engineering teams, so they don't get made. But it's certainly enough for a few driven people.

sound1 4y ago

> I can't pretend to have derived any life lesson that applies to everybody from this, but this whole mini-journey was worth it for me, and I hope it will be for you too, should you embark in a similar one. You have a new fan. Hearty congratulations and wish you a continued success!! You are an inspiration :-)

ushakov 4y ago

now sell that to businesses and turn it into $500/day instead!

shreyshnaccount 4y ago

Congrats on the launch! Its always inspiring to see small indie tech projects solving real life problems for real people, and getting paid for it! That's the magic of technology! I too loved Ben's tiny projects and appreciate the love that's goes into making these!

Zababa 4y ago

> I can't pretend to have derived any life lesson that applies to everybody from this Kudos for being honest about this, it's rare these days. Congratulations and I wish you the best.

unity1001 4y ago

> Doing the whole thing end-to-end (code, launch, marketing, support) was super gratifying and taught me a whole lot Yep. Just putting out one single app by doing everything teaches you a LOT about tech and makes you start giving due respect to every single specialization that exists in tech - from development to support to marketing.

izolate 4y ago

Great job! This is inspiring to all us indie hackers out there.

Xeronate 4y ago

Grats. That's awesome! How did you market it? Seems like weightlifting apps has to be a pretty saturated market. Also assuming its a native iOS app since there isn't an android equivalent. Were you an iOS developer in big tech? Building UIs feels so much nicer with the native frameworks, but I'm always hesitant to do so because writing the same app twice seems so grueling.

strongpigeon 4y ago
I agree that "weightlifting app" as a whole is pretty saturated and some of the apps are pretty good too. I figured I'd have more chance to stand out in a niche, namely 5/3/1 specific apps. I was previously a full stack SWE on Google Ads before. The app is built using Flutter, so porting it to Android isn't too hard. I built it using the iOS looking widget first that's what I use. The Android version should be out pretty soon.
h4waii 4y ago
I wrote my first full-blown mobile apps (fairly simple and spartan) with React Native, I target both iOS and Android, and it was a breeze using Expo. It's seriously good, I have no affiliation, just a happy customer (I tested the paid tier out but currently use the free one).

egypturnash 4y ago

Congratulations, if you were me then your app would be covering your rent!

deathanatos 4y ago
… where I am it's $2,700/mo. … my brother just moved to Podunksville, TN, and the rent on a 1 bd is $900/mo…
- egypturnash 4y ago
  man, I left Seattle when my shitty 2br in the U got up to like $1200/mo after climbing $100/mo like clockwork every year. You are a couple orders of magnitude richer than I am if you can afford that. Which is not surprising given that I'm a lazy freelance artist who mostly draws furry porn and your last few comments indicate you're a Senior Software Engineer at a FAANG. Now my husband and I are splitting $950 for a 3br in New Orleans. It's pretty nice once you get inured to the fact that everything you own and love in this world, including you, could be washed away in a hurricane. And the "holy shit I am a trans living in the one queer-friendly hotspot in what is otherwise a very red state" thing. The place is full of artists who could stop worrying about where most of their rent is coming from if they got $500/month coming in from somewhere.
  - uuggghhhhh 4y ago
  - TMWNN 4y ago
    >Which is not surprising given that I'm a lazy freelance artist who mostly draws furry porn I've heard that that's very lucrative. So much so that I've read accounts by more than one who finds creating such art (and the customers) disgusting, but can't stop because of the huge market demand.
    - egypturnash 4y ago
      It can be a pretty good market! Personally I've spent my entire career as a furry artist drawing stuff I enjoy bringing into the world, and the vast majority of my clients have been pretty chill. Lots of slightly-socially-awkwards IT types with active imaginations who are happy to pay me a pretty good rate to put their dreams into concrete imagery.

Ventito 4y ago

Cool app. Very impressive that it makes that much :) I thought about an fitness app myself. I'm curious when it will be available: With ML you could really analyse what someone is doing and counting and basically playing fitness coache for you including proper counting of your things.

davidkuennen 4y ago

Very good. Congrats. I made an app 2 years ago and make around 10,000$/month currently with it. Keep going!

ayewo 4y ago
Go on, tell us more …

nchudleigh 4y ago

This is awesome, I love workout tracking and am currently doing a 5/3/1 program- wish that I had a iOS device to try your app out. Love the way you have structured the IAPs and the look of the app from the screenshots. Currently using Strong (more than 400 workouts logged). Curious, how did you go about marketing this?

kebsup 4y ago

Good job! I know exactly the feeling. I'll once again shamelessly plug my project, since it's vaguely relevant. I'm making about 200 USD/month by selling watermark removals on https://gifmemes.io https://gifmemes.io. What I've learnt is that I'm very bad at marketing & design and will much rather spend hours programming useless features. For example I've spent like 10 hours getting an wasm ffmpeg converter of gifs to mp4s and webms, which was not used AT ALL, while most of my traffic still comes from cold-writing (is it even a term) for 1 hour random people to put links on their websites or subreddits. The scene in the Sillicon Valley series, where Richards enhances the algorithm by 1 % is quite accurate. On the other hand, being the solo developer and product owner is quite powerful. My implementation of billing into the app took around 2 hours, which is probably less than a meeting about it would take in a company. Finally, I can run silly experiments. There is a button in the "Buy watermark removal" page that says "It's too expensive", which leads to 50 % discount. Around 70 % people still buy the full price.

telchior 4y ago
I love the "too expensive" button. I'm the sort of person who'd probably want to test a dozen variations of that, half of them being jokes, and try to figure out exactly why it works. Do you know how many of the full price buyers ever click the button and find out it has a discount?
- kebsup 4y ago
  Nope. I have some more ideas to try, but with my sale frequency once in 1-2 days, it's quite difficult to make any statistical conclusions. However, since it's a meme website, I don't think there are any limits on creativity of psychological experiments. :D
volsa_ 4y ago
I love the "But internet stuff should be free!" button, got a chuckle out of me :P
OJFord 4y ago
> Finally, I can run silly experiments. There is a button in the "Buy watermark removal" page that says "It's too expensive", which leads to 50 % discount. Around 70 % people still buy the full price. I don't find that silly at all. At most it's a fun example of price discrimination. A fairly big online-only florist in the UK (Bloom & Wild) for example does something similar, if you enter a valid voucher code but it's only for new customers, it pops up telling you that 'but click here to apply 10% off instead' (where the voucher might've been for 25 or whatever). Clever I think - stops you thinking 'oh sod it' and shopping around.

s-xyz 4y ago

Well executed app

bm-rf 4y ago

side note, I love the strong pigeon website! What a team!

aryamansharda 4y ago

Congrats on the success! I just started a newsletter - Indie Watch (http://indie.watch/ http://indie.watch/) - that features cool apps built by indie iOS developers. Would you mind if I featured your app in our first release? Since it's our first release, I can't guarantee any results or conversions, but the mailing list has a few hundred people on it, so it couldn't hurt...

strongpigeon 4y ago
Thank you! For sure! My email is in my profile

ta3411 4y ago

Can I ask about your experience implementing Stripe Connect Express, especially how did you choose that over Stripe Connect Standard? My understanding is you have to do more heavy lifting integration work, pay monthly fee per account, KYC, and are responsible for refunds for Express. Whereas a lot of that are taken care of in Standard.

yboris 4y ago

Thank you for sharing! I wish more people were transparent about money (to know what's possible). In my example, I created Video Hub App that sells for $5 (and $3.50 goes to a cost-effective charity). I'm averaging about $500 for over a year now (with almost $15,000 donated to charity). https://videohubapp.com/ https://videohubapp.com/ & https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App (MIT open source)

rebelos 4y ago
Wow this is cool. How long did it take to build it?
- yboris 4y ago
  About 4 months for the version 1.0.0 - all outside of a full time job (I was really excited and spent maybe 20-30 hours per week on it maybe). Since then it's been about 3 years of intermittent work - adding features, fixing bugs. The announcement post on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17587992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17587992

MrDresden 4y ago

Congrats! I hope to follow your lead one of these days

sjskwaiwn 4y ago

5/3/1 is a powerlifting/strength training/weight training/weight lifting program. Weightlifting refers to Olympic weightlifting. Weightlifters are those who snatch and clean & jerk.

gigatexal 4y ago

Congrats. 500 a month is nothing to laugh at. Relocate this a few times and you’re living the indie dev’s dream!

vegesm 4y ago

Congrats! It's about the same I make with Android with my app (a graphing calculator) [1]. Everyone says on Android you can earn less, I'm curious what's your experience will be. [1] https://androidcalculator.com/ https://androidcalculator.com/

strongpigeon 4y ago
That’s one SEO friendly domain name. Nice work on the app!

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

aschismatic 4y ago

I checked out your app because I've been wanting something like it but hadn't bothered looking at what was out there yet. Looks great! One thing I noticed though is that both barbell weight customization and plate customization is coupled together in one purchase. I feel like you may want to separate barbell weight into a free customization option because barbells made specifically for women tend to be lighter (~33lbs). By charging for barbell weight customization, you're inadvertently creating a difference in experience between men and women (for the base app, no purchases).

OJFord 4y ago
Alternatively (I know nothing about the domain) perhaps allow the choice for free? (Needn't be 'tell me your gender here's data sharing agreement blah blah blah', could just be a choice between '~33lb' and ..whatever the current is that's apparently more appropriate for men.)
- aschismatic 4y ago
  Yeah that's what I meant, sorry if I wasn't clear!
  - OJFord 4y ago
    Ah sorry - I read it as 'offer the full free-form weight [that it is/I assumed it is with payment] for free'.

whalesalad 4y ago

Congrats! 5-3-1 is a great name and a great program.

NKosmatos 4y ago

Bravo to you!!! Most of us have half started, unfinished projects and once more you show to all of us that we should make some time from our daily routines and finally just ship it ;-) I know that for US and other high paying countries 500$/mo is not much but for most countries it’s a very respectable amount. I’m a huge fan of Ben’s tinyprojects and reading his posts, stories like yours and other similar HN posts/comments give us courage and some of the missing determination.

OJFord 4y ago
> I’m a huge fan of Ben’s tinyprojects and reading his posts, stories like yours and other similar HN posts/comments give us courage and some of the missing determination. Personally, I felt that very briefly; then like crap for my years old WIPs or worse! It's nice to read there can be decent outcomes for 'little' things; it's not so nice to see how quickly some people can turn them around (compared to oneself)! 'analysis paralysis' is my problem I think, I'm sure there are years old ideas floating around back there (that I was/am really excited about) that I still haven't quite figure out how to store the (non-existent!) user data for. It's also a curse of it being your own side project, not something with a deadline/external expectations, I suppose.

mrlagmer 4y ago

Hey nice work. I have been getting into weight lifting once I hit 40 and really enjoy it. I suggest looking at stronglifts app if you want to see how to grow this. That app is great and after a week I had gone to the premium subscription. I feel you are missing customers with the site saying that the app assumes you know how to do 5/3/1. You should have a how to page on your site. Anyway great work congrats.

tough 4y ago

Awesome and congrats, I might use this if I start training again (company pays the gym now!)

pdmfz 4y ago

This is really cool. I've worked on a lot of side projects in my free time, and my most successful one (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1607228378 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1607228378) pulls in just $11 in MRR. Even though it's so little, I get really excited when I get a new subscription or a subscription renews. I've had a lot of trouble trying to market the app. I've experimented with Instagram ads, but the conversion rates were really bad. I'll try the Instagram accounts strategy you mentioned and hopefully that helps.

amohajerani 4y ago

I do 5-3-1 workouts using a spreadsheet and that has been a mess. I really appreciate your solution.

a_square_peg 4y ago

That's fantastic - congrats!

r0b05 4y ago

Congrats and great work!

DeathArrow 4y ago

Does anyone have an opinion on web apps/websites vs mobile apps for small projects generating small incomes? Which is easier to pull off? I do have the feeling that competition is tougher on Play Store / App Store and you need some kind of luck for your app to become visible and potential users getting to use it.

kristianp 4y ago

> Squat – 5/3/1 sets/reps, 5x5 @ First Set Last ( or FSL) Can someone decode this for me? [1] I can't see an explanation despite this claiming to be for beginners. [1] https://www.jimwendler.com/blogs/jimwendler-com/101065094-5-3-1-for-a-beginner https://www.jimwendler.com/blogs/jimwendler-com/101065094-5-...

greazy 4y ago
> First Set Last (FSL) is a rep scheme for supplemental work within the 5/3/1 programming framework. It programs the percentage of a lifter’s training max used for their first 5/3/1 working set for 5 sets of 5 reps (5×5). https://liftvault.com/resources/first-set-last-fsl/ https://liftvault.com/resources/first-set-last-fsl/
- kristianp 4y ago
  What about 5/3/1? I assume it's 5 reps, then 3 reps then 1 rep, but at what weight?

asthar 4y ago

Hello, many, many congratulations! This is a big W.

dirtyid 4y ago

Great job. Lots of lifting tracking apps out there, but kind of wonder legality around naming apps around popular systems. Not sure if Wendler has trade mark on 531 or even official app. I think there was some drama over Sheiko app when it was released, but he's Russian so maybe too much jurisdictional PIA to resolve. That said, it does feel kind of not right there's so many 531/SS/StrongLifts apps out there brazenly using the routine name for their app.

lee 4y ago

That's amazing and inspiring. I had thought about making a 5/3/1 app when I got into powerlifting but thought to myself "nah, no one would pay for it and there're so many apps out there already". The inspiration here is that I need to validate my assumptions or really be skeptical about them. Congrats!

jangjorim 4y ago

Congrats! I saw your initial ads in the gym I go to, highly likely we go to the same gym :)

neill 4y ago

> It's easy to go on Instagram and forget how long you've been resting for. Don't worry, we'll notify you once your rest is over. Will this notify through a connected Apple Watch? So that I can just get up and take a breather and get a vibration on my wrist when it's time for my next set? That'd be awesome. A thought- the notification in the screenshot tells you your next weight, but it seems that it's telling you after your rest- not after your last set. A notification to set your next weight before you rest would be helpful, so that you're ready to go when rest is over.

jamil7 4y ago

Very cool, I only made it to $50/mo before hitting a dead end on one of my apps. I hope the next one I can reach $100/mo. Despite all the (warranted) criticism of the AppStore I still find it pretty easy to get a consumer app into people's hands and getting them paying for it as a solo dev. The web is a lot harder in that respect but does make up for it in the B2B SaaS area.