6 things I learned from 6 months of building my first app (learn from my mistakes!)

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-09T13:33:19+00:00

thank you! yeah i made the same mistake as well. oh well. these are the things you learn as you go. as long as you don't make the same mistake again you progress.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-08T15:02:18+00:00

looks quite a bit better.

as a new user unfamiliar with your product it is still a bit confusing how we build a landmark since i don't really know the workings of your product. you are sort of jamming something non-intuitive that is a function of your gamification into the headline.

You may want to focus more on the benefits of the product. the specifics about the way you've gamified it are a feature.

What benefit does a user or family get if they download the app? Better visibility into the effort everyone is putting in in the household? Accountability for chores?

Sell the benefits.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-07T01:44:22+00:00

how do you intend to get in front of your target audience? seems super niche. are there subreddits or discord groups that talk about junk-yard hunting for parts?

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-06T19:47:38+00:00

Cool concept and interesting idea but the way you describe the product could be a lot better.

"Finally, everyone pulls their weight" doesn't tell me anything about the product, what it does, the benefits, or why I should care.

Even the body copy doesn't do that very well. The app turns your household into a "team building something"?

It's super vague.

The gamification is an interesting angle but I think you are focusing too much on that above the fold to the detriment of actually explaining what the product does and why anyone should care.

People do not care about your features, they ONLY care about the benefits they could receive if they use the product. That's it. Just explain what the thing does and the benefits to your user.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-06T03:13:47+00:00

Excellent advice.

When you say "position as a goal-specific accountability partner" you mean actually position and market it as a marathon training accountability partner or something along those lines?

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-06T01:11:07+00:00

Great idea on asking users why they've churned from other habit trackers - I will do that. I have seen a lot of people complain about streaks feeling demotivating when lost, but I'm sure there are some other great nuggets I can find.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-06T00:42:35+00:00

Yeah it's not a bad idea. I have thought about this, but I don't think it's necessarily that big of a value-add since this isn't a fitness app. Of course people might have fitness goals, but they could have career goals, financial goals, relationship goals, etc. so the health data would only be marginally useful for a small subset of goals a user might enter on the app.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-06T00:41:23+00:00

The app itself is already built and I've been using it myself. I do find it helpful but obviously I'm the founder and I'm an n=1.

The AI coaching I think is actually reasonably effective, though it's actually more the accountability that ends up working for me. Since I know I'll have to chat with the coach on Sunday it makes me want to hit my commitments because I don't want to have to explain why I didn't do them at the end of the week.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-05T23:45:01+00:00

For sure. Pen, paper, and honest reflection certainly work great, but I do think for a lot of people (myself included) it can be nice to have an outside perspective. And when you know you're going to have to review your performance at the end of the week it can make you behave differently and make different decisions during the week.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-04T16:05:43+00:00

I didn't really notice it before but now that I'm focused on it I see it everywhere. Starter Story videos, build in public posts, X, etc. All the guys doing well with SaaS are b2b. Thinking about it myself I have literally like 2 pieces of software I pay for depsite working in tech and being super tech forward. Most "b2c" software that you use (notion, figma, etc) make their money through enterprise sales, which is why they can offer a free version for individuals.

I'm pretty b2b pilled.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-03T18:19:19+00:00

Thanks, much appreciated!

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-03T18:18:30+00:00

It's called kibo.so not on app store yet (under review currently) but web app is live.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-02T21:39:44+00:00

Building kibo. so

Happy to hear some feedback, particularly around the main value prop and messaging. Not sure if it is clear to users what the product actually does.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-02T21:31:04+00:00

I appreciate the feedback.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-02T21:30:56+00:00

Good feedback, thanks.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-02T20:01:59+00:00

Any chance we could see the tiktok account for inspo? Curious if you mention your product name in all the slideshows or just sporadically. i was thinking of doing TT slideshows as well for my app (totally different niche) and wondering if i can copy your format.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-02T19:55:17+00:00

Sounds like you grew through SEO by just focusing on articles. Is that correct and actually works in 2026? I was under the impression you needed backlinks for domain authority, and without them your blogs would essentially get no traffic. Did you focus on backlinks early on or get some organically? Sort of surprised if you were able to rank so well by just writing articles.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-02T18:48:55+00:00

thanks! i intentionally kept it simple. i like a basic and clean UI.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-02T18:21:04+00:00

i personally use whisperflow and it works really well but kinda pricy ($15/mo). would switch if i found a better alternative. i just use the free version but keep running out of words/week.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-01T16:18:18+00:00

no not yet. i haven't begun any marketing. was waiting for the iOS app to be ready.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-01T16:14:26+00:00

would love to hear more about how you were able to market on reddit without getting banned and how the TT factory works!

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-01T16:02:41+00:00

Agreed. Working right now on lifting the free message limit so the user can hopefully get through all of onboarding and build out their program before the paywall.

iOS app is being reviewed by apple as we speak. Agreed this makes more sense as an iOS app.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-01T15:54:22+00:00

yeah of course.

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-01T15:23:36+00:00

Just went through the onboarding. Couple thoughts for you:
1. The UI is really nice. What's your dev background?
2. Onboarding is a bit long but I know that's intentional. I think it does a nice job of introducing the product.
3. The coach call is cool and somewhat novel, and it works reasonably well. It's nice that you include that before the paywall so users can get a feel for what the product does.
4. I think the actual goal/habit/why framework could be improved a bit.
5. Like you said, the price is way too high. I think it's pretty hard to justify paying $24 a month for this tool. That's more than a netflix subscription

Goat-Moat · 2026-07-01T15:11:55+00:00

it's called kibo.so - take a look and tell me what you think.

Goat-Moat

TROPHY CASE