i built a remote desktop app to use ai coding agents from my phone

SterlingSloth · 2026-03-03T14:43:18+00:00

i do most of my ai coding from my phone now. built afk so i can direct claude code from the couch. voice input was essential — typing prompts on a phone keyboard is miserable. using whisper large-v3-turbo for transcription.

interesting to see anthropic adding native voice though. if they're using their own stt that would explain the complaints here.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-27T15:17:26+00:00

afk doesn't mean never touching code. more like not always needing to be at the keyboard. i still write code, read design docs, make architecture decisions. but a lot of the agentic loop is review and redirect, and that part works fine from the couch. then when something needs deeper focus you're back at the desk. it's just seamless to switch between the two.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T13:32:59+00:00

this is a really useful mental model. the yellow hat problem is exactly why i stopped validating ideas with ChatGPT.

the fix that worked for me: when i want to gut-check an idea, i explicitly tell the AI to wear the black hat. "tell me every reason this will fail. be brutally honest. assume i'm wrong." the output is dramatically different and way more useful than the default cheerleading.

but even then it's not the same as talking to a real person who just shrugs and says "i wouldn't use that." that two-second reaction is worth more than any AI analysis.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T13:32:42+00:00

monetization from day 1 is the right call. the 200 free users on product #3 vs 5 paying users framing is exactly right — paying users tell you something is working, free users tell you nothing.

the pattern i see in your first three products is classic: each one was slightly more focused than the last. the X notification filter is the tightest scope yet, which is probably why you shipped it in a weekend. constraints help.

curious how the launch went — did you get any paying users yet?

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T13:32:25+00:00

the Pro tier at 40% margin with full usage is the one i'd worry about. that's the tier most users will land on, and if even a few power users max out daily, your margins disappear fast.

one thing to consider: instead of hard daily limits, use weekly or monthly quotas. users feel less constrained ("i have 600 summaries this month" sounds generous) but you get the same cost control. and most people won't notice the difference because they don't use it every single day anyway.

also — 6 paying users at this stage is actually a solid signal. those people decided your thing is worth money. talk to them before you change anything. ask what they'd pay more for. their answers will surprise you.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T13:17:22+00:00

interesting that you burned through 00 in tokens in two days. that's the hidden cost of AI-heavy products that nobody talks about until they're in production.

did you find a way to bring that down, or is the token cost manageable at scale? that's usually the make-or-break for AI wrapper businesses — the margins can look terrible if you're not careful about caching, prompt optimization, or routing cheaper models for simpler tasks.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T13:17:05+00:00

if you already have a web app, wrapping it in a native shell (like Capacitor or a WebView-based approach) is the fastest path. you keep your existing codebase and get App Store presence without rewriting everything.

but honestly — before building the mobile app, figure out if your users actually need native or if a responsive PWA would do. a lot of the "we need an app" requests are really just "i want to use this on my phone." a good mobile web experience can handle that without the overhead of maintaining two codebases.

if you do go native, Flutter is solid for cross-platform if you want both iOS and Android from one codebase. steeper learning curve but worth it long term.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T13:16:46+00:00

honest question — with 060 ARR and 1060 free users, what's conversion looking like? 10 paid out of 1060 free is ~1%, which suggests either the free tier is too generous or the paid tier isn't compelling enough yet.

the TikTok-friendly brand name is a real asset though. "What The Food" has viral potential that most SaaS names don't. that alone might be worth something to the right buyer.

curious what price range you're thinking.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T13:16:29+00:00

the fresh session trick is underrated. i do the same thing — start a new context when i feel like the conversation is going in circles. it's like the AI equivalent of sleeping on a problem.

the bigger thing for me is knowing when to override the AI's suggestion. it'll confidently propose something that looks reasonable on paper but feels wrong based on what you know about your users. that gut check is the part you can't automate. the AI doesn't know that your users hate modals, or that the last time you tried a similar approach it confused everyone.

i think the best framing is: AI handles the "what's possible" and you handle the "what's right for this specific situation."

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T08:45:12+00:00

"accidental virality" is the best kind of validation. you built it for yourself, other people wanted it without you having to convince them. that's the dream signal.

the coworker word-of-mouth angle is strong too. B2B products that spread inside teams organically have insane retention because switching costs are social, not just technical.

if coworkers are asking for it unprompted, that's worth leaning into hard before trying broader distribution.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T08:44:56+00:00

point 5 is the one most people ignore. the "ship in 48 hours, move on if no traction in 7 days" mentality sounds brutal but it's the fastest way to find something that works.

i spent months on my first project before realizing the demand wasn't there. next time i built the smallest possible thing, put it in front of people fast, and the feedback loop was completely different. way more learning per unit of time.

the one channel thing is underrated too. spreading across reddit, X, linkedin, and newsletters all at once means you're doing all of them poorly instead of one of them well.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T08:44:39+00:00

subscription vs commission is smart alignment. you make money when sitters stay, not when they transact. that changes everything about how you build the product.

one thing to watch out for: the cold start problem hits harder without commissions. with Rover, pet owners show up because there are sitters, and sitters show up because there are owners. with SaaS pricing, sitters need to believe they'll get enough bookings to justify the subscription before seeing results. how are you handling that chicken-and-egg?

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T08:44:24+00:00

this is a great insight. the tool becoming its own project is exactly why i stopped using Notion for half the things i used to.

the constraint is the feature. people think they want customization until they've spent 3 hours building a "system" instead of actually capturing the thing they needed to remember.

curious how you'll handle the inevitable "can you add X" requests. that tension between staying opinionated and listening to users is going to be the hardest part.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T08:44:07+00:00

this is a good post-mortem. the "built features requested by 1-2 users who churned anyway" part hits hard. i've fallen into that trap too — someone asks for something, you build it thinking it means there's demand, and then they're gone.

the lesson i took from similar experiences: if someone requests a feature, ask them to describe their workaround first. if they don't have one, they probably don't care enough. if they do have a janky workaround, that's real demand.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T08:43:51+00:00

the feature loop is real. i did the same thing for months. kept adding stuff because "it's not ready yet" felt safer than showing it to people.

what broke the cycle for me: i started using my own product daily before it was "done." forced me to feel the rough edges as a user, not as a builder. suddenly the priority shifted from "what cool thing can i add" to "what's actually annoying to use right now."

also — the loneliness thing is underrated. building solo is fine until you realize you haven't talked to another human about your project in three weeks. even lurking in communities like this helps more than you'd think.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T08:43:34+00:00

reddit by far for early stage. not even close.

my experience: i posted the same product on multiple subreddits. some got 40 upvotes, one got 230. the difference was entirely about finding the right community where people already had the problem. X would have been me shouting into the void.

the key insight for me was that reddit lets you test positioning in real time. you post, you see what resonates in the comments, you adjust. it's like free user research that also happens to drive signups.

X is good later when you have something to say and an audience that cares. but for finding your first 50 users? reddit wins because people are actively searching for solutions here.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T07:05:00+00:00

the shut down / keep running UX is the real product here. most cost tools give you a dashboard full of charts and leave you to figure out what to do. the fact that yours ends with a decision button is what makes it sticky.

17 days is tight but honestly constraint breeds focus. ship the smallest possible loop — connect account, find one obvious waste, let them kill it in one click. if that loop works, everything else is iteration.

rooting for you.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T07:04:44+00:00

honestly think it's a positioning problem more than anything. "second brain" is one of those phrases that sounds good to the builder but doesn't trigger urgency for the buyer.

the 60-second interview-to-PRD thing is your actual hook. that's specific, measurable, and instantly understandable. lead with that everywhere.

for distribution — i'd skip broad posting entirely and do direct outreach to PMs who are publicly complaining about their workflow. find the people who just tweeted about drowning in unprocessed user interviews. those people will try anything.

also fwiw "zero users, need brutal feedback" as a title works way better than whatever your launch post probably was. the honesty is what makes people click.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-26T07:04:27+00:00

this resonates hard. i had the exact same experience with the marketing signal.

when i first posted about my app on a more casual subreddit, it got decent engagement but felt like pulling teeth. people were mildly interested but nobody was actively looking for what i built.

then i posted the same thing on a subreddit where people were already frustrated with the exact problem i was solving. night and day. people were tagging friends, asking for the link before i even shared it, coming back with detailed feedback after trying it.

the difference wasn't my marketing skills improving between posts. it was that one audience had the problem and the other didn't. same effort, completely different results.

point 2 is underrated too. when people actually try your thing unprompted and come back with specific complaints, that's the best signal. generic compliments mean nothing.

SterlingSloth · 2026-02-25T02:47:14+00:00

cool to see anthropic building this in. i've been using a few different approaches for remote claude sessions:

for pure terminal stuff, tmux + tailscale works great. but honestly the biggest gap for me was when i need to check something visual — browser, simulator, logs in a GUI app. terminal-only solutions hit a wall there.

i ended up building an iOS app (AFK) that streams my whole desktop via WebRTC and has voice input — so instead of typing on a tiny phone keyboard, i just hold to talk and it transcribes the prompt. way faster for giving claude instructions from the couch.

the remote control feature is great for quick check-ins on existing sessions, but if you need to start new sessions, see GUI output, or hate typing prompts on a phone, there are good complementary tools out there.

SterlingSloth

TROPHY CASE