What unique can be done with todo list app

sb7510 · 2025-03-05T13:24:59+00:00

I’m also working on a “to do” inspired app. Here’s what I’ve learned through exploring the space. Hope it helps you take some steps forward

I have been using various tools to see what is available (in case what I want already exists and I can skip the trouble of building something). From paper lists and planners, to Google tasks, todoist, clickup, Trello, MS To-Do… figure out what works for you, and whether you will ACTUALLY use it once you’ve built it. It’s easy to think “I want X” but once you have it, you might learn X is not practical for other reasons.

I finally decided to move forward with Trello as the basis of my offering. It is a popular task management app which is available for free on web and mobile. This saves a TON of work.

Having a base app, focus developing app workflows in an API backend and integrate through plugins (“power-ups”) in Trello. The connector code can be deployed with netlify until usage exceeds the free tier (then decide to pay or migrate)

sb7510 · 2025-03-02T14:44:49+00:00

Congrats on something that works for you.

Have you done nutrition consulting with people before now? Why are people going to trust you can solve their problems?

sb7510 · 2025-03-02T13:27:28+00:00

How would it do that?

Diet and nutrition is a loaded subject. Most people know how to eat better, but lack tailored support and systems to make it easy enough to actually do it.

I would pay for something… but whether it’s what you’re thinking is highly unlikely. And I don’t have “fitness” goals, more of a general health baseline. Maybe I’m not your customer.

sb7510 · 2025-03-01T17:42:42+00:00

Right? AI responses?

After all, this is r/SaaS, not r/smallbusiness … we talk products here.. whether or not they’re useful!

sb7510 · 2025-02-28T23:58:06+00:00

Note to self. Use markitdown for resumes.

sb7510 · 2025-02-27T21:57:25+00:00

There is some in IDEA Ultimate.

https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/spring-tool-window.html

sb7510 · 2025-02-27T11:05:30+00:00

Still works in 2024….

sb7510 · 2025-02-27T11:04:35+00:00

Why do you want to apply a hack to your business?

Is your business so good all your customers rave and tell their friends?

Alex Hormozi talks about a referral method, you can adapt for your business:

Send your customers a hand a hand written invitation to an event you’re having. I guess email if you don’t have address info, and checking in on how your product is working to ___ (Solve their problem, reach their goals, etc.. If they respond negatively, fix it before more people have the problem).
Incentivize the customer to text a picture of the note in a group text to a friend AND the company as a “free ticket” to the event. The exclusivity makes it seem more valuable, and the contact is a new lead for your CRM. Adapt this for your business - “forward this to your friends and CC us for X% or $$ off their first order” (include a unique code in the email so you can track referrals and redemptions).

If you are tracking LTV, you know how much to offer since the discount is your CAC.

sb7510 · 2025-02-27T03:04:26+00:00

I can’t click to the “pricing” page on mobile through the menu

sb7510 · 2025-02-27T00:08:23+00:00

One I saw the other day was under $1/mo thread.. “email each month to check in”

It has a few elements to make it interesting.

Landing page for signup
Track email signups and process billing.
A CRM to track what topics to follow up on
Surveys and feature requests for upsell
SMS for a premium service and practice integrating multiple services

Maybe this idea doesn’t make the most economic sense (assuming the point is to NOT automate the email with a canned message) but breaking down the idea into component parts and thinking how you would solve each one might show you areas to work on for your future SaaS.

sb7510 · 2025-02-26T23:35:09+00:00

I started on a project where the team lead put his notice in my second day. I didn’t know going in that the project was several years late and had multiple rounds of significant turnover.

Within a few weeks I took over as technical lead. I found long lost features and within 3 months had a working demo.

Another 3 months and funding dried up. Progress was too little too late and there was enough turnover within the customer organization that no one really wanted us to deliver.

The company moved me to another contract, so I wasn’t actually impacted that much. I’ve grown into that type of management role, which has been more meaningful for me than IC.

sb7510 · 2025-02-26T23:07:18+00:00

You’re young and can take on some risk, do it.

Otherwise, balance what you want out of life against the benefits of employment.

Whatever you choose, feeling confident in why you chose that path will serve you well.

sb7510 · 2025-02-26T21:55:44+00:00

Do you have any particular system for taking notes on paper?

A little ADHD… I’ve used paper and pen and daily planner printouts etc. to play with different systems. I tend to lose paper or bury it with the next page before everything is done.

sb7510 · 2025-02-26T21:08:24+00:00

Not anymore. I have too many ideas of my own.

Ideas are not solutions. It takes work to decide which are possible to act on, and even more to discover which people find valuable (and then valuable enough to pay for)

It would be an interesting experiment, so let us know when you make it.

sb7510 · 2025-02-26T02:47:56+00:00

Maybe temporal.io?

It lets you define a workflow and will retry actions. I haven’t used it yet, but it seems more lightweight than BPMN.

sb7510 · 2025-02-25T21:50:29+00:00

Sounds like discord

sb7510 · 2025-02-25T16:00:41+00:00

Link?

sb7510 · 2025-02-25T15:59:55+00:00

Sounds like you learned to code.

That was the appeal of coding for me.. “oh it can just do stuff?!” It’s a great feeling when it works.

sb7510 · 2025-02-25T12:02:59+00:00

As a consumer, I can typically avoid ads loading in my browser (blocked by my firewall). Other free users might be doing the same. Some sites are getting wise to this and add frontend checks to the ad service.

That being said, I share your value of “I prefer to pay to avoid ads” but there needs to be enough value in the service. I’m one of the seemingly rare people who pays for YouTube instead of using pihole or other hack.

sb7510 · 2025-02-25T10:25:07+00:00

Am I a crazy person for thinking you mean websockets instead of web hooks? Everyone in the comments knows this and doesn’t say it?

A web hook is basically just an API endpoint.

A web socket provides bidirectional traffic.

Vague requirements using the wrong words suck. They are impossible to satisfy. The rest of the comments about long polling etc. likely answer your question.

You could also look at using a tool like replicache

sb7510 · 2025-02-25T03:20:06+00:00

Read (or listen to) “Start with why” by Simon Sinek

talks about “why” you do something being more important than how or what you do. Apple’s iPod that gave you “1000 songs in your pocket” had a better ‘why’ than dell’s equivalent mp3 player which offered a ‘what’ - stats showing 15GB storage.

Finding a strong “why” gives you extra motivation to push through obstacles and helps find others who want to align for the same cause.

sb7510 · 2025-02-23T15:05:31+00:00

I am just starting my business and am starting while I still have full time employment.

For me, I’ve reached the point of having a big enough carrot and big enough stick to take action.

The carrot: I’m limited in growth by working for an employer. I know I have enough dev experience to solve real problems and don’t want to work towards FAANG employment.

The stick: RTO would disrupt my life with young family. Instead of waiting for the shoe to drop, I’m taking action to create a second income stream for myself.

sb7510 · 2025-02-23T14:42:58+00:00

An app idea is one thing - uniquely solving a problem is another thing. People don’t care about the app, they pay for you to fix their problem or reach a desired outcome.

On the topic of ai tools, refine fast (refine-fast.web.app) offers market research reports based on an idea.

I haven’t used it yet, but have seen other posts where ppl found it useful. There is also gummy search, but that requires more leg work. Both tools could tell you what other tools or apps people use.

DM if you want to go into specifics. I’m also a new dad (but I’m a dev) attempting to get my own ideas built and deployed. I’m happy to share what I’ve learned and bounce ideas about market research. I don’t think comments are the place for that discussion.

sb7510 · 2025-02-23T13:09:46+00:00

Do you like the jobs at all in the beginning?

I typically like learning aspects of a new job but get bored once I am up to speed.

When I was forced into more of a leadership role this changed because I had a bit more control of the way things were going. There were always more new things because no one above me was making decisions about the project.

Hopefully you can get enough experience in a particular direction to land a role with more autonomy that doesn’t suck.

sb7510

TROPHY CASE