

Ask HN: My app is shared on Twitter every day. What should I do? - entangld

I created an app last year that gained some popularity on Hacker News thankfully. I&#x27;m in a transition phase. I work full-time and I have a side job I&#x27;m finishing up for a client. Soon I can concentrate on building my next version.<p>My problem is it&#x27;s shared on Twitter, but it has bugs and it&#x27;s not good enough to begin marketing yet. I&#x27;m learning Swift to build the 2nd version, but I&#x27;m not an iOS coder, so the build is slow going. I&#x27;ve had a ton of feedback and I have the design and features of the next version planned.<p>Should I pursue seed funding? Should I apply to an accelerator? Should I look for a partner to help with coding? I don&#x27;t have much money, but should I hire someone? I&#x27;ve looked at the analytics and the market segment is pretty clear. It makes me a little nervous to see the social sharing without much real ability to capitalize on it. I&#x27;m not sure how long Buffer will keep it in the suggested articles rotation (although it seems like it&#x27;s been 6 months now). It&#x27;s shared on Twitter and LinkedIn almost everyday for at least 3 months. I feel like the opportunity is slipping away.<p>I may be overreacting, but hopefully you can understand my anxiety. You can see the shares by searching Twitter for &quot;rememberwinapp.com&quot;.
======
andymoe
Try to fix the bugs. Don't rewrite the app from scratch. Keep updating it and
keep momentum.

The other questions are harder and really something you have to figure out for
yourself. I can say a partner can help and turning a side project into a
business is a ton of work. At the same time don't let fear of missing out
force a rash choice and only work with someone you trust and have a track
record with.

You have built something people seem to want and that's a great first step.

------
hiou
_> it has bugs and it's not good enough to begin marketing yet_

Measure and prioritize the bugs. If you don't know how many people are dealing
with them you can't figure out how many you need to fix.

 _> I'm learning Swift to build the 2nd version_

I won't tell you what to do, but software history is full of 2nd versions the
morphed into death marches.

tl;dr Figure out the fewest amount of bugs you need to fix to make it work for
80% of your users and then market aggressively. Do not rewrite right now.

~~~
jmduke
As someone who rewrote his app in Objective C into Swift, I highly recommend
it if you think Swift is rad (I do!) and enjoy substantially improving the
quality of your code.

That being said, I highly recommend against it if your primary goal is one of
the following:

\- revenues

\- features

\- installs

\- bugfixes

It will take you longer than expected to accomplish very little in terms of
meaningful improvements which can be relayed to your customers.

------
halcyondaze
Fix your bugs, etc etc but save all of these mentions to a Twitter list or
favorite. Basically capture the interest so you can reach out to them when the
app is closer to product market fit.

This is a good problem to have and there's not much you have to do to 'fix'
it, just capture interest, improve product, and tell interested parties.

------
hellotimmutton
Im not an iOS programmer, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you could
interop swift code with obj-c. In that case, write new functionality in swift
and fix the obj-c with the intention to convert it to swift later down the
track. A rewrite would be overkill, just fix and update where appropriate.

Also, if you need someone to port it to Android, feel free to give me a yell
:P

------
AznHisoka
You do know that maybe 20, 10, or even less than 1% of the people who Buffer'd
it actually visited your site and downloaded the app, right? Most people use
their suggestions on auto-pilot.

I would be excited if you saw people spontaneously praising it on Twitter, not
Buffering it. When i search on Twitter, I only see the automated Buffers, not
tweets like "Just found out this app.. love it!" or "Has anyone else used this
app?".

~~~
entangld
Thanks for raining on my parade. jk

I know conversions are only a small percentage. Some people are excited and I
still receive emails from people. Eyeballs first, conversions second right? My
page visits have been growing, and Twitter is a percentage of it.

It's something to build on. My honest take is that people are interested in
the idea, but I need to continue working on the product. Execution is
important.

~~~
AznHisoka
What's your business model? How do you intend to make money from this?

~~~
entangld
I want to make sure I'm solving the problem before I decide how to make money.

It's useful to several different groups: business teams, coaches, people in
the employment space and normal people. I only need to cover rent and other
expenses.

There are a few options (in-app purchases, ads, pro account for business
teams).

~~~
AznHisoka
Hmm.. The guys at Twitpic were solving a problem and even had an enviable
number of users, but never knew how to make money. The ended up closing shop.
So I suggest figuring out the money part too.

------
pnathan
Don't rewrite it - yet. Keep incrementally improving it. Find your users and
engage them - improve it.

n.b., rememberwinapp.com is a pretty cool idea. You can definitely spin it
along at least two angles: "life hack" approaches and "better mental health"
approaches (work with a professional counselor on this one).

------
lukethomas
I'm in the same spot with my app (digitaldetachapp.com).

I found an awesome developer overseas, but I'm at a point where I'm not sure
how much money I want to put into it. I've decided to slowly keep improving
based on customer feedback (I'm self-funding this). It's a great learning
experience at the very least.

Here's what I suggest:

1) Fix the bugs and 2.) Consider charging more (I'd probably triple the price
if I was you)

It seems like you're delivering quite a bit of value. Don't be afraid to
charge more.

~~~
sah2ed
2\. Or keep the price unchanged but unlock additional functionality via in-app
purchases.

------
archagon
Hey! I remember your app from your HN submission. Glad to see it's working out
well for you.

This is tangential and not really an answer to your question, but you should
probably work on your icon a little bit. At the moment, it reads to me like
"sketchy website companion app". It'll be miles better just by removing the
white/azure background and having the goblet a little bigger and by itself.
(IMO.)

~~~
entangld
Thanks! You're probably right about the icon. LOL

------
foobar2k
I'm somewhat biased, but you should consider using a crash monitoring tool
like Bugsnag ([https://bugsnag.com](https://bugsnag.com)) to help you find and
fix the bugs :)

Have you spent any time working out the total market size for your app? Doing
some basic modeling might help you make your decision!

------
sergiusignacius
Keep updating the app. It's awesome, I already have it installed. I can help
you with coding if you need! Cheers.

~~~
entangld
Could you contact me at info at rememberwinapp dot com?

~~~
sergiusignacius
Done!

------
z3t4
From coaching and positive psychology, it wouldn't surprise me if there are
ten more apps just like this one ... Or it's a new market opening up!

Either case, you seem to have an opportunity here. You should start with a
business plan! Do not worry about the bugs right now.

An idea for business plan is that you can let people get a kickback for each
purchase they referrer. You can start with the ones giving you feedback.

After some sense of market and estimated budget you should hire a freelancer.
Not trying to offend you here, but you have been working on this for six
month, a freelancer would probable be able to fix the bugs in six hours for
$15 an hour or less.

If I was in the phone app business I would probably rip off your idea and have
an app out by tomorrow :P

------
mmorris
First, this is a great problem to have! Enjoy it.

More to the point, is there a business entity that owns the app? If so (or if
you can create one), giving some equity to someone in exchange for helping you
complete the app (either the current version or the next) is a way to pay
without any cash outlay.

Since you're already finding some success in the marketing department I'd
think finding someone who'd "invest" in your business in that way would be a
possibility.

Last... definitely not accusing you of anything, but I was just musing on the
fact that this would make a good marketing campaign: young upstart with too
much success and not enough capital -- it's like a cinderella story ;)

------
BorisMelnik
Congrats on the organic growth! Many app makers can't even _pay_ to see this
kind of traction!

Some of these are quick fix questions, others are more life questions. Sure,
applying to an accelerator is a great idea, but it is a life commitment you
really need to think about. See if you can fix the most noticeable bugs that
folks seem to be talking about or ticketing. From there you can start to think
more clearly about your goals.

------
benshyong
Check out Assembly.com as a potential option :)

(this involves releasing under GPL)

~~~
pinkyatemydog
Is the GPL compatible with distribution on the (Apple) app store these days? I
remember that back in 2010 it wasn't, and Apple removed GNU Go from the app
store after this was pointed out by the FSF.

~~~
belorn
Apple inserts a additional license on any app that is placed in the app store.
If the author do not permit such a thing, then apple would commit copyright
infringement if went ahead and still did it.

The GPL license do not allow additional license requirement to be added, so
apple would need addtional permission from the author before distributing the
software.

------
randall
This is how startups are unfortunately supposed to feel. The fact it's
spreading without you having to do much is a good sign. Just keep going as
much as you can and don't worry too much. Easier said than done, but you're on
the right track.

You don't have to optimize every part of the project for it to be successful.
You're not going to miss out on anything if you don't perfectly execute right
now, just focus on getting better a little at a time.

------
malditojavi
How many monthly active users (or even daily) do you have? As far as I'm
seeing through Twitter, it's just people sharing the link, but using it?

I'm in a similar situation with [http://petithacks.com](http://petithacks.com)
Launched it last september while learning Rails, and got some traffic peaks
that bring among 2-3k users/month (but only 100 active - liking, saving
stuff).

~~~
entangld
People are sharing it independently. I haven't added my url to any of my own
tweets.

I'm pretty sure Buffer suggested stories and LinkedIn Pulse have been a some
part in the growth. It's largely being shared within a niche on Twitter. It's
a very simple app at moment. I don't have much for in-app analytics.

~~~
malditojavi
Start tracking who uses the tool, and how they do it. I reached out manually
like 40-50 people to ask them (by email) why the were accessing to my site
twice per week, what they were looking for.
[http://mixpanel.com](http://mixpanel.com) have some free plans that might be
helpful for your case.

drop me a line if I can help somehow javier@petithacks.com

------
Dudelander
Look for a co founder that has the programming skills you need. If you don't
know anyone that's a good fit, apply to an accelerator like YC.

------
JohnHammersley
Firstly, great idea for an app -- I often tell myself I need to take the time
to enjoy the wins but there is always the next thing to move on to. Being
reminded of them at a later date makes perfect sense, and I'll download the
app to give it a try when I'm next on my ipad.

In terms of advice -- everyone's already said it: don't rewrite now, just fix
the important bugs and give it a push.

Good luck!

------
loumf
I downloaded the app and started using it. I really like it -- I keep a
physical notebook for exactly this purpose -- it's a journal of highlights of
the day.

I didn't see any issues in my usage -- just fix what you think is wrong --
polish up what you have and work on spreading it (not more features).

------
jwatte
Getting a technical co-founder might be a really good idea! That co-founder
may be able to start sooner than you can. But you should definitely think
about cutting bait on work and side project soon if you want to double down.

The fact that you already have market validation is huge! Many startups burn
ask their energy and money just getting there.

------
epictoo
On your app website or store page, mention about the bugs and let people know
that you are aware with that. This will give impression that you're still care
about the app and hear users' feedback. Also share about your time problem to
buy more time before you can fix it.

------
hackerk
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------
benologist
Fix whatever bugs you can now. To make lots of downloads sustainable you have
to be able to hold whatever rankings you achieve. Otherwise this will be a
peak and you will be trying to fix the fall while you try to do anything else.

------
jtreitz
Why not apply for YC summer batch and see how far it gets you.

Btw: just bought a copy of your app.

------
codeoclock
OMG I want an Android version of this SO BAD. Maybe I'll build it... Don't
worry, if I do it'll be for personal use, I obviously wouldn't release it and
screw you over.

~~~
bbcbasic
This is where I like the idea of just creating things like this as a website.
Then stuff a thin layer on IOS and Android for those who care about it being
an app.

------
MAGZine
Would like to say that this app looks sweet, and that I hope to see an Android
version (I've been periodically checking the webpage for updates).

Keep up the momentum!

------
jvickers
Ideally you'll be able to fix bugs and handle the growth as it comes.

Is your app free?

------
andybak
Would someone care to explain what the hell Buffer is?

~~~
entangld
Buffer (bufferapp.com) sends your tweets on a schedule so that you don't have
to manually tweet them.

They also suggest tweets for you when your queue runs empty.

------
josemando
i can help with the coding

------
pXMzR2A
Release it under GPL if you can, put it on github or bitbucket, document the
bugs as "issues," focus on fixing show stoppers and high-visibility user
complaints, don't worry too much about it (all these apps are buggy, we just
don't like show stoppers), ask for donations and for volunteer drive-by
coders.

~~~
shouldbeworking
This is a bad idea. You have to have a plan if you have a for-profit open
source product. You need to give contributors something so they don't feel
like they're being taken advantage of. It's complicated. It isn't as easy as
just open sourcing it and asking for contributions.

~~~
pXMzR2A
> You have to have a plan if

This is a moot argument. Of course s/he has to have a plan if s/he wants to be
in business. What was asked was suggestions, not detailed strategy
deliverables.

