Indie dev building Habit Doom 😇 https://teapawt.net/t.co/YymHQ8aMrI
Mumbai, India
Joined January 2014
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I Almost Cracked Product Hunt.
The real lesson: there's a glass ceiling at #12
I've launched on PH twice now:
April: 67th place, 21 upvotes.
May: 15th place, 25 upvotes.
A 4x rank improvement.
But the more useful thing I found wasn't the rank...
My learnings from the 2nd launch:
The big surprise: Reddit.
r/ProductHunters and r/SideProject are where active PH makers actually live. Not LinkedIn. Not X.
Also, 2 days before launch: 30+ thoughtful comments on other PH launches. No upvote asks. Save those for after you go live. Stick to genuine feedback in the comments.
And whenever you launch, the first 6 hours of outreach will decide your eventual position.
Sadly for me, I learned all this on the 7th hour after the leaderboard was settled...
The product I launched: A Doomscroll Calculator.
Enter your screen time, see how many years of your life you lose to your phone...
Plus 60 specific activities you'll miss:
- books read,
- marathons run,
- languages learned,
- songs heard.
Free, no signup.
The calculator: habitdoom.com/doomscroll-cal…
You don't check Instagram because you want to. You check it because not checking it feels uncomfortable. That's not a habit. That's withdrawal.
Public Report Week 3 | Habit Doom
$52 in revenue. Up from $4 last week. 13x increase.
That number doesn't change my life. But it changes the trajectory. Something shifted.
Here's what the numbers look like now:
App Store (cumulative to Apr 24):
→ 256 first-time downloads (+33% from 192)
→ 61 redownloads (+49% from 41)
→ 5.04K impressions → 906 page views → 9.61% conversion
→ 9 in-app purchases
→ Day 7 download to paid: 0.8%
Product Stats:
→ Habits Created: 829 (was 699)
→ Check-ins Completed: 7,599 (was 5,958)
→ Daily Active Users: 34 (new high)
→ Daily check-ins: ~180/day (was ~140)
→ Weekly stickiness: 12.5% (10 users active at least 1 day out of 7)
NEXT STEPS: DISTRIBUTION
→ First Instagram carousel posted yesterday.
→ Made changes to App Store screenshots and description. 🤞
→ Next: Reels. Video content starts this week.
Hope these changes make a difference.
🌐 Website: habitdoom.com
#buildinpublic #indiehackers #startups
My girlfriend is my unpaid market research department.
She doesn't even like my app. But, that's exactly why she's perfect.
I asked her to talk to her friends about screen time habits. She came back with insights no survey would have given me:
"They all know it's a problem. They all want to reduce their screen time. None of them actually follow through because there's just no consequence."
That's the entire product thesis in three sentences. From someone who's never read a product brief in her life.
Sometimes the best research isn't research. It's just listening to normal people talk.
Public Report Week 2 | Habit Doom
$4 in booked revenue.
$80 expected revenue from free trial conversions.
Some Other Stats:
- 2 monthly subscriptions ($2.99).
- 4 yearly trial starts ($19.99/yr after 2-week free trial).
- 192 downloads, 41 redownloads.
- 7 5-star ratings on App Store.
Product Stats:
- Habits Created: 699
- Check-Ins To Date: 5,958
- DAU: 30
- Peak check-in window: 5pm–8pm.
App Store Optimisation seems to be working fine.
3.97K impressions → 705 page views → 9.06% conversion.
5 of 6 paying users came from App Store Search. 1 from a referrer.
NEXT STEPS... PAID MARKETING 😭
Website: habitdoom.com/
iOS App Store: apps.apple.com/in/app/habit-…
#buildinpublic #indiehackers #startups
67th out of 500+ launches on Product Hunt. Here's what I learned:
1. Reach out to active PH users before launch. The algorithm heavily weights upvotes from power users and makers over new accounts.
2. Add a video as your first slideshow. 4 of the top 5 products had one.
3. Give constructive feedback to other launches in the week before you launch your product. This gives you a head-start.
Thank you so so much everyone who contributed to the Product Hunt launch. This was an extremely fun and fruitful new experience.
I got a looottt of support and feedback from everyone.
Biggest user feedback: Android version (it's noted 👀)
My Weekly Metric Reports won't stop and I'll keep upto speed on all things Habit Doom.
To Infinity And Beyond 👊
#product #producthunt #buildinpublic
T-0. Habit Doom is LIVEEEE on @ProductHunt.
Lock your distracting apps. Earn them back with habits.
Every Upvote counts.
Support us here:
producthunt.com/products/hab…
May the force be with you! 🖖
#producthunt #buildinpublic #indiehackers
T-2 to Product Hunt launch.
Habit Doom's onboarding was rewritten 7+ times in 4 months based on user feedback.
[habitdoom.com: Complete habits to earn screentime]
Each version was broken for different reasons...
But each version revealed something:
v1, V2 & V3:
→ 7 screens of onboarding → most users were trying to finish or skip the onboarding ASAP!
→ 4 screens of features → nobody understood → nobody cared
V4 & V5:
→ The objective of the onboarding is not to explain the main features of the app. It is to explain WHAT & WHY? If your UX is good then users will figure out HOW in no time.
→ Removed notification permissions → 10% more onboarding completions.
→ Reducing onboarding screens increases completion %. (Clearly rocket science 🚀)
V6:
→ Introduced a WHAT & WHY (Storytelling). But the story was bland.
→ Too much information on each screen.
V7:
→ Removed the skip button → Day 2 retention hit 50%. Users who create a habit card on day 1 are much more likely to stick with the app.
→ Currently at 75%-80% completion for last 7 days. Clear room for improvements.
Your onboarding IS your product. If people don't finish setup, your features don't exist.
#buildinpublic #iosdev #producthunt
T-4 to Product Hunt launch.
Just shipped a new feature: Custom System Alarms.
Not push notifications you can ignore. Real system alarms that go off at the time you set for each habit.
Website: habitdoom.com
App Store: apps.apple.com/app/habit-doo…
#buildinpublic #habitdoom #producthunt
FINALLYYYY!!!!
I built 4 apps before this one. All failed. Zero downloads. Zero revenue.
App #5 finally made a non-zero amount.
Thursday, Product Hunt.
#buildinpublic #producthunt
Public Report Week 1: Habit Doom
- $4 in revenue.
- 2 user on monthly subscription ($2)
- 1 user on 14-day free trial before full year subscription ($20)
- 3 paying subscribers in total.
- 130 downloads.
- 0 ad spend.
One subscriber is from Chile. One from India. One from USA.
A stranger 14,000 km away found my app, tried it, and decided it was worth paying for. That feels so freaking awesome!!!
Launching on Product Hunt this Thursday. I'll share every number every week — good or bad.
Website: habitdoom.com
iOS App Store: apps.apple.com/app/habit-doo…
#buildinpublic #indiehackers #startups
T-6 to Product Hunt launch.
The hardest part of building Habit Doom wasn't the code.
It was when Apple's Screen Time API said I couldn't re-block apps after a timer expires.
ChatGPT and Cursor both said it was impossible.
I found a way anyway. (Using Claude Code of course)
Story for another day. But it almost killed the app.
apps.apple.com/app/habit-doo…
#buildinpublic #producthunt #indiehackers #iosdev
