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🚀 6 Lessons from the Shipaton

The Shipaton is a 2-month hackathon for mobile developers offering $300,000 in prizes and the opportunity to feature your app on a giant digital billboard in New York Times Square.

I joined for the shiny prizes, but the journey transformed me into a better developer and creator.

I published every week of the Shipaton starting on August 11th. I stepped out of my comfort zone and shipped code when I wanted to continue polishing. As a result, my app is out in the App Store.

These are the six biggest lessons I take with me:

1. Share before you’re ready

When I joined the Shipaton I had an unfinished prototype that I didn’t want to show to anyone.

Having a deadline pushed me to figure out how to start getting feedback. People were more interested in the idea than in a working prototype.

2. Ship to get ready

After ten user testing interviews, I had more clarity than ever on many awesome features for my app.

Working with a deadline meant I needed to prioritize the features people asked the most about.

Publishing the app gave me even more feedback, and users could shape the next version.

3. Systems over goals

Building an app and publishing content felt like competing priorities.

I themed my week so every creative task had its place: essays on Saturdays, newsletters on Mondays, videos on Tuesdays, social posts on Wednesdays.

4. Workflows beat outputs

AI is like a smart but overeager intern, who can be confidently wrong.

Skimming through AI’s output and merging fast got me into trouble. After doing a refactoring/audit of my code, I implemented better workflows:

• Features went into branches
• Small fixes stayed with ChatGPT, Codex for bigger tasks
• Significant changes waited a day before review
• Every PR got human + AI reviews

I thought traditional workflows would slow me down since I’m working solo, but they guarantee steady progress.

5. Invite early supporters

Shipping the most basic version of my app meant I couldn’t charge what I initially planned.

I envisioned my app in three phases and started charging a third of the planned price.

Dealing with monetization—signing agreements, filling scary tax forms, and dealing with unrecognized bank accounts—is a lot of paperwork and something I would have left for last.

However, once the paperwork was over, implementing paywalls was surprisingly easy with RevenueCat.

6. Build In Public

I started my first blog in 2010, it was active for a couple of years. Then other priorities appeared, and I started feeling embarrassed about publishing.

The Shipaton gave me an excuse to publish consistently. I realized that when getting started the worst thing that can happen is that people will ignore you.

With words as with code, the more you ship, the better you get.

Bonus: Be the human in the room

Human creativity is more important than ever. If you want to get good at something don’t let AI do the heavy lifting but instead have it become your coach.

🎨 Indie life

A week ago I got Minder into the App Store, however, it was a soft launch. I'll do a public launch after the Shipaton.

The app is constantly evolving, that's the beauty of software, your first version is not the last:

🌊 Internet bits

​Under the Radar #328: Five Years of Enough: David Smith celebrated five years of Widgetsmith. I was inspired listening to how David chose to stay solo and keep things simple when his app became extremely popular. shows how intentional decisions can make the journey more rewarding.