It’s been some time since I updated this blog. I was on a family vacation to Singapore and Malaysia for close to two weeks. Now that I’m back to my regular routine, frankly speaking, I’m stuck in a bit of a rut right now.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, the launch of my app, AuraTracker: Habits and Goals didn’t go as expected. Honestly, I’ve had only one customer so far, so it hasn’t really generated any traction.
I did spend some time researching and brainstorming. According to the higher intelligence lifeform we now have (a.k.a. Claude), the product itself is actually quite good. The main issue appears to be poor discoverability rather than the app quality itself.
Below is the actual infographic it generated after analyzing my App Store listing and the product website:
At this point, I’m not entirely sure what else I can do for ASO improvements. Maybe I need to double down on marketing and experiment with different distribution channels.
That uncertainty has also put my second app idea into limbo. I wanted to build an app focused on handling anxiety and worry, but ironically, now I’m worried about how I would market that app. Right now, I have very few followers on Twitter/X and LinkedIn. I’ve been dabbling with digital marketing and Meta Ads, but I’m still in the early stages of learning.
Meanwhile, I started getting a few interview calls for Staff Engineer positions at different companies. Since my solopreneur journey isn’t exactly going according to plan, I decided to spend some time attending those interviews. I made it through all the rounds (coding interviews, system design interviews, and managerial rounds) but I still haven’t heard back from any of them. They haven’t rejected me either, so, at this point, I’m hoping I haven’t been ghosted! I will update this space once I hear back from them.
On the technical side, I’ve been leaning heavily into the Google AI ecosystem for coding tasks so far (Gemini Pro, Antigravity, and related tooling). I’ve also briefly tried Codex through the Go plan and experimented with the free version of Claude Desktop. Honestly, I’m now strongly tempted to upgrade to Claude Pro and downgrade my Google AI Pro subscription.
So I guess I’m at a fork in the road now :
Option 1: Double Down on my entreprenurial path
1: Get better at Marketing & Distribution
This would mean investing more into ads, offering discounts/promotions, and spending a much larger chunk of my time on platforms like Twitter/X, Reddit, Product Hunt, content marketing, and community engagement.
2: Start Building the Next App immediately
The idea here would be to build the next app quickly, start marketing before launch, and build distribution alongside development. Basically, lean into the whole #buildinpublic approach from day one instead of treating marketing as something to figure out after release.
3: Upgrade My AI Stack and Build Faster
Part of me wants to switch to Claude Pro and see if it can help me build something genuinely better than what’s already available in the market. But if I do that, I think the effort distribution has to change significantly: maybe one week building and three weeks marketing/distribution, not the other way around.
OR
Option 2: Focus on Landing a Job
1: Double down on applying to jobs
This would mean reaching out more aggressively to my network, spending a significant amount of time reading about open positions, tailoring my resumes, following up with recruiters and hiring managers, and focusing on landing a strong Staff Engineer role.
2: Aggressively prep for interviews
Preparing for interviews (DS & Algo, System Design, Domain-specific knowledge) for staff engineer role needs lot of time & efforts. This would mean, I need to spend a significant chunk of my day leetcoding and refreshing my knowledge of system design, via YouTube videos, system design primers, etc. I’d also have to make sure I’m up to date with the latest trends in software engineering and related fields.
The irony is that both paths have uncertain outcomes. There’s no guarantee the startup route works out, and there’s also no guarantee I land a staff engineer role either.
So yeah… that’s where things stand right now. Hopefully, by next week, I’ll have made a decision.