Startups

Trying my hand at distribution for my app AuraTracker: Habits & Goals and man, it’s hard. I’ve been an engineer all my life, and all I knew was how to build stuff. Now, suddenly, I find that in the post-AI world, success is determined less by engineering effort and more by distribution effort. AI has leveled the playing field for everyone. It doesn’t matter whether your tech stack is Python, Java, C#, or JavaScript. AI can build with any of them. A few years ago, if you wanted to build an iOS app, you needed to know Swift or React Native. If you wanted to build for Android, you needed Kotlin or React Native. There were clear categories of builders: frontend developers, backend developers, mobile developers, devops experts and so on. ...

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 tried making a quick ad video (10-15 seconds) today using Google Gemini Pro for my productivity app: Aura Tracker: Habits & Goals, but it kept throwing me off with wrong results, which got me really frustrated and I finally gave up. After thinking about it, I realized this is a common issue with AI tools. Many AI tools make it seem like using them is super fast and easy, with influencers even claiming they can quickly create amazing results with a specific tool. So, when the tool keeps failing, frustration builds up, and you’re more likely to give up quickly than if you’d started with a manual approach. ...

I always knew there was a difference between building a product and building a business. If you are active in indie builder communities on Twitter, you keep hearing the phrase “Building is the easy part” almost every other day. Although I had heard this many times before, I didn’t truly understand the magnitude of that difference until I dove in head first. Before I started, my mental model was simple and, honestly, quite reasonable. I assumed it would be roughly a 50–50 split. Half my time would go into building, and the other half into everything else: marketing, distribution, talking to users, selling, and learning how to package the product properly. I was prepared for that trade-off. ...

In my previous post, I talked about learning to deal with stress after walking away from a steady paycheck. This one is less philosophical and more practical. Think of it as me sharing how am I handling things in practice, the nuts and bolts, as I find my footing and explore the path of solopreneurship. The Habit That Changed Everything More than a year before I quit my job at Microsoft, I picked up one habit that turned out to be a lifesaver: tracking my finances. ...

One of the first questions people ask me after hearing that I have quit my corporate job, is almost always the same: “How do you handle the stress?” “How do you sleep at night knowing there’s no guaranteed paycheck at the end of the month?” It’s a fair question. We’ve been conditioned to believe that a regular salary is the ultimate safety net, and that stepping away from it automatically means living in a constant state of anxiety. But after spending some time on the other side, I’ve realized something important about stress and it’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough. ...

How to come up with good ideas as a solo developer? How to decide what to build? Ever since I left the corporate world to build independently, I’ve been wrestling with these two questions. Being a solopreneur is liberating, but it also means waking up to a blank canvas every single day. Before we dive deeper, let me address the first thought that usually comes up: “Is the idea itself what really matters, or is it the execution?” ...

It’s been a while since I shared an update, so I figured it’s time to check in, partly for anyone following my journey but mostly to get my own thoughts in order. Post Microsoft, the past few months have been a mix of celebration, reflection, recalibration, minor chaos and a surprising number of “what am I even doing?” moments. So here’s a quick catch-up on where my time and headspace have been lately. ...