After 20+ years of building software for big corps, I finally shipped something that was fully mine.

Building something from scratch is a journey of both obsession and philosophy. Over the last 1.5 months, I’ve poured my two decades of engineering experience into a single vision - to make Aura Tracker: Habits & Goals help you transform your life.

I didn’t want to build just another habit / goal tracking app. I started with a core belief that transforming your life requires more than a streak counter. It requires transforming your identity and building resilient systems. I also wanted one time purchase, offline first, no ads, no account creation, no subscriptions. When I looked at the market, I couldn’t find anything that seamlessly combined that entire flow. So, I decided to build it myself.

More than a weekend experiment.

I spent 1.5 months obsessing over it. Every pixel. Every flow. Every tap. I rewrote screens that worked just because they didn’t feel right. I refined spacing. Tweaked animations. Tested with various personas. Over and over. I wanted the “offline-first” experience to feel snappy and super useful.

I built the system I actually needed: a single productivity tool that treats habits not as chores, but as the fundamental building blocks of who you are. I wanted to bridge the gap between intention and action, so I didn’t stop at just habits and goals, I integrated daily tasks for execution, pomodoro timers for deep work, health trackers to track your diet/exercise/sleep patterns, deep analytics and insights to fuel your improvement, and a reflection journal so you can reminisce and learn from every step of your journey.

Lessons in humility

As my self-imposed release date neared, I knew ASO matters a lot. Apart from building the app, I also spent considerable time sprucing up the screenshots, tweaking keywords and description for the app store. Finally, when the launch day came, it was a moment of immense pride. The app flew through the app store review in a jiffy without a single comment and I was super proud (finally the learnings of working 21 years in corporate has paid off).

I posted about the Launch on LinkedIn, Twitter, Hacker News & Reddit, hoping to generate traction. Unfortunately, it opened up to a muted response.

A few good folks on Twitter congratulated me, wished me luck and I was super happy. But, that was it. No downloads, no sales, no nothing. Despite the polish and the attention to detail, the app hasn’t picked up the traction I anticipated.

There is a certain sting that comes with realizing that “building for yourself” doesn’t always translate immediately to a market fit. It’s easy to get lost in the technical elegance of a product and miss the bridge to the people who need it most.

What’s Next?

Needless to say, I’m disappointed. But I’m far from giving up. The foundation of Aura Tracker is solid. I’ve been using it for weeks now and it’s been a game changer for me. So, the challenge is figuring out how to translate my vision of an end-to-end productivity system into something that actually sells.

My next steps involve stepping out of the IDE and into the real world (touch grass, as they say):

  • Community Engagement: I need to understand if the “identity + systems” flow resonates with others or if it’s too niche. I’m planning to head to spaces like Reddit’s productivity and habit-tracking communities to see how real-world users interact with the flow. Or maybe market it better. Maybe, I need to change the screen design, make it more appealing to the masses or something else.
  • Better Marketing: Run ads, try different marketing strategies to reach a wider audience. ASO is just the beginning, it cannot obviously bubble up my app to top 10, especially when there are many established productivity apps who claim to change your life as well.
  • Validation: It’s time to find out if the tool has enough features that people would actually pay for, or if it’s more of a good to have, but not great.
  • Android Launch: I’m planning to launch the app on Android as well, maybe try a “ads” based model along with the full priced version to increase the reach.

If you’re someone who values privacy, offline functionality, and a system-based approach to growth, I’d love for you to check out Aura Tracker and tell me what you think.