Khal

I just sold Habits Garden, my first indie startup 🎉 - 1 DM - 0 calls - $10,000 This is my 2nd startup acquisition this year but the story started in March 2022... I had 200 Twitter followers and barely any income ($700/month from an old startup). I love games, I love habits. I combined both and created Habits Garden: a gamified habit tracker to grow flowers when building habits 🌱 In September 2022, the app made less than $200/month despite being my full focus 😣 Then I met @DanKulkov (who is now my good friend) and the game changed: He helped me bury the product-obsessed developer I was and turned me into an entrepreneur. I launched many free side projects to promote the habit tracker (engineering as marketing). The most viral one is VisualizeHabits: Three things happened: 1. Habits Garden revenue tripled 2. My Twitter growth tripled too 3. I realized speed is more important than focus (at the beginning) By January 2023, my Twitter crossed 10,000 followers and Habits Garden was paying the bill (~$800/month). So I decided to build the most requested feature: a mobile app. As a web developer, this is daunting. Apple & Google gatekeepers, 15% revenue cut, new programming language… 🥶 But I got lucky AF: @martindonadieu DM-ed me about a new tech called Capacitor. We became friends and.. he flew to my house to help me build the mobile apps. 2 weeks later, Habits Garden was live on the Apple Store & Play Store. I was blown away 🤯 Unfortunately, in March 2023, the app wasn’t paying much more than the bills despite working all day on it. I sat down and decided to move on. It was really hard to turn the page after 1 year of focus. Fast forward to today, I still fix bugs (if any), answer emails, and make sure everything is running well. I don’t add new features and barely tweet about Habits Garden but the revenue is quite steady ($500/month). @ripper234 reached out by DM, offered to buy at my asking price, and… we closed a deal! 🎉 Here’s what I learned from this experience: 1. The people who engage with you in the comments can become your friends and make you a better person. I wouldn’t be here without Dan & Martin. 2. Focusing on a startup without obvious traction is time loss and nerve-breaking. 3. Launching fast creates a shipping muscle and inspires others. Now it’s time for @ripper234 and @RapoportAnat to take my little baby to places I couldn’t 💪