App Store submission took longer than building my app. So I fixed it.
A few months ago I was trying to ship Ishana, an iOS app that computes spatial orientation from satellite imagery and routes through user-uploaded floor plans. I filed a provisional patent on the approach. The hard part was the spatial reasoning. The harder part, somehow, was the App Store submission.
Five screenshots in iOS aspect ratios. ASO copy that didn't sound like every other home search app. A keyword strategy. Reviewer guidelines I'd misread three times. The kind of work where you open Canva at 9am, switch to a keyword tool, switch to ChatGPT for copy, switch to a screenshot mockup tool, switch back to Canva, and close everything at 11pm having shipped one screenshot you're not even sure about.
I shipped on iOS. Then I tried Google Play. Went through the entire submission flow. Prepared every asset in the different aspect ratios Google requires. Wrote different ASO copy for the different store culture. Researched Play-specific keywords. Got everything ready. Then hit Google's requirement to recruit 12 closed-testing reviewer accounts before publishing, and gave up. Google Play is still sitting in draft.
But I kept thinking about the gap between "I can build the product" and "I can ship the product." Not all indie founders are designers. Most of us aren't trying to become designers. We just need the work done so we can keep building the actual app.
Treelance is the result.
You describe what you need (App Store screenshots, ASO copy, keyword strategies, brand voice guides, market positioning, pricing strategy, more coming), the pipeline produces it, and a human reviewer checks every output before delivery. Most products ship in 15-30 minutes. Prices range from $19 to $129. No briefs, no Slack threads, no three-day waits.
Treelance can't get you 12 closed-testing reviewers. What it can do is collapse the asset and copy work into 20 minutes, so when you hit a platform wall like that, you've burned a coffee, not a weekend.
The mechanic underneath: you paste your URL on the homepage and the pipeline reads your app. Typography, color, voice, visual style. It remembers your app. So when you order screenshots, then ASO copy, then a positioning statement, all three reference the same understanding of your product. Not generic templates, not five disconnected freelancer styles, not "AI generated" pastiche. Everything stays consistent.
The pipeline does multiple passes per job. Drafts an output, critiques it against the requirements, refines, pulls in real keyword data for ASO products. Then a human reviewer checks every output before it ships.
The most honest case study I could build is the Treelance brand itself. Every visual at https://treelance.app (the logo, OG cards, Twitter headers, the screenshots in the catalog) was produced by Treelance's own pipeline. The brand kit page (https://treelance.app/brand) shows the full system. It's not a designed-by-hand brand I'm using to sell an AI product. It's the AI product producing the brand I'm selling it with.
Some honest scope: 16 products live, 40+ coming. The catalog leans toward strategy and copy work right now (ASO, audience profiles, positioning, keyword research) with screenshots as the visual product. Both iOS and Google Play submission packs are live, in case you've been staring at the same draft I have. Coming this month: OG cards, Twitter headers, LinkedIn covers, pitch decks, founder identity bundles.
I'm calling it "beyond freelance" because that's literally what it is. Not Fiverr, not Canva templates, not an agency. A fourth thing for indie founders who want their work finished, not drafted.
If you've lost a weekend juggling Canva, ChatGPT, keyword tools, and store guidelines: paste your app URL on treelance.app and see what your brand looks like through the pipeline. First 16 products are $19-129.
What's a launch task you'd pay to never do again?
The screenshot/copy bottleneck is real. For Kinetic Override, the hard part was not only “what does it do?” but proving the Android permission model quickly: record → replay → loop timing, Android 15+, local profiles, no ads. Powerful utility apps need the store page to remove fear before the install.
Treelance is a strong concept.
But if you’re positioning this as “beyond freelance,” the name still feels a little too close to freelance itself.
That may cap the product mentally as a services layer, even though the real product is closer to launch infrastructure for indie founders.
If this expands into screenshots, ASO, positioning, pitch decks, founder identity, and launch assets, the brand needs to feel broader than “freelance replacement.”
Zenvarya.com would fit this much better.
Cleaner, more premium, and easier to stretch into a serious founder launch/brand system instead of sounding tied to one service category.
Treelance is the name I want and I liked it so much that I even filed a trademark. Worth explaining the name choice though, since the question opens that space.
Two reasons. First, the inversion is intentional. Tree plus lance positions directly against the freelance model, not away from it. Freelance is gig-by-gig, depend on whoever, hope it's good. Treelance is a system that remembers your app, branches across your launch needs, and builds coherent assets across products. Contrast is the entire point.
Second, TREE(3) is a number from graph theory so unfathomably large that the number of atoms in the observable universe is rounding error compared to it. The metaphor for what I'm building is exactly that. Each Treelance product is a small labeled tree. Across a founder's catalog they branch and connect. Mission Control is the part that remembers and grows the tree.
'Treelance' does exactly the work I want it to do.
Fighting with app store rules and screenshot sizes is often more exhausting than writing the actual code. Treelance sounds like a smart assistant that handles the tedious launch chores so you can stay in your flow. It is a relief to turn a stressful weekend of manual marketing work into a quick twenty-minute win. Letting a pipeline handle the boring stuff is a genius way to protect your creative energy for building.
Which specific launch asset do you find most annoying to create from scratch every time?
Honestly, App Store screenshots are the worst. Five aspect ratios, copy that has to fit specific char limits per surface, and the whole thing has to look on-brand without looking like a template. Reviewer guidelines change quietly. You count characters by hand. And then App Store and Play Store have totally different requirements. Different aspect ratios, different copy formats, different keyword approaches. Doing the work once and then redoing it for the other store is its own special tax. ASO copy is a close second. Counting 100-char keyword strings by hand in 2026 is a special kind of suffering.
That's why screenshots and ASO were the first things I built. What about you, what's been the worst part of building Business GPT?
I’m totally with you on this. As a UI/UX designer, I know that App Store screenshots are an absolute must before any launch, but man, they are such a chore. Between the five different aspect ratios, strict character limits, the constant resizing, and the endless variations for each version... it takes up so much time for something that feels so thankless.
I’m glad you tackled this specific 'grunt work' that every maker dreads. I can’t wait to try it out!
To share a bit about my journey, Business GPT (now Bunzee.ai) grew out of our experience running Letspl.me, a platform in Korea with 20,000 members for finding side-project teammates and managing projects. We’ve since expanded globally, and while our goals might differ, we started from the same developer framework: getting to an MVP as fast as possible.
What we do is scrape real 'human' review data from places like Reddit and the App Store to provide hallucination-free analysis. We pinpoint competitor pain points and generate a PRD and MVP prompt in just a minute, telling you exactly what to build and how.
Honestly, it sounds grand, but as a founder, I’ve realized that deeply understanding a new service while also making it accessible and 'easy' for users is a massive challenge. I’ve gone through countless reviews across UI, UX, and BX to find that balance. Our second launch on Product Hunt was a total flop, and while we pivoted to Indie Hackers about three weeks ago to find communities where users are actively voicing their frustrations... we’ve had zero sales so far. Haha.
How about you? I’d love to hear your story and experience!
Genuine respect for sharing the real numbers. Zero sales three weeks in is the indie reality nobody talks about, and I'm shipping into the same quiet on day two.
Checked out Bunzee earlier and upvoted it on PH. I liked the UI and the "what users love / areas for improvement" surface is the part that stood out. Grounding analysis in actual review data instead of imagined feedback is the right shape of differentiation, and the deeply-understood vs accessible challenge you named is exactly the founder problem I think about with Treelance.
Short version of my story: built Ishana mobile app earlier this year, lost a weekend to my own submission process, started building Treelance. The brand at treelance.app was produced by Treelance's own pipeline as case study zero. Solo founder, patient, playing the longer game.
@treelance I really liked how clearly Treelance explains each step of the process. For a first-time visitor, it makes the service's purpose immediately obvious, which is great. As a UI/UX designer, I don’t usually handle the final store submissions myself, but I’ve spent so much time following up on them often with results that didn't quite hit the mark. The concept of 'buying back my time' on a per-job basis feels like a huge win.
Using 'Ishana: Vaastu Home Search' as a real-world case study was also a brilliant strategy. It allows users to simulate the outcome with actual data rather than just vague promises, building a solid layer of trust. Regarding the pricing, it did feel a bit on the high side at first glance, but for a solo founder, it’s definitely more efficient than hiring a full-time person. I suppose it depends on the situation.
Overall, the landing page feels very well-organized. However, I’m curious about the branding intent behind the primary color, Green. For a service that essentially says, 'We’ll handle the grunt work, just trust us,' I expected a visual vibe that screams reliability and sturdiness. When I first hit the hero section, the immediate 'feeling' I got was a bit different from the expectation I had before visiting.
Also, while there are many 'done-for-you' services out there, I’d love to know what would you say is the unique 'killer advantage' that makes Treelance the go-to choice over others?
Thanks for taking the time to look at the site this carefully. The "buying back time" framing landing is good to hear, because that was the harder framing decision than the technical positioning.
On the green color, this is the most honest piece of feedback I've gotten so far. You're not wrong, and you're not the first person to feel the gap between "trust + reliability" and the actual color choice. The logo mark itself is a tree sapling, so green was the metaphor I built around, but the emotional register you describe reads more navy than green in this category. I'm sitting with it.
On the killer advantage question, I'd argue it's brand coherence across products. Other 'done-for-you' services give you one good output. Treelance gives you a stack of outputs that all reference the same understanding of your app. The first order is good. By order 3, you'd have saved real time instead of working with three separate freelancers, and the outputs cohere instead of conflicting.
The pricing being on the high side is fair feedback. What's the threshold where it would feel obviously worth it for a UI/UX designer?
I’m glad to hear my feedback was helpful! I shared those thoughts strictly from a designer’s point of view, focusing primarily on the UI for now.
First off, I’m curious is there a specific story behind the sapling logo? I took it as a symbol for a fresh start or a 'new beginning,' but I’d love to know if that was your intention.
Over the years, working across various UI/UX projects, I’ve developed some implicit rules for myself: Blue for trust, Green for rest, and so on. In my personal opinion, for a startup to convey energy, confidence ('trust us to build your service'), and approachability ('we’re always here for you'), the brand colors need to reflect that harmony.
To achieve this, you might consider using gradients as point colors only where you really want to draw the user’s eye, while keeping the rest simple and spacious to give the design some 'room to breathe.' Right now, it feels like the current palette doesn't quite align with the service’s concept, and the heavy use of the primary color makes it hard to feel a specific 'emotion' or 'vibe' from the site.
Honestly, it might be worth considering a rebrand to really nail that professional trust. Of course, this is just my personal take, so please take it with a grain of salt! Branding aside, I think the service itself is fantastic. I’m genuinely looking forward to the day I can use it... once my boss agrees to pay for it, that is! Haha.
The sapling was deliberate. The tree metaphor doubles as the brand name (treelance, the platform for founders growing something from the start). The visual idea was "the early stage of something becoming substantial." Meant to read as a founder's product when Treelance enters their workflow, not as a generic "growth" symbol. Whether the metaphor actually lands on the hero is a separate question, and your feedback says it doesn't.
On the rebrand question: I take this seriously, but I'm holding the green for now because committing to a palette and then changing it confuses everyone. The feedback is on the list (will review in 3 months). In the near term, I will try some paint-and-spacing fixes instead of a full rebrand and see how it lands.
Curious about the boss point. What kind of design and submission work does your team typically pay for in this category? I'm building the catalog based on what indie founders would ask for, but agency/in-house team work is a meaningfully different buyer profile that I haven't researched as carefully.
If the intention behind Treelance was to symbolize delivering practical products to founders, I’m afraid that specific message isn't quite reaching me as a real user. I know it's incredibly difficult to perfectly capture a service's purpose, direction, and entire brand story in a single logo. But even with the inevitable trial and error, I believe it's a journey we have to take constantly refining our message through user feedback and internal reviews.
The reason I emphasize this is because when fellow designers or solo founders like me consider delegating work to Treelance, a key deciding factor is whether this service truly understands our goals and can tailor the results exactly to our needs. The brand's visual identity gives us the first hint of that capability.
Of course, as you mentioned, rebranding is no easy task. However, since we can't meet every user face-to-face, our brand concept is the most accurate way to convey what we stand for. I've always believed that people don't just buy a product; they buy the brand. That's why I continue to value this aspect so highly.
Regarding the exact costs, I don't handle the bookkeeping directly, so it's a bit hard to give you a precise number. But to give you an idea, our team currently has active subscriptions for Figma, Canva, and Claude.
I hope this helps answer your question!
@treelance I sincerely believe that Treelance can relieve the weariness of my daily life more than any other service! It is a truly valuable product. Please let me know anytime if you need my help or new perspectives. I have also improved Bunzee at your convenience, so please share your experiences!
You're naming something real. For a solo founder deciding whether to pay, the brand IS the proof that we'll understand their context. They can't ask us a question, they look at the site and decide whether it feels like the kind of operation that gets their problem. If the brand doesn't feel like that, the rest doesn't get a chance to matter. That part I agree with.
Where I'm sitting differently is on when to act on it. The product flow is still evolving and I'd rather lock in a visual identity once that's settled, not before. In the meantime I will see if I can give the green elements more presence without a full rebrand. Thanks.
It’s truly impressive to see you launching a service as a solo founder. Our team is also very lean we have someone handling business planning and backend, another on publishing and planning, and I take care of design and operations. Honestly, being able to run Letspl.me, which has 20,000 members in Korea, with such a small group is an achievement I’m personally very proud of.
As for our global project, Bunzee.ai, we’re currently focusing on building trust and sharing insights within real user communities, all in the hopes of seeing some meaningful traction.
I think it’s brilliant that treelance.app is 'Case Study #0,' built through its own pipeline. We’ve actually taken a very similar approach with Bunzee using the tool itself to regularly monitor market trends, our positioning, and areas for improvement as we build.
It feels like we have so much in common! I really believe we could be great resources for each other. If you're open to it, how about we do a mutual feedback exchange for Bunzee.ai and Treelance? I think it would be a fantastic 'win-win' opportunity for both of us.
20,000 members on Letspl.me with a lean team is the kind of traction most indie founders underestimate. That's hard to do. The parallel you drew between Treelance built through its own pipeline and Bunzee monitoring its own market is real.
Yes to the feedback exchange. I actually already spent some time poking around Bunzee today so I have notes I'd like to send you properly rather than dump in this thread. Can do it by Wednesday if that works for you.
Thanks a ton! I’m honestly so impressed with what you’ve built it looks like it could really save me from the more tedious, soul-crushing parts of my daily grind.
I’ve added a few more thoughts to my feedback above for you to check out. Also, I’m really looking forward to hearing about your experience and thoughts on bunzee.ai whenever you're ready!
Hi @LilyJeon, can you please provide email address so that I can provide my observations and feedback.
@treelance
Our official team email is support@bunzee.ai. Just a heads up, the features beyond the competitor analysis stage are currently part of our Pro membership. But if you shoot us an email, I’d love to share a promo code with you so you can try out the entire platform for free for a whole month! Thank you so much.
Thanks, sent some notes to the email. Please feel free to share with your team. Overall, I like your UI/UX work. The visual rhythm of the strategy phase makes the framework feel less like a form and more like real strategic work. The Target-Pain-Solution skeleton is genuinely useful structure. Most founders haven't thought through positioning with this rigor, and forcing the framework produces sharper output than letting people describe themselves freely. The three-direction selection (outcome marketplace / instant deliverables / agent-guided workflow, in my case) is a clever mechanic. Picking one of three feels like real strategic work, not just receiving generic AI advice.
The strategic positioning insight you generated for Treelance ("instant execution infrastructure for indie founders" and "execution layer for solo builders, not just another service marketplace") was genuinely sharper than what I had written for myself. That insight alone made the session feel worth doing.
"Soul-crushing parts of the daily grind" is exactly the slice of work Treelance is built for, that's good to hear. Saw your additional notes and just replied to them. I will send Bunzee feedback by Wednesday.
@treelance
Thanks for getting back to me! I really appreciate you sharing your hands-on experience and perspective on Bunzee.
Right now, our team is working on improving the entire flow so that even a solo builder starting with zero ideas can use Bunzee to go all the way to an MVP. It’s an AI tool for a niche market, but ironically, our target audience seems to be completely global! I’ll definitely organize your feedback, share it with the team, and add it straight to our improvement backlog.
If you're open to it, I’d love to keep following Treelance's journey. Could you share your LinkedIn?
@treelance Thanks for the valuable info! I just followed you on X (@nithya_builds). Looking forward to staying in touch and having more great conversations there!
Thanks Lily. Glad it lands as useful. I'm not on LinkedIn but easiest to follow Treelance on:
Will keep an eye out for what Bunzee ships next.
What's a launch task you'd happily pay to never do again? I'm building the catalog toward whatever founders actually answer.
If you want to try it: https://treelance.app, paste your app URL on the homepage and see what comes back.
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