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I built the note taking app that didn’t exist but I desperately needed 😊

I found myself needing a way to send notes publicly, keep some private, and also have a way to update my blog on the go without having to deploy a static website from my laptop.

Most of the products out there were either bloated with features, too complex (Roam), not native (Notion) or were blogging platforms with questionable business models (looking at you annoying Medium banner).

So three weeks ago I decided to see if I could build a native mobile app that allowed me to keep my private notes, share some of them publicly and also power my personal blog.
In about a week I had already 400 BETA testers and 7 people migrated their personal blogs to it 🤯

I wanted

  • To be able to share notes instantly and sometimes on my mobile device.
  • A personal website using certain notes for blog posts. Using my own domain name.
  • The simplest interface possible. No nonsense or feature creep.
  • Easy to read on any device (No annoying pop-ups or modals).
  • An API so I can fetch my notes in different formats.
  • Markdown.
  • Speed.

I didn't want

  • Platform lock-in where you can't take your data with you. A great export experience is here from day one. Being able to take my notes in different formats easily.
  • Ads being the customer.
  • Anything on the page competing with the content. (ads, pop-ups, recommendations, etc.)
  • Comments.
  • Vanity metrics.
  • Complexity.

I’ve been extremely pleased with the end result, and BETA users have been fueling the excitement 😀

I you want to see more take a look at the website and feel free to signup for the BETA at:

https://collectednotes.com

on June 3, 2020
  1. 1

    This is exciting that you received 400 beta testers within one week. How did you achieve this?

    1. 1

      600 most through my twitter followers and some via word of mouth

  2. 1

    Wow sometimes the best projects are the ones we do for ourselves. I'm sure this will hit home with a lot of devs.

    I built ytscribe.com because I wanted to watch more youtube videos than I had time for!

    Not sure if it'll will be a big hit, but it solved my own problem.

    And the habit and energy that comes from that is great!

    1. 1

      oh that's really cool!