Launched a product for the first time today! 🚀
You can find the listing for my app, auToDo, on Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/autodo
I've been working on this app for the last 6 months, this is the first time I've coded an app and the first time launching any sort of startup idea. I think it turned out pretty well for my first app, but feedback and beta testing would be a huge help obviously! Looking forward to participating more around here and hopefully coming back with some more updates on auToDo :)
Congrats!
Hope you have the best of luck at Product Hunt, it'd be really could if you could come back with after-launch stats, especially, for a first-time product hunt release.
I'm in the same position as you, been learning how to code and am currently finishing my first product, hope to launch it in 1-2 months :)
What was you approach to learning how to code? What stack did you choose to learn?
I'm learning basic WebDev: HTML, CSS and Javascript (jQuery too).
Yeah. How did you guys learn coding?
I am thinking about building a desktop notetaking app, and I have decided that java with javafx is the best option.
I am also a total beginner to programming. How should I go about building this app? I myself is mostly a business guy. I want to build the initial myself to because only is itcapital free, but I want to learn a little about the programming world and its possibilities.
What do you guys think I should do? Read books and learn the language first or just learn the really core concepts and then learn and copy from google search?
Well, I don't know about Java, I learned Web Dev and loved both Udemy.com and FreeCodeCamp
Udemy has a HUGE amount of courses about ANYTHING. I personally took a the 'Web Dev Bootcamp' by Colt Steele, but I'm pretty sure there'll be dozens of great Java courses there as well.
Also, Udemy-hack here, search for courses on incognito mode, they'll be cheaper (I never bought any Udemy course for more than 14.99).
FreeCodeCamp is mostly focused on web development and it's free. @quincylarson, the creator of it, was interviewed in the IH podcast if you feel like listening to that: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/056-quincy-larson-of-freecodecamp
Also, he may be able to suggest you how to better do your desktop app.
I believe you could do it too with Javascript and www.electronjs.org.
I feel like learning Javascript is more polivant that learning Java, but I guess I'm pretty biased. Would love to learn what fellow IH members think about the stack that better suits your situation? :)
Forgot about the after-launch stats part. I had 21 people download the app yesterday and 9 people who opted to sign up with an account rather than do the local-only trial option. I don't have the exact number written down but something around 10 people requested to be pinged when I get the iOS version out soon, so it sounds like going with a cross-platform framework was definitely the right idea!
Hi Carmen and Polomalolo! Thank you for the kind words!
I had the advantage of a couple of years of software development experience in other fields before learning to do app development for auToDo. I'm currently working as an embedded software engineer (C programming) and I had done a bit of web development before this project. I mostly learned by modifying existing website templates for the web development -- the instantaneous feedback in the browser makes it a lot easier to learn that way compared to embedded systems. This approach is pretty similar to what I did for app development too, I started with some tutorials and then started hacking on example apps that I found.
I wrote auToDo in Flutter, if you're looking for an example app to mess with to learn Flutter then you can view and modify the source at: https://github.com/autodo-app/autodo. The source for auToDo's landing page is open-source and available here: https://github.com/autodo-app/autodo-app.github.io
Best of luck with learning to code, it's a great skill to learn!
Hey Johnathan
Congrats on the PH launch. I really like the concept. If you don't mind me asking, do you plan to monetize and if so, what are you thoughts so far?
Hey Johnathan, thanks for the reply. I can't seem to find it here, but I got the email notification of your response. @csallen is there a data sync issue on some of the forum replies?
As I thought, and similar monetization to a product idea I am toying with at the moment. I wish you the best of luck with AuToDo
Hmmm, there shouldn't be an issue. What happened?
Hey Courtland. The reply from @baylessj (should be directly below this one) I received in my email notifications. When I came onto this thread I couldn't see it anywhere. I then responded directly below my original comment. As you can see, the reply from Johnathan is now below my response.
Without knowing the IndieHackers backend, it would seem like a sync/timing issue perhaps?
No worries on asking about monetization, I'm glad to share and open to feedback! The app has ads and a paid option ($2.99 one time fee) to remove the ads currently. I'm hoping to eventually get more specialized ads from automotive companies/mechanics shops instead of just Google Admob like I have currently. I'm hoping that would be a more lucrative option, but I likely need to get a fair number of users first.
Congrats on your first product. Super impressive I must say. If you ever need a UX/UI expert, hit me up. I'm the founder of DesignJoy.co.
Thanks! Your portfolio looks great, I'll let you know if I end up needing a UI/UX expert in the future!
Love it and congrats! Aside from the name which is fantastic, I see a lot of potential for an app like this. Early adopters can use it for all those little things they want/should to keep track of... but never do. The trust built upfront would make riskier and more profitable enhancements easier to sell to existing users. Good luck!
Thank you! I'm glad you also see the potential in this, it fits a need in my life and I hope it will for others too!
Mine too! I think it solves a real problem and has a large market to sell into.
Edit: saw you were out of Indy! Grew up in Lawrence, IN. Fellow Hoosier 🏀
Congrats, app looks great!
Thanks!
I love the product I gave it an upvote.
Im curious how you went about prepping for and ultimately launching. I just finished my MVP for https://soundportals.live/ and am unsure how to go about PH launches...
Hi entrepreneurs! Thank you for the kind words and upvote :)
The Product Hunt launch process is mostly painless but I ran into a couple of odd issues. My youtube link wasn't recognized for some reason when I was originally submitting the post, and the edit option for the post doesn't allow you to update the youtube link field. I also posted my app yesterday, but an hour or two after going live it was hidden and scheduled for launch today. Not entirely sure why that happened.
It's certainly been an exciting day, but the launch process wasn't nearly as time consuming or stressful as many people make it out to be. Your MVP looks good, I'm sure you'll do great! I'll keep an eye out for your launch.