Athenify

In the past month, we launched Athenify on ProductHunt, added a few new features, and got some paid customers.

In total, we have had the following:

• 93 user signups
• 11 paid customers (7 of which have remained)
• $35/mo in revenue
• $28/mo in profit

In the near term, we are thinking about adding a few new features and giving out a code for 2 months free to everyone on IndieHackers, so stay tuned.

Cheers 👨🏼‍💻

Today, I finished up a short, concise article on my journey while building Athenify.

I talk about the problem I was trying to solve for myself, the solution I came up with, and the numerous iterations and features I had to plow through in order to get Athenify to an optimal launch state.

If you have time, go check it out. It's only a three-minute read, and you'll find it intriguing.

I am in the midst of creating a couple of new features for Athenify after getting feedback from some early adopters/paid customers.

First, I created a live, public demo for people to try out the product before they enter CC information and start a trial.

Second, I'm in the process of creating a folders/hashtags feature for organizing notes in a simple, intuitive fashion.

Here's a screenshot of what I'm working on. (This is a really rough, function-only version, I haven't sorted out the UI or flow yet).

Third, I'm redesigning the dashboard to be more user-friendly, intuitive, and more in line with user experience thinking/strategy.

Try it out and give me feedback if you like, anything is appreciated! 😁

Stay tuned,
Colin

After I launched on ProductHunt, visitor count went up and I was able to convert some more sales, which is very exciting!

I will say, ProductHunt has some issues in terms of quality control (ie: somebody who hasn't used your product can rate it), and I did receive a couple of comments complaining about the fact that I am charging for my application.

You can't beat the expectation of free.

However, Athenify.com isn't for everyone and I can accept that (it helps that some people ARE willing to pay $5/mo for my service, and these customers will likely be more engaged).

I've set some new milestones to reach for, have some new features in the work, and I'm currently brainstorming strategy for a couple of other side projects I'm working on.

Overall, a good week!

Stay tuned,
Colin

Last night, I scheduled a launch for ProductHunt for Athenify.com and it went into play this morning. Since then, we have acquired a couple of new paying customers (only after relatively few upvotes).

If you want to support it, go check it out here!

I'm in Madrid right now, soon to be going to Santiago de Compostela to start a week-long trek through the Spanish countryside.

On the plane I thought of a couple of new feature ideas for Athenify. One of them was a reminder feature, mainly so that people could write down ideas on the fly (ie: I have an idea that is fleeting, and I need to write it down or else I'll forget) and be reminded at a later date automatically.

In addition to this, potentially using language recognition within notes could be a promising direction.

For the next week, I'll be busy hiking, but in my spare time I plan on implementing various features.

If anyone would like to test for bugs or issues, the beta price is only $5/mo and if you send me an email with a bug or major issue you have found - I will refund your first month.

Any help would be appreciated, it both motivates me and helps me improve and re-iterate on my product.

Stay hungry, Colin

I reached out to a few friends and family members who I specifically thought might be interested/a good fit for Athenify and got them to sign up.

After looking at the landing page and seeing the product video, they all seemed sold. While a huge part may be the fact that I made the product, it is still useful to have some early beta users/testers to find issues and bugs for me.

It'll also be rewarding (and useful) to see how they interact with the addition of new features such as tags, shelves (think Evernote notebooks except a bit simpler and more flexible), and additions to the note-taking editor.

I'm truly proud of myself, for the first time in a long time. I was able to ship a functioning product in less than three days, and it took a long time of trying and failing to ship other products in significantly longer periods of time.

I've decided I may take the Pinboard approach to pricing. I'm currently charging a simple $5/month, but a multiplier-based price (ie: $11/year) might be easier and more upfront.

I've built a solid foundation for a product I myself want and (now can use), and have a lot of room for future iteration.

Stay tuned,
Colin

Today (along with some work the previous few days) I have shipped my MVP for Athenify and have set up payments.

For now, the application has simple note-taking and rich-text editing functionality with a clean user interface.

I got a couple of friends to sign up for it, and although it's very simple at the moment, it does a good job at creating and visualizing notes.

In the near term, I plan to add some a project/topic feature amongst some others.

I believe the strategy here is not to try and do many things at once (ie: Evernote, Google Docs, etc.) - but to do one thing really well.

In this case, it means stripping down absolutely everything that doesn't add value to writing and storing notes.

The application is already very flexible in the current state and can be used for nearly anything (saving code commands, copying recipes, keeping a contact list, etc.).

I'm already using it to keep a list of companies that I admire (and would potentially like to work at).

More soon,
Colin

Throughout the time I've taught myself various programming concepts, languages, and frameworks - one thing has always bothered me.

I like to take notes to drill in topics, and to serve as a reference later on. But when you are studying technical topics, it's difficult to take good notes.

In Google Docs, it's a pain to embed code blocks, inline images, and do consistent markdown with hotkeys.

In Evernote (which I rarely use), I'm sure it's easier to do some of these things - but there seems to be too much other stuff going on here.

I'm going to build a web application that allows for rich text notes (with easy code embeds/blocks, inline images, etc.) and focuses on absolutely nothing else.

Simplicity is better for these sorts of things in my opinion.

While I believe I'll have to pivot here for business reasons (I'm not sure technical note-taking is a real market), the underlying functionality I'm building is powerful.

Stay tuned,
Colin