Pencil Bible

Creative journaling & art for your Bible. On the iPad.

Under 10 Employees
Founders Don't Code
Solo Founder
Productivity
SaaS

One early morning in December 2019 (around Christmas time) I was doing Bible study on my iPad. I was feeling frustrated by the creative limitations and options of the current Bible apps available.

October 24, 2022 Progress so far

Damn. This is taking so long ๐Ÿ˜”. I wrote a huge Twitter thread on it (joined the thread boys club)

Good news:

  1. Only second under Bible Search.
  2. 9th under Reference.
  3. Making a steady $2000 in profit every month.

Bad news:

  1. Development has been incredibly slow.
  2. A ton of features don't work yet.
March 22, 2022 Apple App Store Launch

YEY! Out official launch on the Apple App store. Took 2 years longer than expected. Welcome to app development ๐Ÿ˜‚. We quickly made $800 in a few days. This gives me a lot of hope for future revenue. The product still feels half done. Pencil VS Touch being the biggest issue at the moment.

December 24, 2021 Beta Launch on Christmas!

We launched the beta of Pencil Bible too eager users (over 100) waiting for the app. The feedback was good, but there is a lot of work left to do. A ton of features and bugs to sort out before we can launch an official version on the Apple App Store.

December 24, 2021 Beta Launch on Christmas!

We launched the beta of Pencil Bible too eager users (over 100) waiting for the app. The feedback was good, but there is a lot of work left to do. A ton of features and bugs to sort out before we can launch an official version on the Apple App Store.

December 6, 2021 1st premium Bible translation from a publisher!

Getting a premium Bible translation for use in an app is incredibly difficult especially since we don't even have a working public version of Pencil Bible yet.

After being rejected by two publishers we finally were able to procure one. I spent almost two weeks working on the application trying to get the copy as perfect as I could manage.

We are looking to release the first beta this week. ๐Ÿค™๐Ÿป

September 22, 2021 SIgned on new developers

Finally, I have a full-time team working on this APP. Now things are going to start โ›ฝ I posted on Indiehackers for tips on how to hire from Upwork. I'm writing a blog post now on how I finally found my developer. Hopefully can ad some monthly revenue soon!

August 20, 2021 Test Flight

Testing the first beta on Test Flight ๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜ The wait has been epic long. The app still needs a lot of work. Looking for developers on Upwork now. The drawing tools need lots of refinement, but the whole Bible part of the app is excellent! Onwards and Upwards.

August 20, 2021 Test Flight

Testing the first beta on Test Flight ๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜ The wait has been epic long. The app still needs a lot of work. Looking for developers on Upwork now. The drawing tools need lots of refinement, but the whole Bible part of the app is excellent! Onwards and Upwards.

February 7, 2021 Up & Up.

Wow, this is a whole other world ๐Ÿ˜‡ This is what it feels like to have real developers who understand and communicate. It is so good.

I wrote a whole piece on it. You can check it out on my medium blog: https://erinchampwalker.medium.com/the-inside-scoop-february-2021-9b432a45cc50

January 10, 2021 Find a new developer.

My intuition was right. The developer could not deliver anything or any proof more than a blank app with a menu.

I asked for my deposit back.

Luckily I stumbled on someone's blog post while browsing for templates for a personal page. This article on freelancing and how they (as a small agency) approach it really responded to me.

I contacted the developer and we got along splendidly and immediately.

After chatting and checking his references I signed the contract for $10000 and paid over another deposit. Let's hope this time it's better.

About

One early morning in December 2019 (around Christmas time) I was doing Bible study on my iPad. I was feeling frustrated by the creative limitations and options of the current Bible apps available.