Respiro

Hey IH,

I'm Kostiantyn, a PM based in Kyiv, Ukraine. By day I work on a AAA game at Mythical Games. By night I built Respiro -- a stress management app that launched on the App Store 6 days ago.

Honest numbers:

- 300 active users

- $0 MRR

- 61 beta testers grandfathered with lifetime PRO

- 1 active trial

- 0 paid subscribers

- 4 App Store reviews (all 5 stars)

- Total time from idea to App Store: about 2 months

What Respiro does:

26 breathing, body, and mind techniques ranging from 10 seconds to 20 minutes. The core idea: you should be able to calm down in seconds, not commit to a 30-minute meditation session.

The part I'm most proud of is Smart Stress Detection. The app monitors 7 behavioral signals (usage patterns, session timing, practice duration) and proactively sends a push notification when it detects stress is rising. No smartwatch needed. Everything computed on-device.

It also has a 4-stage personalization engine that learns which techniques work best for each user. By session 15, it's fully calibrated and shows why it recommends each practice.

Tech stack:

- Swift 6 + TCA (The Composable Architecture)

- Metal shaders for the breathing animation (120fps GPU-rendered lotus flower)

- SwiftData for on-device storage

- No backend for user data -- everything on-device for privacy

- RevenueCat for subscriptions

- AI-assisted development (Claude Code writing Swift while I managed the product)

Revenue model:

5 practices free forever (Physiological Sigh, Box Breathing, Grounding, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Dive Reflex). PRO unlocks all 26 for $4.99/month or $29.99/year with a 7-day free trial.

What I've learned so far:

1. Building the app was the easy part. Getting people to try it is an entirely different challenge.

2. Zero reviews at launch is a conversion killer. We got 4 reviews now and it already feels different.

3. Marketing as a solo dev with a full-time job is brutal. About 2 hours/day on content.

4. The free tier needs to be generous enough to show value but not so generous nobody converts. Still figuring this out.

5. Claude Code made it possible for a PM who doesn't write production code to ship a real iOS app with Metal shaders.

What's next:

- Figuring out the conversion funnel (300 users, 0 paid -- something is off)

- SEO and content marketing

- More App Store reviews

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6758023997

Website: https://respiro.health

Happy to answer any questions about the build, the tech stack, or the marketing struggle.