5632 bookmarks · page 26 of 226
When reaching out to someone you hope to work under, make sure you very clearly communicate the following:
1) show that you understand what puzzle they’re solving
2) state what missing piece of that puzzle you think you can fill
3) state what evidence there is that you can fill that piece.
Show HN: I built an app to review your time spent outdoors (daylightgoals.com)
Hey HN,
I've just released an update to my iPhone/Apple Watch app Daylight Goals which includes a new feature - your Daylight Recap for 2025.
If you've been wearing an Apple Watch for the past year it has been recording your time spent outdoors (So long as the screen is mostly uncovered.) My app charts and graphs it, along with giving you daily goal updates to make sure you get your 20 mintues of sunlight per day.
The recap feature is free, you just need to close out the paywall during onboarding.
Action produces information.
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
This is always true, but it's truer now than usual.
If you’re an indie dev making less than $30K a month I promise this video will be the most important thing you watch all year.
An in-depth breakdown of influencer lead advertising and what actually worked for me and many others to scale an app from 0 to $1M ARR only 4 months.
Did Bryan Johnson just cure diabetes?
He just posted the data from his last trip:
His glucose now measures better than 99.75% of 18-25 year olds.
This is the first human evidence that mushrooms could treat diabetes and metabolic dysfunction.
The only other studies exist in rodents.
Imagine:
Daily pills → 1x dose every 6 months.
We're literally watching the future of metabolic health happen 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲.
Hot take from @filippkowalski - should you remove your paywall from onboarding? The answer might surprise you 👇
Disclaimer: Since we don't really know where the paywall is on a per-app, we use d1 paywall rate as a proxy.
Here's the data:
Scatter plot - each data point
Histogram on 10% bins
So there is some truth to what Filip is saying - too high a paywall rate may turn off customers before they get to experience your app.
On the flip side, if less than 50% of people are seeing your paywall on day 1, there is almost no shot you'll have a high ARPU.
So while we can't really answer if onboarding is the right place for it, there is definitely such thing as being "too aggressive" with the paywall.
Personally, I love the way @photoroom_app does it - paywall in onboarding, but only after value is demonstrated.
Photoroom guides the user through removing a background inside onboarding itself, essentially baking in a stripped down version of their product to get users to an Aha! moment prior to showing pricing.
...this is the way!
My magic mushroom longevity experiment found a metabolic reset button in the brain. We expected brain changes, but not a potential metabolic breakthrough.
The discovery: my blood glucose control dramatically improved.
+ before: top 2% of population
+ after: top 0.2% of population
+ better than 99.75% of 18-25 yr olds
+ mean glucose dropped 8%
+ time above 125 mg/dL: zero min
+ variability dropped 11%
This single session reduced my estimated HbA1c by 6.8% from 4.7% to 4.4%.
Why does this matter? We treat diabetes and metabolic dysfunction with chronic daily medication (Metformin, Insulin, GLP-1s). This data suggests that a neuroplastic event might have downstream effects on the liver and pancreas that mimic or exceed these drugs.
For context, taking Metformin daily takes 6 months to drop it 10-15%.
This is a first in-human observation, with comparable pre-clinical evidence existing only in rodents.
I spent $200 on these Skills and it was worth 5x that.
We’re going to see Agent Skills marketplaces appear soon.
I've spent over $50,000+ in influencers.
To scale my app to 120k+ users
this is my advice to you in 59 words.
Our AI generated paywall experiments tool (powered by anonymized data on 422 experiments) just got a crazy feature – it now generates an actual image of the paywall you should run. Mind blowing.
Free forever at
it took me 5 years to make my first $15k/month from apps🥴
If i had to do it again, I could do it in a few months
here's exactly what i would do
1. launch apps users ACTUALLY want not apps YOU want
"but how do i know what users want?"
easy
get inspiration from other successful apps, find gaps, add your own personality, read the reviews and listen to their users
2. after launching don't touch the app again until you reach at least $1k/month
"but how?"
easy
OBSESS over distribution, don't do anything else, don't even talk to your mom if you have to UNTIL you start developing a viral sense
again, take inspiration from your competition, give their formats a try and iterate fast until you've something that works
3. after reaching $1k/month double down on your winning content and scale to AT LEAST $5k/month
if you found your winners don't waste time testing other things, go ALL IN, post 15 different variations of the same video a day if you have to
4. After reaching $5k month scale with either UGC, Influencers or Paid Ads, the trinity of distribution
The best apps are doing all at once but i'd recommend starting with only one
I went the paid ads route but I know of very successful founders doing the other 2 as well
This was the skyline when the Empire State Building was completed:
Can you solve these 20 agentic AI problems? Download this problem set I designed 👉
Your first 2–3 micro influencers
are not for “sales”.
They’re for data.
Data = scaling your app
→ which hook works
→ which angle gets comments
→ which CTA gets installs
→ which content becomes an ad
once you have this data.
You can replicate your success.
and make sure you're not a 1 hit wonder.
Everyone wants an “original app”
but originality with no demand
is a broke mans hobby.
Steal the framework:
→ proven niche
→ proven onboarding
→ proven offer
→ proven to make money
Then make the product better.
That’s how you win in the app space.
To boost your app's keyword rankings, focus on downloads.
No matter if organic or paid.
These are the top "11" marketing channels to grow your app.
More ASO strategies in our free books:
Being slow in 2026 is unacceptable.
The friction from app idea
to market does no longer exist.
You can build your app in 48 hours
with Rork(.)com
→ 37 step onboarding in hours
→ Hard paywall
→ backend database handled
→ App ready to print money
Don't take months launching
an app just for it to flop.
Validate → launch fast → focus on distribution → scale.
Working on a new Adventure system with Explorer characters and different regions.
WYT?
Literally all you need to turn your apps onboarding into a $30k/mo sales printr
Circadian rhythm dysfunction is highly prevalent in ADHD
Up to ~75% of patients have delayed sleep and wake timing, and shifting the clock earlier is linked to symptom improvement
I just published a paper on what this means for treatment. Here’s what we found 🧵1/12
🎯 "Do a huge volume of work. It is only by going through a volume of work that ... the work you're making will be as good as your ambitions."
THIS:
This is the tool I’m using to manage and track my creators by the way:
If you’re paying influencers flat fees
$1,500 for 1 reel ( no guarantee )
you’re gambling.
I pay for performance:
→ $1 CPM or $ for X ammount of views
→ post until views hit the target
→ recycle the top performer into ads
→ scale the ones that print
you need to build you app on top of winning systems
not on rolling the dice and praying.