What is the real CHLNG of building a product?

Hey everyone,

First of all, I’m so glad that Summer is finally here. This time always takes a special place in my heart, because in flat water kayaking, it was always a peak season with a lot of trips, adventures, and competitions. As you can imagine, training outside with 28-30 degrees is pretty cool near water.

It’s been a while since my first report about CHLNG. Since that time, I finally made an official app store release and acquired my first users. In this article, I want to share more details, what’s currently in development, and what it’s still to be a solo developer, even with AI.

Let’s go! 🔥

This episode presented by:

Superapp - Build iOS apps with AI. Your technical co-founder for iOS

The current status 🔥

CHLNG was released to AppStore about 4 weeks ago. I finally came to the point where I decided to stop developing and finally want to show what I’m building. I already had users in TestFlight, but after the release, I realized that at some point, Beta Testing is a blocker for a lot of people as well, because you still have to do an extra step for this.

When you’re building with AI today, creating an app or product is not a problem anymore at all. Every day, models are becoming much better and better, and open a lot of opportunities for people who have always wanted to ship something, but just didn’t have the right skill set. Now this gap is closed.

Shortly, CHLNG is already in the App Store, with over 100 downloads and 80+ users.

I don’t evaluate this result so far, because the main acquisition channel for me was LinkedIn, and the story behind CHLNG.

Users Activation ⚔️

The idea of the app might not be clear to some people. I’m always thinking about this, and asking myself, if it’s not clear that much for the biggest group, maybe the idea itself isn’t worth it all? These kinds of reflections happen all the time, and you should have some mechanics to work with.

I know that good onboarding might be a key to user acquisition, which is why I decided to integrate “Founder Challenge” into the app. I always repeat that the best way to promote your app is to show how it works.

The main problem of the CHLNG for the user is that when you registered, you should have had an opponent to battle or challenge. If you don’t have it, the % to quit from the app is quite high.

I built a simple flow, where every user will have me as “Founder” already in their friends. Once the user is registered, they will get a message to challenge me. It means they can select from the friends list, me, and a challenge in any activities. In reality, remote battles aren’t the core idea of the product, because I want to bring people together offline. A lot of people don’t know my capabilities or my fitness level. So it was a guess, but it worked: in the first week, I got about 20 different challenges from users.

This was a very interesting experience, and a good example of what CHLNG is really about. A couple of examples of what people made as a stake:

• Credits for Superapp

• Book

• An additional 100 pushups

• Strawberry cake

• Coffee

So, I would say, that idea worked. Not 100% as it should be, but at least the full life-cycle worked.

Events 🚀

Besides the online presence, I’ve started to go more often offline with the product at some local events to further collect feedback. I had a couple of events during winter, but one of the core events was the Bremen Startup Summit, with over 700 people.

As always, I had my table, but this time I decided to engage people more with some activities. I asked them to challenge me. The easiest way was pushups. In total, I did 421 pushups and didn’t lose any challenge. As a stake, some users made pushups because they lost. 😅

Besides this, I introduced Virtual Coins. Now, you can make a pool when creating a challenge and earn some coins on a daily basis. Why? It’s just the first step to make it more fun, but of course, I’m already working on further integration to make sure you can be rewarded for your sweat and effort.

One interesting fact is that quite a lot of people asked about the Android version, and this is one of the core dependencies for me when you are building in one ecosystem.

The next big update that I wanted to show is my B2B product for companies.

When I just started CHLNG, I knew that I wanted to develop and grow this idea in different directions. Now, this vision is slowly coming into reality.

I want to provide the eco-system to companies, to own, manage, and motivate your employees the way you want. If you want to give it a try, or just to know more, you know where to find me. ✌️

What’s next? ⏭️

First of all, I honestly didn’t know that this journey would already be for 6 months. It all started with a curiosity about what AI is capable of. The one difference that I really remember about this project is that I’ll stick with and commit to it for 1 full year. It doesn’t mean I will work full-time on it, it’s not a case for now, but I just decided that I have to go further with ups and downs, no matter what, for 12 months.

Sometimes, it’s really hard to continue, but I always remind myself with my secret list why I started this. Being solo-dev isn’t that funny, as it seems, but it also opens and creates a lot of opportunities for you as an individual.

In the upcoming weeks, I want to add more features:

• Virtual Coins (already in test, but not released yet)

• Pools (a feature that might be very interesting for creators)

• More Activities

• Squads

It’s just a short list of what’s coming next.

Besides that, I have ideas about marketing, collaboration, and content which I need to create and distribute across social channels. Never enough time, but definitely one of the priorities for now.

The Marketing and Distribution Problem 📈

This one is the biggest pain point so far. I see how people are developing and distributing products across different platforms, for different problems, and the development gap just disappeared for everyone, but we have but…

The marketing, distribution, and product market fit are still here. What I understood over the last 6 months is that the foundation, as it was 10-15 years ago, it’s still the foundation, and without it, you can build 10 products a week, but what is the reason?

I see that some people are starting to get first revenues, some not, and this shift will change for sure, but at the same point, I still feel that fundamentals are still here. If you can’t generate revenue, you’re in trouble.

• These are the core questions I’m asking myself almost every day:

• Is this product a must-have for people?

• How are you going to generate revenue?

• How would you decide when to stop if you won’t find product market fit?

• What is your marketing strategy?

• Who are your users?

• What are your values for users?

• What are the differences against competitors?

All of these are stuck in my head. What I’m trying to say is that some answers you’ll get through the journey itself. It’s impossible to be prepared for everything and find the proper way to be on track.

I have a global vision for CHLNG. It’s not just 1x1 battles in real life, but it’s the whole ecosystem, community, where people enjoy sports and activities at any level with a group of friends. I see this as a huge game, with proper rewards and a tool for creators and influencers in the future. I don’t want to take people online more; I want to bring them together offline and make sure they’re challenging each other in a way they want.

What I’m trying to say is that if you’re building something, don’t be distract with other’s succes or fast results, because we don’t always have the whole context. Domain, knowledge, expertise, networking, skills, team, technologies and etc.

I understand that my product is in a very competitive landscape, where the desire for quick results might be the biggest mistake. So, I have the next 5 months to figure out what’s next for the product. 😉

Support 🙌

This section is the most important. First of all, I want to thank everyone who supported me along the way. I know some people will read this, and I just want to say it loud one more time. 🙂 I really appreciate that I always have feedback, opinion, or even some mental support when things are going down.

As always, I really can’t express my gratitude to the Founders of Superapp, who always supported me not only technically, but also with further advice in general. I haven’t seen this kind of dedication from Founders, and it’s one of the examples I want to take to my users as well.

No reason to say all the names, but I want to let you know about that one more time.

Thank you! ❤️

Conclusion 📕

What I can say for now is that the work will continue for sure. Sometimes I’m afraid that I’m believing in this idea and product too much. I clearly understand that it might be a trap for me at some point. You know, the situation when everything is telling you that it’s over, but you are still fighting because you have time. I don’t know where it comes from. Maybe from the sport, because I always knew and saw that nothing is finished when you still have time.

All the best.

Cheers,
Taras