hello, i built a productivity app for ADHD brains, built solo during unemployment, zero budget.

Here's the honest update:

-185 downloads across 26 countries (organic, no ads)

-22 App Store ratings, all 5 stars

-Zero revenue yet, freemium model still converting slowly (only 1 person converted)

What I changed since launch:

-The visuals went fully 3D

-Added a growth journey feature: plants now develop visually over time

-Added collections, so there's something to discover and unlock

The app is genuinely better now than it was at launch.

My question is: Is it too early to apply for investors? what should I include in my pitch deck?

hello, i built a productivity app for ADHD brains, built solo during unemployment, zero budget.

Here's the honest update:

-185 downloads across 26 countries (organic, no ads)

-22 App Store ratings, all 5 stars

-Zero revenue yet, freemium model still converting slowly (only 1 person converted)

What I changed since launch:

-The visuals went fully 3D

-Added a growth journey feature: plants now develop visually over time

-Added collections, so there's something to discover and unlock

The app is genuinely better now than it was at launch.

My question is: Is it too early to apply for investors? what should I include in my pitch deck?

hello, i built a productivity app for ADHD brains, built solo during unemployment, zero budget.

Here's the honest update:

-185 downloads across 26 countries (organic, no ads)

-22 App Store ratings, all 5 stars

-Zero revenue yet, freemium model still converting slowly (only 1 person converted)

What I changed since launch:

-The visuals went fully 3D

-Added a growth journey feature: plants now develop visually over time

-Added collections, so there's something to discover and unlock

The app is genuinely better now than it was at launch.

My question is: Is it too early to apply for investors? what should I include in my pitch deck?

launched March 25. real app, App Store, subscriptions, 3 languages, 112 plant species. 2 Apple rejections: both about subscription configuration and terms of use, nothing about features. both fixable.

rebuilt the entire garden from flat 2D to full 3D in week one after launch because it didn't feel alive.

what vibe coding actually looks like: describing the same bug three different ways until one lands. not being sure if the fix you just shipped broke something else. testing everything manually because you don't know how to write tests.

185 downloads, 26 countries, 16 five-star reviews in two weeks.

vibe coding scales. it just requires more patience than the posts here make it look like :)

launched March 25. honest breakdown:

what worked: reddit posts where i told the real story instead of the product story. the posts that got nothing: the ones that sounded like marketing copy.

what didn't work: instagram. tiktok. posting to subreddits that don't allow self-promo and getting removed :)

what i haven't touched yet: ASO properly. keywords are probably a mess. updating screenshots this week after the 3D rebuild i did in week one.

if you've cracked organic App Store growth for a solo freemium app i want to learn from you specifically.

BloomDay is live. task tracker, habit tracker, 3D virtual garden. full i18n in English, Turkish, Spanish. freemium via RevenueCat. AsyncStorage for persistence.

2 Apple rejections: subscription group structure and Terms of Use placement. both clear once you read the actual feedback.

rebuilt the garden from 2D to fully 3D in week one after launch. that required touching more of the codebase than i expected because the original data layer wasn't designed for it.

what Claude is genuinely good at: explaining why something broke. what it's bad at: knowing what you should build vs what you asked for.

185 downloads, 26 countries, 5.0 rating in two weeks. technical questions welcome.

the standard narrative: niche down, ship fast, convert early, grow.

mine: get laid off, have an ADHD crisis, build something in 2 months that you needed to exist, ship it March 25, rebuild the garden in 3D in week one because the original wasn't good enough, watch 185 people in 26 countries download it in two weeks, none of them convert, all 16 who review it leave 5 stars.

revenue: zero. resolve: intact.

somewhere between the 0 and whatever this becomes, i'll report back.

BloomDay launched March 25. the original garden was flat, lifeless, and looked like a homework assignment. i knew this when i submitted it. shipped anyway because i needed to ship.

rebuilt it fully in 3D in week one. users now also have growth journeys. there's a collections system.

two weeks in: 185 downloads, 26 countries, 5.0 rating.

the lesson: ship the version that isn't perfect. fix the thing you know is wrong as fast as you can after. if i'd tried to do it right before launch i'd still be building.

what have you shipped knowing it wasn't right? did you fix it?

i've tried maybe 40 of them. i currently use zero consistently. and i just built one.

the problem was never features. every app has features. the problem was that every app eventually made me feel bad for being inconsistent, and once i felt bad, i stopped opening it.

i built BloomDay without that. your garden grows when you show up. it waits when you don't. no streak mechanics, no shame loops. launched March 25, rebuilt the garden in 3D in the first week. 185 downloads, 26 countries, 5.0 rating in two weeks.

but genuinely, what's the last productivity app you actually stuck with and why? i want to understand what made the difference.

built BloomDay in 2 months with Claude. no coding background. former humanitarian worker who got laid off and had nothing else to do.

launched March 25. rebuilt the entire garden from 2D to 3D in week one because i shipped knowing it wasn't alive enough and then fixed it.

2 Apple rejections: both about subscription setup and terms of use placement, not about any features. both straightforward once i read what they actually wanted.

185 downloads, 26 countries, 16 five-star ratings, zero revenue.

the thing nobody talks about honestly: Claude can't remember what it told you to build last week. you have to hold the architecture yourself. once you accept that, the process gets a lot less frustrating.

still worth it. still the only way i could have done this.

BloomDay is live. React Native, Expo, RevenueCat, AsyncStorage, full i18n.

the rejections: subscription group structure and Terms of Use placement. both completely clear once i read the actual rejection reason instead of panicking. nothing about features.

launched March 25. rebuilt the whole garden from 2D to 3D in week one because i shipped knowing the original wasn't alive enough.

built entirely with Claude. no coding background. 185 downloads, 26 countries, 5.0 rating in two weeks.

if you're building an app solo and want to know what the rough parts actually look like, ask. i won't pretend to know things i don't :)

everyone says "your skills transfer" and they mean Excel and stakeholder management.

what actually transferred: making decisions with incomplete information. staying functional when the outcome is uncertain. understanding what people need when they can't articulate it themselves.

that last one is why my app works. i built it for ADHD brains (including mine) because i understood from fieldwork what it means to need support that doesn't punish you for being human.

launched March 25. two weeks in: 185 downloads, 26 countries, 5.0 rating. zero revenue. still unemployed.

for anyone in the sector who's been laid off: the skills are real. the path forward is just less obvious than they tell you. there's something on the other side.

I'm building a mobile game called Tend, which is a realistic permaculture/garden simulation where real gardening rules apply.

You manage a small garden plot on your phone, but unlike farming games like Stardew Valley or Hay Day, this one actually teaches you real gardening. You can't just plant anything next to anything. Tomatoes thrive next to basil but struggle next to fennel. Peas fix nitrogen in the soil for the next crop. Planting the same thing in the same spot year after year depletes the soil. Rain actually waters your plants. Seasons limit what you can grow. Every real permaculture principle is built into the simulation.

It is for: Tech and business professionals in their late 20s-40s who live in apartments or cities, dream about having a garden or a small farm someday, but can't right now. The kind of person who watches gardening YouTube at night and thinks "one day." This gives them a way to actually learn and practice the principles now, so when they finally get that plot of land, they already know what they're doing.

What makes it different from other farming games:

• Real science, real consequences. Companion planting, crop rotation, soil chemistry (nitrogen, organic matter, moisture), composting, worm activity — all simulated. Your crops don't just randomly die. They fail for specific reasons you can understand: "Your tomato failed because soil nitrogen was depleted by the corn you grew here last season."
• It teaches without lecturing. No tutorials or text walls. You learn through consequences. Plant fennel next to tomatoes and watch them struggle. Discover why when you unlock the Field Guide entry on allelopathy. Every failure is a lesson.
• Not childish. No cartoon cows, no timers begging you to come back, no pay-to-skip mechanics. The aesthetic is closer to a calm, premium low-poly isometric world — think Monument Valley meets a botanical handbook.
• Time compression that respects your schedule. 1 real day = about 5 game days. A full growing season passes in a few weeks. You check in for 2-5 minutes a day to water, harvest, observe. Bigger planning sessions happen weekly when a new season approaches.
• Permaculture academy. Guided challenges teach real techniques — Three Sisters polyculture, building living soil, crop rotation planning, seed saving across generations.
• Real-world bridge. After months of playing, the app can recommend actual seed kits and starter supplies based on your real climate zone and what you successfully grew in-game. This is the long-term monetization angle — affiliate partnerships with garden suppliers, not aggressive IAP.

Monetization: Subscription ($29.99/year) for full simulation depth. Free tier lets you grow a smaller garden with fewer crops.

Is this niche too small, or is there a real audience of adults who want a serious, beautiful, non-childish gardening game that actually teaches permaculture?

Would you use something like this? What would make you download it vs scroll past?

I'll keep this straightforward because I think this community values honesty over polish.

I got laid off from humanitarian work a year ago after 8 years at UNHCR and IOM. I've been unemployed since. I have ADHD and when the job structure disappeared I fell apart for a few months.

During that time I started building a productivity app called BloomDay. Task tracking, habit tracking, focus mode with ambient sounds, and a virtual garden that grows as you complete things. I built it with Claude because I have no development background.

It's on the iOS App Store now. Revenue is zero. Users are just starting. I have no marketing budget.

What I need to figure out. How to turn this into income. I'm not delusional about building the next unicorn. I just need this to eventually contribute to paying rent. Freemium model with RevenueCat. Targeting ADHD users and the Turkish market where there's basically no competition.

What I'm doing for growth. Posting on Reddit, Instagram, TikTok. Telling my personal network. That's it. I don't have money for ads.

What I'm good at. Building the product, understanding the user problem deeply because I am the user, writing in three languages.

What I'm bad at. Marketing, growth strategy, knowing what to do after launch.

If you've been in a similar position, solo, no budget, trying to turn a product into income during a difficult period, I'd appreciate any advice.