Table of Contents
- Tell us about your product and what inspired you to start it?
- How long did it take you to acquire your first 50 customers, and what was your growth strategy?
- Which technology stack are you using and what challenges and limitations does it pose?
- What are some of the most essential tools that you use for your business?
- What have been some of the biggest insights you've gained since starting your entrepreneurial journey?
- Your recommended books/podcasts/newsletters etc.:
- What other products are you working on? (if any)
Marc is the founder of Habits Garden - a gamified habit tracker
Tell us about your product and what inspired you to start it?
I created a habit tracker because I couldn't find any with a grid-like visualization. I added confetti and people loved it, so it turned it into a game.
The more habits you build, the more your garden grows! You are challenged daily with quests and compete against other users in the consistency leaderboard.
How long did it take you to acquire your first 50 customers, and what was your growth strategy?
I launched on Hacker News. In a few hours, it went viral and about 10,000 persons visited Habits Garden.
About 1,000 people signed up and started tracking their habits. About 20 of them decided to pay for the gamification part, after the 7-day of free trial.
Which technology stack are you using and what challenges and limitations does it pose?
I started with React only and it was a mistake because the more I blogged and the features I added, the heavier the app became. Google started to raise flags and not rank the app.
So I migrated to NextJS and it's been working like a charm since.
Also using TailwindCSS and DaisyUI on the front-end.
On the back-end, the API is hosted on a Heroku Dyno built with NodeJS & Express. The database is a MongoDB Atlas cluster.
What are some of the most essential tools that you use for your business?
Mailgun for transactional emailsStripe for payments
What have been some of the biggest insights you've gained since starting your entrepreneurial journey?
The longer you work on your product, the more emotional you get if it's a flop.
98% of products fail, so ship fast.
Your recommended books/podcasts/newsletters etc.:
The book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker was my game changer.
As a solo founder, I used to sacrifice sleep hours for work. "why sleep 8 hours when I can sleep 7 and work 1?"
This was a terrible mistake, sleep is the root of everything: motivation, creativity, health, etc. The book made me realize that, and I've never felt better.
What other products are you working on? (if any)
https://50hacks.co
https://bookscalculator.com
https://mood2movie.com/
