alright, quick pivot hell update before i can freely start writing about my new ideas.
in my last post i wrote about how i wasn’t having fun building Noggn anymore. for context noggn was the first app i ever built, launched on the app store, got hundreds of users and made money from.
so theres def some emotional connection i will have to it. but i simply wasn’t having fun anymore.
think of noggn like duolingo for mental health. you had a cute little “brain” virtual pet, that would either get healthier or rot, depending on how much you took care of it.
this is of course a heavily gamified concept.
speaking of gamification, i’d say probably the most learnings i got building noggn for 2 months - are around gamification.
building core gamified loops that hook the user.
how to make the user keep coming back.
gamification is a really interesting topic and something i’ve only recently started looking into so i’m super excited to learn n implement these in my products.
in the era of fast fashion, money grabbing, vibecoded slop apps flooding the app store- the moat will now be one of the following imo:
gamification
network effects
in noggn, users could take of their little virtual pet by doing 3 things daily:
meditate
read positive affirmations
focused deep work.
each activity would give you xp, health points, start streaks and help you level up.
this kept the users motivated to stay consistent, and of course come back the next day.
in order to make this screenshot worthy and therefore social media share-worthy, i built some widgets that users would set on their homescreens.
widgets inherently are a great proxy of value because they take up lots of real estate in our tiny magic devices.
so you wouldn’t put something there if you didnt’ care about it.
or if it looked ugly.
then there’s also memetic value. if it motivates you to see a dying green brain with flies around it + looks funny = you’ll share it with your friends.
or on your story.
making it a complete viral loop.
gamification + network effects.
the day i launched these widgets, ~40% of existing users set them up.
~20+ users (that i know of) shared screenshots on tiktok, ig stories and also probably with their friends.
the next day downloads skyrocketed. where i was lucky to get 4-5 downloads per day, suddenly i saw 200 in a matter of hours.
what’s even crazier is that almost half of these downloads (yes close to ~50%) bought paid subscriptions to the app without even trying it first (i had put up a hard paywall after onboarding).
i witnessed the power of network effects in all it’s might. and i don’t think i can go back.
this was by far the craziest rush i’ve expereinced. to be completely honest with you all, i have spent the past 3 weeks thinking, researching, learning and writing about network effects and gamification.
the topic has completely consumed my thoughts.
how things go viral. why things go viral. why people share stuff. why other people continue sharing that stuff after it has been shared to them.
i think about this science of collective human behavior when i go to sleep at night. as soon as i wake up. and almost every waking hour.
needless to say if you have read any cool books on this stuff please suggest some.
but then if it’s so good why did i pivot and stop building noggn?
well, this is precisely why.
if i’m going to dedicate a big chunk of my life to building something, and i think i’m getting close to solving distribution for these things, then i would like to work on things i find fun.
even if i don’t use them myself - i don’t want to build things that aren’t fun to me.
and unfortunately, the mental health space is not an area i’m personally deeply passionate about.
i was simply, not having fun anymore.
a week after the widgets launched i got bored and quickly realized if i keep chasing these short term dopamine hits of virality then i would become subject to my own potions.
as biggie smalls said, “Never get high on your own supply”.
i can’t just keep trying to build the next viral feature or desperately track network effects if i’m not having fun building the product.
it’s just plain boring.
so i did what any rational founder does.
informed my discord community of users that i’m shutting down the app, thanked them all for being a part of it, and took it off the app store.
“but saif.. why would you shut it down??!! even if you’re not having fun, don’t you want the few hundred bucks MRR flowing in as passive income every mon..”
No.
Money is cool af don’t get me wrong. And I want more of it.
But fixating on a tiny dollar amount like this would actually be counter productive because it would hold me back from truly moving on to the next big thing.
keeping the app alive would’ve meant dealing with users, feature requests, bugs, apple’s annoying swift updates, and peaking in the comm every now n then.
i wouldn’t be able to purely focus on what i want to build next.
and if i haven’t even figured out what i want to build next, then the last thing i need in life is hearing cries of help from a codebase left behind as it gets tormented into the inevitable void of buggy software and eventually dies.
just kill it and move on.
soooooo.. what am i building next?
actually as of this writing i’ve already launched my new app. also got the first paying sub yesterday.
more on this app later, i know alot of my opps have started reading this newsletter so i don’t want to give away too much. if you’re curious just ping me individually and i’ll tell you.
between the shutdown of noggn and me building this app i took a good 2 weeks of rest.
moved to this cozy little house in sausalito (it has a sick garage btw!!!!) surrounded by hills n nature where i can build in peace sufficiently away from the noise of sf performativeness (which seems to be at an all time high lately) , while also being close enough to go into the city whenever i want.
i’m taking my time with this new app. carefully designing each component and trying to pour as much intentionality as possible.
think i can scale it to an insane level. wish me luck.
until next time.
peace<3
