The starting point:

The beginning of this story started in the year of 2014 when, with a couple of friends, I’ve decided to buy a Macbook Air in order to build mobile apps. Back on that day, we started a couple of things using native iOS but we moved from it to hybrid technologies, in particular, the Ionic Framework (old Apache Cordova but version one which was using AngularJS).

We did a couple of nice things and we have learned a LOT (from cloud services, payment gateway integration and more). It was very nice and we had some funny moments.

In the year of 2019, I’ve decided to quit this group in order to study by myself and focus on my own ideas. After digging around, thinking and searching, I’ve decided to create a mobile app for a specific segment that at the time was interesting to me.

Since I’ve already worked using Ionic in the past, I’ve decided to keep on this same track because some of my previous knowledge could help me to bring this idea out of the paper. Also, I intended to update some technologies/stacks in order to learn a set of new things.

This new project used a new version of Ionic in order to take advantage of new features, resources and new styles from both operating systems (Android and iOS). Additionally, this version would be using Typescript rather than Javascript, so a learning curve would be necessary in order to write that app. In the past, I’ve used AWS services and they are too complicated in the end (too many services, different terms, etc). In this project I decided to move to Google Services aiming simplicity (Firebase cloud).

Fast-forwarding through time:

Let’s move in time so we can focus on the history behind this. I’ve been following some trends for some time now about how to build ideas out of the paper, MVP, focus on major things and so on. I enjoy reading blogs, news, and watching reality shows about people who start their own tech businesses; listening to their pitches; how they work; difficulties; and all of the major challenges that come with this type of project.

The rule of the thumb is to be fast enough in the development cycle focusing on simple things in order to validate the whole idea during earlier stages. Getting feedback from the market is crucial in order to check if the idea makes sense and if you are really solving a pain point.

Either knowing all of that theory, I’ve been spending a lot of time doing NONE of that (LoL). From learning, studying, testing this project outside of the market, trying to build a business model that was feasible, finding partners to join in this journey there were a lot of things to do on my own. It’s too hard to do all of that and keep the project moving forward.

This year I’ve noticed the following according to a picture from my Bitbucket repository (which I was using to keep track of this side project):

Yeah, that’s right!!! I’ve been doing this, at least, since 2020, but in reality this started in 2019. I spent around four years of my free time on this mission to create this side project. The bad thing about all of this is that I could not follow the recommendations previously mentioned to keep things simple so the idea could be validated. From the code perspective, I have tried to develop a lot of features from day one, because firstly, it was fun. Secondly, there were a lot of features that would be necessary for the app to make sense in my mind so they couldn’t stay for later development.

It was a long run, with a lot of doubts over myself and interesting questions over those four years on this road:

• “Is it all worth it?”
• “Did I spent four years on this for nothing?”

Project on hold:

Last month I finally finished what I set out to do in “roadmap” terms. I have a working app version for both operating systems. The integration with Firebase is functional too and in particular, for Android, I was able to use the in-app purchases for subscription cases and they are working too over the Google sandbox environment (test environment).

At this moment I’ve decided to put this project “on hold”, and for now, it will not be published to the market because, among other things, Brazil is too bureaucratic for certain things and the marketing area for mobile apps is heavy and expensive.

Final thoughts:

It’s hard to develop a full side project of this size without a proper team. If you put it down it was really big: the app aimed at both OS’s versions, Android and iOS. There was a cloud infrastructure behind the app for authorization, registration and storing information. Also, there was an integration with IAP (in-app purchases) for both stores. I’ve tried to use inside the app the AdSense version for mobile too.

With a team on your side you can divide and conquer all of those areas, and maybe, focus on the part you like the most since there are a lot of options. With a team, the rule of thumb could be accomplished in an easier way and in short time.

The previously mentioned doubts are still valid until this current day but I’ve been looking on the bright side of this. I think it was possible to prove to myself that, indeed, I can have discipline and focus on trying to accomplish my goals. Looking back it is remarkable that anyone could accomplish anything with focus and consistency. There is an old phrase, something like this: “Having an idea is easy, the hard part is to bring the idea out of the paper”. I think this is a good point because you always have another thing to do in your free time, other commitments, your own life, and so on. It’s hard you know BUT you can always focus on your priorities and if a side project is a priority for you, you can do it.

I’ll end up saying that having this kind of side project is great because you learn a lot of additional things that complement your professional life. I don’t regret all this time spent and I would do it all over again.

See you!!!