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points
nullderef
Joined 176 karma
Hi! You can learn more about me here: https://nullderef.com/ :)
meet.hn/city/de-Munich
Socials: - github.com/marioortizmanero
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- Pushscroll | Full-Stack Mobile Engineer (KMP) | REMOTE (GMT-3 to GMT+4) | Full-time | https://pushscroll.com
Screen-time app that makes you do push-ups before you can scroll addictive apps. 350k+ users.
Looking for someone strong in Kotlin Multiplatform + Compose Multiplatform + Swift/SwiftUI who isn't afraid of platform-specific APIs (Screen Time on iOS, Accessibility/UsageStats on Android) and can ship very fast.
Stack: Supabase (auth/DB/edge functions), Superwall, Amplitude, MediaPipe for pose detection. Good design sense matters - you'll be translating Figma → production UI.
Small team, work directly with founders. It’s a long-term role in an exciting app (help us fight doomscrolling!) where you can have a lot of impact. Reach out: contact@pushscroll.com
- Building an app where 1 pushup = 1 minute of scrolling allowed [1]. We've fiiinally started to grow and reached a whooping $30k in the last month!!
I was literally thinking about quitting in August. My motivation is now at an all-time high - some users have done >8k pushups :)
As always, the key has been the marketing (10M views on Instagram). But we have to improve the product to make people love it even more. So the roadmap is more full than ever.
- I was building an intentionally annoying app against doomscrolling [1]. Being technical, I tried to focus on product, marketing and more instead of the implementation. But I still didn't ship quick enough. It's so hard. Only after a few months did I start with marketing, and it hit me like a wall.
So I'm giving a try to a project which started with marketing. No implementation, just a TikTok to see if people like it. And holy crap, we got 75k views!
The new idea [2] is easier to explain (1 pushup = 1 minute of scrolling) and already has a community. Plus, not working alone helps me focus on what I'm good at: programming. I don't regret learning about other areas but doing marketing for a living is not my thing.
I'm not getting rid of SpeedBump, though. It's a fun side project and it does help people :)
- TikTok - you don't need followers to get views. It's not easy, especially if you've never used the platform before. But for B2C it's one of the best platforms.
Do founder stories ("I built this") or demos ("here's this SaaS you'll like"). They get less views than memes or tangential videos. But conversion is much higher and you'll get replies from people who liked it or tried it out. So you can send them a message to ask for feedback.
- Thank you for the support! I actually wrote an article about it here: https://speedbumpapp.com/en/blog/mobile-app-promotion/. It has the most useful resources I found so far (mostly B2C). I'm also happy to have a chat and help out: https://chat.nullderef.com :)
- I've been building an intentionally annoying app against doomscrolling [1]. I've recently started with marketing, but oh boy is that out of my comfort zone!
I never thought that as an engineer I'd be doing TikToks. And here I am. It's fun to crack the algorithm little by little, but also frustrating because it's like a black box.
So far, I've discovered that going to the point works best. For example, I was sharing student tips and mentioning my app to improve focus. But conversion and engagement were terrible. Instead, I'm doing founder stories and tutorials, which get less views but more downloads. Plus, I can ask people in the comments for feedback on the app!
I'm happy to be doing something that devs overlook so much: marketing. Even if it's tough and slow. It's been an awesome learning experience.
- The link mentions: "Health experts say screen time at home should be limited to two hours or less a day" -- https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/reduce-sc...
Maybe doomscrolling is reading too many news for you? Or do you think it's not too excessive?
- I've had issues with checking HN every too often. News overload is definitely a problem, too. It's also fun to go check the new posts sometimes.
- Some apps like ScreenZen allow you to block websites, if you're on Android. Pretty much any iOS app will let you restrict websites (because it's easier to implement there).
- There's TimeLimit on F-Droid. I found it hard to set up, though.
- How did you end up overcoming the problem?
- What do you mean -- you couldn't find something else to do?
- Many of the tools mentioned also support blocking websites, fwiw. This includes ScreenZen on Android and pretty much any app on iOS (it's easier to implement it there)
- It's awesome to see a Daylight Computer user in the wild :)
Did you also try out an e-paper phone at some point? And how are you doing in terms of connecting with friends and so on?
- Another tip is that even HN has some screen time features. If you go to your profile, you can play around with the "noprocrast", "maxvisit", and "minaway" options.
When noprocrast is on, you may only view HN for maxvisit minutes at a time, and must stay away for minaway minutes before returning. (taken from https://www.hackerneue.com/item?id=3677504)
- 134 points
- How can I learn more about this? Is it the EXIST program?
I looked into programs like this but they seemed to require so much bureaucracy that I'd be better off without them :(
I would never want to leave my computer open within 300 meters of you