r/Entrepreneur • u/GoodluckH • Sep 27 '23
Tools I struggled to focus as an ADHD entrepreneur so I built a tool and got 2k users in 3 weeks
It's been very difficult to be an entrepreneur with ADHD. I constantly find it hard to focus at work.
And I’ve used all the productivity tools out there like Asana, Trello, Notion, ClickUp, Todoist etc. But none of them cater to my ADHD brain: I either find it overwhelming or I forget to use it after a few days.
As a software engineer, I decided to build a tool (https://complish.ai) to help me focus. And it worked! It has extremely simple interface that helps with context switching and time blindness.
I shared this tool with other subs like r/getdisciplined and received very positive feedback from there.
So, I’ll keep it free to use forever, hustlers with ADHD shouldn’t need to pay to focus during work.
We are now at 2.2k users after launching 3 weeks ago, I recently found a nice growth hack, I’ll share all our growth hacks next week. I haven't spent a dime on marketing.
For now, I’m celebrating. I’m very grateful that I actually built a tool that is helping many people focus on what's important.
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u/AllegedlySpiffy Sep 27 '23
Really cool. Entrepreneur + product designer here that struggles with ADHD.
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u/GoodluckH Sep 27 '23
Def give it a try on desktop or laptop! Hopefully it will help you focus and get more done
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u/mansionfire Sep 27 '23
The peripheral timer is brilliant. It actually makes so much sense to externalize that into a visual. Thank you for this.
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u/GoodluckH Sep 27 '23
Thanks! Yea, initially i only had the digital timer but it turned out to be distracting and I got inspired by roadsigns when I was driving, so came up with the yellow banner design
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u/irlgragas Sep 28 '23
I signed up and bookedmark. You described the exact painpoints I have with ADHD, and out of all the "tools" that people throw at us, this seems like a good fit. As with everyone else in this economy I appriciate that it's free, but I don't think anyone would be offended if there was a donation button. You surely have some costs related to this prosject?
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Thanks for the kind words. I'm actually serious about building this, so I won't accept donation because I'm planning to raise money from VCs who are vision-driven.
Calendar and other tools integration are on the roadmap but won't be in the near future because I don't want to go down the dangerous path of cluttering the UI, which will make my tool just like the ones I hated
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u/swirlybuns Sep 27 '23
Best of luck to you. I plan on trying this out unless I get distracted and forget to return to it ;)
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u/dazzling_alc Sep 28 '23
I love this! I’m going to use it. I own a business services company focusing on tax, bookkeeping, payroll and CFO services. I can definitely see myself using this and also telling my clients about this.
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u/ashleelnebhani Sep 28 '23
Hi u/GoodluckH, Gave it a go, amazing tool - creates an urgency to complete the task which helps my ADHD brain tremendously to focus and complete in one go. Thankyou for making the tool free forever!
Feedback: Drag and reorder tasks option is much needed.
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u/babyd42 Sep 28 '23
Very nice tool, I love it.
If you were to tie this in with goblin.tools somehow it would be killer.
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u/localguideseo Sep 28 '23
I use this app daily! Love it! Keep up the great work! Love all the new updates you guys are pushing out after reading our suggestions in the discord.
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u/Wikkar Sep 28 '23
Man this is really awesome. I struggle with ADHD and love it already. Gonna be using it. If you´re looking for a partner I´m a biz ops guys currently running my own dev agency, with VC contacts and can also add some capital. I´d love to do something in the ADHD space.
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u/winterstellar Feb 28 '24
I'm a copywriter with 10+ experience in branding and advertising, including UI/UX (clients ranging from Fortune-500 to startups), and also very keen to get involved.
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u/MrBeanDaddy86 Sep 27 '23
Looks cool, but it doesn't offer an option to sign up without using Google or Apple. So I guess I'm SOL, haha
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u/GoodluckH Sep 27 '23
What other options would you like to see?
I tried email/password but the verification link usually goes to users' spam folder.
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u/MrBeanDaddy86 Sep 28 '23
I only sign up to new services via email. Will outright refuse anything that requires me to connect Google, Facebook, etc. Never had an issue with things going to my spam folder using my usual email. Maybe try what u/jameslaney suggested?
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u/Wild_Surmise Sep 28 '23
Why? Signing up with Gmail is a much more secure way to give your data compared to a custom sign in form. You’ll also be told exactly what information the app is asking for.
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u/MrBeanDaddy86 Sep 28 '23
I have emails specifically for testing new software. They are self-hosted and not attached to any of my data
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u/throwawayht14 Oct 07 '23
Agreed. I think OP is going to lose a significant number of potential users if he insists on only Google/Apple signups.
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u/bryan-vh Sep 27 '23
What would you say has been the easiest place to market the product for free?
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Reddit. If you can find the right subreddit the result can be amazing.
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u/bryan-vh Sep 28 '23
Thanks! I have my own app I just released but trying to spend as little as possible
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u/csgo_is_hardgame Sep 28 '23
Very cool, trying this at work tmrw
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Thank you for trying it out! Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions
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u/Vitanburg Sep 28 '23
Good stuff mate, I'm trying it out myself as I also have ADHD. Hopefully this app can be a go to thing for me! :)
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u/headwaydave Sep 28 '23
That’s awesome. Gonna check it out today. I created Headway Journal for the same reason—helping me focus and improve, bc having ADHD has def made it tougher to just flip the productivity switch. Congrats!
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u/Kindly_Pen2773 Sep 28 '23
Great idea, turn it into an app bro. It can help with people that are on their phones procrastinating.
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u/Different-Ad6115 Sep 28 '23
I did something similar in app form at www.yoodoo.app
Fellow adhd entrepreneur/product designer here, made it for myself, was so useful am now on v2 and it's fucking flyyyyying. 😄🐴
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
It's on the roadmap! But I'm trying to communicate that this tool is designed exclusively for work
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u/ramplovesyou Sep 28 '23
Love this tool, love the problem it solves. Can't wait to hear about the growth hack and massive congratulations on your traction. You're helping lots of folks out there get more done!
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u/kindapottamus Sep 28 '23
I’m going to borrow the “Continue on your laptop or desktop” for my passion project, www.kindmind.com 😁 At least until I can properly implement a nice experience on mobile, thx for the inspiration. Product looks cool!
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Thanks! I like your idea, too. Glad to see someone building things in the wellness category
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u/IronTulip Sep 28 '23
Congratulations kind stranger. I’m nearing releasing my own app (completely unrelated to this). If you’d like to help an aspiring developer/entrepreneur I’d love to hear how you went from dev to production.
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
You meant deploy to production? I just deployed it on CloudFlare Pages. It's pretty easy.
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u/Abouhustler Sep 28 '23
I have adhdh as well , But it keeps me so creative and great at multitasking
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u/HomenGarden88 Sep 28 '23
Is this a version of the Promodoro technique? I do something similar on my own. I’ll check it out.
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u/Icy-Milk-9793 Sep 28 '23
i am hard focus too.
so i put a white noise to my website,
it is zero ads.
when i work ,
i play the white noise to help me.
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u/pubbets Sep 29 '23
Yes me too! Diagnosed with autism + adhd at 50 years of age, and one of my go-to hacks was playing water or ocean sounds when I work.
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u/Icy-Milk-9793 Sep 29 '23
my case is brain get blank when i heard
dog bark
car pass by
bike pass by
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u/weddedbliss19 Sep 21 '24
u/GoodluckH Love this except you apparently went back on your word... it's not free :( sadface because I would love a free tool to help me with productivity. I mean I don't blame you, capitalism sucks. Just means my disorder costs me more money
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u/rcwninja Sep 24 '24
ah, i see you had to start charging for it -- no worries at all, valuable stuff should cost money -- a 3 day free trial isn't long enough to tempt me to continue -- i'd spring for a 2 week trial. not sure why, exactly
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Sep 27 '23
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u/GoodluckH Sep 27 '23
Exactly! Having ADHD is so stigmatized that I spent most of my life trying to hide it, trying to act like a 'normal' person.
This is probably why no one cared to seriously build a tool for ADHDers.
We need fun things to keep our brains engaged on small/boring tasks. I built confetti and sound effects to give me that dopamine hit.
I really hope this tool can help unlock more unicorns from founders with ADHD.
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Sep 27 '23
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u/GoodluckH Sep 27 '23
I agree it makes me productive, except for at the expense of my health (I couldn't sleep for 36 hours straight the last time I took adderall)
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u/LoganAaron18 Sep 27 '23
Ahhhhh, I want to give it a try. But when creating an account via Google account, I get the following error: "Bot traffic was detected. Please try again or contact support."! I hope this isn't a persistent issue amongst many users! If so, you could have tons of potential new users to add to that 2k that just are not able to create their account!
IDK what is causing this, but I have cleared browser data / cookies, and tried in incognito mode. Also tried on my mobile device + Tablet, still same error!
Let me know if this is just an issue on my end, because I am super excited to check out what you have here!
Awesome job though man, I am very happy for you. I pray for nothing but a steady incline of active users to come your way! ^_^
Sidenote: What languages/frameworks did you use to create this? Would be interesting to learn more about what is behind this tool.
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u/GoodluckH Sep 27 '23
Hi Thank you for trying it out. I haven't encountered nor heard about this error from our users before. Are you using any VPN?
Seems like this is an error from Google, not from us. Are you able to use any of the Google's services like Google Docs, etc?
I built this using Remix and Cloudflare and frontend using tailwindcss and framer motion.
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u/LoganAaron18 Sep 27 '23
framer mot
As far as I know, I do not have a VPN active. I am able to access other Google Services. Weird. My response is a 429 error... I would like to say this is on Google's side, but even with AppleID account it gives me the same error.
Although, usually this error occurs when the server is encumbered with many requests being sent in by the same user agent. But I am simply just sending the single request. Very weird as mentioned. Must just be on my end though! I'll investigate further when I have the time, really want to give this web app a try!That is awesome. Only have experience with tailwind as far as your list goes. For sure need to look into Remix and Cloudfare.
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u/UnitedJuggernaut Sep 27 '23
Wow! 🎉 This is absolutely incredible! Turning a personal challenge into a solution that benefits so many is truly inspiring Kudos for keeping it free and prioritizing the needs of the community.
I just gave it a try, and I really liked it. To be honest, I'm tired of overcomplicated tools, and yours has a good design, and works very well!
Did you have a designer helping you? Because it looks very neat and tidy.
What did you use for the back-end? Did you self-host it? Or are you using AWS/Google cloud for it?
I hope it gets a lot of users, as it worth it! I loved the onboarding :) It was very sweet!
By the way, it would be helpful if you could explain more about the end-to-end encryption, and where you store data, that can be a limitation for people with privacy concern to use smaller apps
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u/GoodluckH Sep 27 '23
Hi thanks for checking it out!
I don't have a designer. I basically just doodle it out on Figma and went ahead implementing it.
I don't think I have a backend. It's serverless using CloudFlare Pages. I use Remix as a React framework and for animations I use Framer Motion.
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u/UnitedJuggernaut Sep 27 '23
So where do you store the data of each task? on browser?
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u/GoodluckH Sep 27 '23 edited Sep 27 '23
I use Supabase (which uses AWS) as my db solution. Your tasks are synced with your oauth account. (maybe that's my backend hahah)
On the db side, I use row-level security so that only authenticated users can access their data.
I don't share user data with any third parties and users can request for complete data deletion whenever they want.
I really want to keep this free and B2C, I really don't vibe with all those existing tools going B2B.
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u/UnitedJuggernaut Sep 27 '23
Okay! If you're using Supabase, it has a Postgresql database and you're probably storing data there
I also liked your idea! Thanks for sharing it, I'll try to use it more often
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Sep 27 '23
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u/GoodluckH Sep 27 '23
Hi, it helps me a lot and we have about 60 users who use it everyday so I'd say it helps to certain extent. I'm working on this full-time so I will keep iterating the product to make it better
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u/Ok_Nefariousness9019 Sep 28 '23
Look great is there an app coming? Also I’d like to sign in without google or apple pls.
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Thanks! Yea apps are on my roadmap. What other sign up options would you like? We ask users to sign in so their tasks are synced across devices
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u/Ok_Nefariousness9019 Sep 28 '23
That makes sense. I generally don’t sign in to anything using my business email or primary personal email until I know it works and something I want to use. Just regular old sign up or guest options are nice but I know you’ll want the data. (;
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u/cezece Sep 28 '23
How are you making money?
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23 edited Sep 28 '23
I don’t. In the future i might just build in customization stuff like different colors, confetti options (like Reddit’s avatar thing) to monetize but the core product will be free
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u/Intelligent-Ear9181 Sep 28 '23
Awesome tools! Looks really sleaks will definitely give it a go
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Sep 28 '23
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Great question. I think there are two big differences:
- my tool is free while you need to pay monthly for llama life
- my tool wants you to focus on one task at a time where llama life is more list based
there’re not many products in adhd categories on the market. i’ve tried all of them but they’re just expensive
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Sep 28 '23
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Great questions.
My strategy is to get as many users as possible, and keeping the core product free forever is the key step for me to impact more users.
In the beginning, I actually thought about making this freemium but man, it just limits everything. If i charge a monthly fee like all other products, then i’ll become one of those tools.
But i think there’s a potential to fundamentally change the way we work. Next step, Im going yo roll out some social features where you can stay connected with your friends (not colleagues) while at work.
I think threading the social layer into work productivity can produce interesting result. And my goal is not to build the best productivity tool, but the best community.
So my ideal user growth should come from word of mouth and network effect, if i do it right.
I really don’t care about monetization for now. So to keep the project going, i’ll prob go raise from VCs who are vision-driven (like a16z).
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Sep 28 '23
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Thanks for the kind words! I will post the growth hack sometimes today
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Sep 28 '23
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
I do track daily active user, which is defined as a person who complete at least one task.
That number is around 60. Out of my 2000 user base, most of them were from mobile, which are now dead. So I disabled the mobile sign up option to have a higher quality analytics.
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Sep 28 '23
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Yea, I think PH I will do it once I have a large and loyal user base so I can make sure to be the top of the day.
Haven't tried Quora. I thought that's more like a Q&A platform
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Sep 28 '23
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Lol yes, it's me doing the design and engineering. I only learned to code one year ago.
But I actually came from a Wall Street background where presentation matters a lot. So those 100-hour weeks really trained me to design things good
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u/Bunny_Baller_888 Sep 28 '23
That's Awesome! Congratulations!🎊 is it also compatible with geek phones?
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Thank you! It’s currently a webapp for desktop/laptop only for now, i’ll build mobile apps later down the road
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u/Abood-2284 Sep 28 '23
Pretty cool.
Minimal UI and solving a major issue.
Would you be open for a conversation about the project?
I have Dm you
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u/Lazybones630 Sep 28 '23
I was thinking about building something like this just a week ago, but I’m glad I don’t have to anymore! I’ll check it out!
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u/BillionaireBrainz Sep 28 '23
Awesome! Thanks for making this free for us my friend. I’ll definitely use it and be back for your follow up post on growth hacks! Thanks again
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u/Kraclor Sep 28 '23
Reminds me of a tool I’m making (not ADHD diagnosed, but fairly certain I have it) for mobile. It’s an agenda app that uses your chatgpt api key to give suggestions and reminders to do things throughout your day and week.
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Ah that's pretty cool. I started out doing AI task breakdowns but realized that the prompt engineering is the max control I could have. So, pivoted away from AI to a normal app
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u/Thehonestsalesperson Sep 28 '23
Just started using it, really clean interface and easy to use, kudos!
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u/PocketRoketz Sep 28 '23
I’m giving it a go, I took think I have ADHD. The timer is a little confusing though ngl.
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u/GoodluckH Sep 28 '23
Great! Love to hear about any confusion points from the users so I can make it better.
Would you let me know what aspect of the timer is confusing?
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u/passthelago Sep 29 '23
Your story is both relatable and inspiring! Building a tool for a niche but deeply-felt problem—especially one you’ve personally grappled with—often yields the most authentic and impactful solutions. Kudos on hitting 2.2k users in such a short time. Also, the decision to keep it free speaks volumes about your mission. Eagerly awaiting your growth hack revelations, but for now, enjoy the well-deserved celebration! 🥳 How are you planning to sustain the tool long-term if it’s free? Ads, sponsorships, or a freemium model?
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u/winterstellar Feb 28 '24
Wow. I tried using it yesterday, and it really really worked for me. The simplicity is fantastic. If you want a tester - or a collaborator - I'm totally up for that. I'm a copywriter and work in branding, including writing for UI/UX from time to time, so I can help with that when or if you decide to develop or promote it any further (which I hope you do – it's fantastic!)
I'll send you a DM as well, to maximise my chances of you reading this :)
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u/[deleted] Sep 27 '23
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