HabitKit · B2C · habit tracker app
Go back to your job four days a week and keep Fridays for the app
App took off two months later; went full-time again within about six months
Workedfinancing
What they did
After the 12 months ran out, rejoined the old employer on a four-day week, keeping Fridays for improving his apps. Quit again once revenue reached multiple thousands per month (fall 2023), after a couple of months deciding.
What happened
Kept HabitKit alive until it hit a top-5 keyword ranking two months later; went full-time again that fall.
- Stage
- growth
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · From Corporate Web Developer to Full-Time Indie Hacker — Sebastian Röhl, HabitKit“I wanted to continue working on my apps on the side, so I decided to work only four days a week for my previous employer.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from HabitKit
All 14 HabitKit tactics- Ask for a review right after someone checks off their first habitMost people give 5 stars; over 2,000 reviews and ratings
- Put "habit tracker" at the very start of your app's nameTop 5 for 'habit tracker' in several countries; 'a ton' of organic traffic
- Save up, quit your job, and give yourself 12 months to make it workOnly ~$1,000 revenue after 12 months; went back to work, but the app later hit $15K MRR
- Ship a simple habit grid in 2 months, with no sign-in and data kept on the phoneBecame the base of a $15K/month app; no direct numbers for this choice
- Post your app's progress, wins and failures on X, LinkedIn, Bluesky and ThreadsFounder says it was huge early: podcast invites, video features, developer contacts
- Spend $100 a month on Apple Search Ads to help your search rankingUnproven; founder only hopes Apple favors developers who buy ads
More from this episode
- Liftbear: Quit your job for exactly 12 months on savings; go back if you can't live off itMissed the bar; went back to the old job with a raise, and the app took off later
- Liftbear: Build a workout tracker for yourself in 2 months and ship itAbout 100 downloads in week one, then about 10 a week
- Liftbear: Keep adding features and try ASO, Instagram and Search Ads on a flat appAbout $100 total revenue in six months; dropped the app
- HabitKit: Drop the app that isn't growing and build a new one in 2 monthsNew app's first month beat the old app's six months combined
- HabitKit: Post a screenshot of your app's main screen on Twitter before launch800 likes, far above his usual posts; took it as a sign the app would beat the first
- HabitKit: Share your app's progress and revenue publicly on X and LinkedInFounder calls it one of his best decisions; downside is copycats; no numbers
- HabitKit: Get the store listing basics right and let search rankings bring usersTop 5 for a big keyword; 120K downloads and $51K in 2023, $110K by May 2024
- HabitKit: Charge $0.99 a month, $6 a year or $15 for lifeNever tested; hosts bet doubling would roughly double revenue; price test planned
- Raise a niche utility's price from $5 to $20 a monthNo change in downloads after a 4x price rise
- HabitKit: Ask Apple to feature your app using its request formNever got featured