Startup #1 — Karyaa
I am beginning a 12*12 challenge, where I will be launching various startups and projects. My initial endeavor,karyaa, is a personal project that I wanted to create for myself. I firmly believe that consistent daily progress, compounded over time, leads to the most successful outcomes.
What is the idea?
The app is a simple to-do tracker that allows users to add a maximum of 8 tasks per day. This limit is based on the idea that having too many tasks in a day can lead to decreased productivity. The number 8 was chosen as it is deemed achievable for the average person. However, suggestions and studies are welcome to adjust this limit
Scratchpad section where we can basically dump all our ideas. The items in are sorted by the date they were last updated. Whenever we see our to-do list is empty we either a new item there or we can simply move the task from scratchpad.
Finally, there is a to-do section where we can see everything. I created this for a bird's eye view to avoid the duplicate creation of tasks.
Tech-stack used
React, Vite :I have used react with vite as a bundler. I used to use CRA for creating react apps but vite has a lot faster startup time. I am pretty happy and would recommend using it. The common question that comes next is why I didn’t use Next.js. This project is all UI code with localStorage as DB. I am not using the backend at the moment so thought of going with a plain old react app.
Chakra UI: For UI I am using Chakra UI which is great. It has all the major components if you want to use full-blown app. Though I am using any major components in this project I will in upcoming projects.
Firebase: For sign up emails I am collecting them in a firebase DB. I could have hosted a db on render itself but I already have a free instance of analytics hosted there. Render has a limitation of one free db hosting.
How will I make money?
This project will always be free to access. However, I have a list of premium features that I plan to introduce in the near future. Some individuals have expressed interest in these features, and I am excited to provide them to my users. I am currently working on determining a cost for these premium features through rough calculations. If you are interested, please sign up here.
What platform did I launch on?
I am using render to host my applications. In old days my first choice would have been Heroku but there is no more free plan available. In this post, I have listed more options where we can host our app for free. I tried railway and render. Out of these two options render was more smooth to use so I went ahead with that.
What platforms I marketed on?
I have used Product hunt, Indie Hackers, LinkedIn and Reddit. Out of all I have got the most traction on Product Hunt. After few months I will update in the comments sections which platform turned out to be more useful.
Competitor Analysis
One of our main competitors is an app called Onday, which operates on a similar concept. I recently became aware of this app and have found it to have a clean user interface and useful statistics. It is also free to use.
However, I believe that our app, Karyaa, has an edge over Onday. Firstly, Karyaa is a PWA which can be installed on any device without the need for an actual installation. It provides the same look and feel as a native app. However, there are some disadvantages as well. On iPhone, users will have to close the app and reopen it to receive updates, while on Android, updates can be received by pulling down. Overall, having an app that can be used on any platform gives it an advantage.
Currently, we do not have a sync feature in the app but it is planned to be added in the premium feature. We are working on it soon and appreciate the patience of our users who have signed up.
How app is doing so far?
I have over 1500 views on the app and users spread across the globe which is a proud moment for me to be very frank. As I mentioned before I have few users signedup for premium subscription as well. Once I have the actual users Ican update on the revenue as well.
