u/Prestigious-Algae876 — reddlx

[self promotion] i made twilock for the two times i keep doomscrolling: 50 free lifetime pro codes

i'm a comp sci student at uf, and i made twilock because i kept doing the same thing, doomscrolling in bed when i should be sleeping, then reaching for my phone and doing it again as soon as i woke up.

i see people my age doing the same damn thing. those two moments feel like the hardest times to put the phone down, so that's what i focused the app on.

i'm giving away 50 lifetime pro unlocks, normally $79.99, if you'd like to try it. it's one shared pool of 50 across my reddit posts, first come, first served.

app store: download twilock

how to claim:

dm me for a code, or leave a comment saying you'd like one and i'll dm you while it last.

once i send your code, download twilock and finish onboarding. tap settings at the bottom right, scroll down to help below recovery and support, and tap redeem promo code. paste your code into the apple redemption screen and follow the prompts. if pro hasn't appeared afterward, tap restore purchases in the same help section.

i'd really appreciate any suggestions for the app or honest criticism about what could be better. thanks for taking a look.

u/Prestigious-Algae876 — 12 days ago

▲ 1 r/Solopreneur

got my first paying customer building this alone

i'm the only person working on twilock, an app that blocks distracting apps with a delay so you can't just skip the block when you're bored. every part of it, the app, the marketing, all of it has been just me, and today someone paid for it for the first time. it's only $7 a month but doing this completely solo makes it feel bigger than it probably is. curious if other solo builders remember exactly where they were for their first sale.

reddit.com

u/Prestigious-Algae876 — 29 days ago

▲ 2 r/Solopreneur

building a screen time app solo while interning this summer, here's why i started

i'm a cs student and this past summer i had an ai/ml internship, which on paper is exactly what you're supposed to be doing at this stage. but every night after work i noticed the same pattern, doomscroll in bed for way too long, wake up, doomscroll again before even getting out of bed. i started to feel like if i didn't try building something of my own now, i'd just keep sliding into the normal job track forever without ever testing it.

so on nights and weekends, when i probably should have been resting, i built twilock, a strict screen time blocker made specifically for that before bed and right after waking up doomscrolling window that i think hits gen z especially hard. it doesn't let you casually override it the way apple's own screen time settings do, since that override is exactly why i personally never stuck with any blocker before.

doing this completely solo while also working a full time internship was a lot some weeks. it's live now and i'm just trying to figure out the next steps as a one person team, marketing, pricing, actually getting it in front of people who need it. if anyone else has gone from solo side project during a job or internship to something real, would love to hear how you balanced it or what you'd do differently early on.

reddit.com

u/Prestigious-Algae876 — 1 month ago

▲ 5 r/design_critiques+2 crossposts

I launched Twilock. A strict mode screen time blocker to stop doomscrolling. I’m building a growth plan from scratch, comment for any suggestions or tips!

at the moment the app is not even indexed into the app store search so i haven't got the algo boost yet for it unfortunately. i'm hoping once it is i do get it its almost been 48 hours since release.

here’s what i’ve got far:

organic: one branded mascot. an ai moon character. across tiktok and instagram and youtube fro short form content. made using hedra, elevenlabs, kling and capcut. i’m keeping it focused: one character, one voice, one vibe. no spread across accounts or content types. i don’t want to dilute attention. my original plan was 9 accounts but i want to build a brand around just one.

paid: apple search ads. $25 a day. split across brand, longtail, discovery and category campaigns. i’m targeting people searching for feature comparisons. not pain points like "i can’t stop scrolling." i’m holding off on competitor conquest ads until my 1.0.1 update clears review. don’t want to trigger any confusion or complaints.

once i start making revenue i plan to shift part of that budget toward paying ugc creators to make content. i don’t want to rely on my ai pipeline to scale. i want real human creators doing the work.

but here’s the question: should i be paying creators from day one to build social proof before i even start spending on asa? maybe i need that proof first so the ads actually convert. does anyone have experience running a path? was it better to go paid first with creators?. did you start with organic and only scale later? i want to avoid being naive, about the sequence. and also should i do anything else for distribution im also doing reddit too as you can see lol.

heres my app if anyone is interested: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/twilock-screen-time-blocker/id6786474238

u/Prestigious-Algae876 — 1 month ago