I’ve decided to launch an app!
I’ve decided to launch an app!
It has been a long time coming, but finally I made the decision to go all in and actually build a product all the way till release.
I’ve been a software developer for years, but always building products for other people. This is the first time I’m trying to actually finish a personal project and release my own app to the wild.
From prototype to “okay, I’m do this”
An event planner app has been on my mind for some years actually. I’ve even tried making some simple app before, but I never really committed.
This time, I spent about two weeks building a prototype of what is now Otto Planner and feeling motivated, I made a decision. I wanted to actually finish it this time and release it. Not just leave it hanging in an old Github repo.
That decision is what triggered the week I just had.
A week without writing (much) code
I decided that I needed to start marketing the app early, so this past week, I barely touched the product itself.
Instead, I focused on all the things you need around an app before you can release it for real:
- Finding a name
- Setting up a waitlist
- Creating a marketing site
- Email, domains, and other admin tasks
With the exception of a great marketing site, none of these things are particularly hard on their own. But together, they take time. And they’re easy to underestimate, especially the first time.
Still, I think I got a lot of things checked off my list.
Naming the app (the difficult part)
Finding a name turned out to be one of the harder parts.
I knew I wanted some sort of mascot for the app. It gives the app personality, can make it feel friendlier and the name of the mascot could also be part of the app’s name.
So I brainstormed a lot. I asked my girlfriend and friends for feedback. I asked AIs for ideas. I even lay awake at night, thinking about names.
I knew it didn’t have to be perfect, as it could always be changed, but on the other hand, a lot of the other tasks couldn’t be finished without it. The domain name for the app required me to know what it is called. Setting up an email account requires a name. Even the waitlist needed it.
But after many hours of brainstorming and back and forth, I finally made a decision.
In the end, I landed on Otto Planner.
Otto is an octopus 🐙 and will be the mascot and friendly guide inside the app. It felt correct with an octopus managing your events, and good enough to commit to. And committing is the important part.
The marketing site and waitlist
Once the name was decided, I could finally finish the marketing site.
The goal was simple:
- Explain what the app does
- Have at least one good screenshot of the app
- Have a place people can sign up for the waitlist and updates
I set up a waitlist and email sending using a platform called Loops that can help with waitlists, email campaigns as well as transactional emails like reset password emails and notifications.
When the site finally went live, it felt like a small launch in and off itself 🥳
If you’re curious, the site is here:
👉 https://ottoplanner.com
A small detour: building a marketing tool
I wanted to create a post on LinkedIn early in the week telling that I had decided to build an event planner. I also wanted an image for my post. I tried things like Canva or Photopea, but what I really wanted was something super simple.
And since AI has become quite good at coding, I decided to try and let Claude Code vide code a social media image app for me. It still lacks some UX, polish and features, but I got my images for my posts.
So now I also have a tiny tool called Marketing Image Gen.
Perhaps a side quest compared to my actual tasks, but the problem was solved. And I might use AI to make even more small tools as I go.
Admin and the PhPh brand
For now, I’m only working on Otto Planner, getting that out into the world. But if this works out, I’m planning on working on more apps, to broaden my repetoir.
This is why I decided that I would like to also have my personal brand, kind of an umbrella on top of the app.
I looked at two domains I already owned: phillipphoelich.dk and phph.dk
The first one, my full name, has always been a bit spicy as no one I’ve ever met, knew what my last name was after hearing it 😅 So going with phph.dk is probably safer (and is also shorter).
So the result is that I ended up setting up a Google Workspace for the PhPh brand and added the ottoplanner.com domain as alias so I can read/write emails for the Otto Planner domain as well. This will be used for the waitlist as well and potential support email, when the app is launched.
Another task of my list.
Just getting out there
There is still so many things to do and I can sometimes be a bit of a perfectionist.
But… I need to start. Also if the app will look different, the marketing site will be updated and hopefully have illustrations of Otto around.
Going public with a project that isn’t ready to ship is scary, but also exciting. It is motivating and now that people know about it, it pushes me to actually build it, finish it, release it.
It being in public also means that it is harder to decide to abandon it and leave it somewhere in my memories as one more thing I never finished.
What I learned this week
A few takeaways from this week:
- Releasing an app is a lot more than writing code
- Deciding to actually ship changes everything
- Some marketing work can be quite exciting
- Most admin work can be quite boring
- AI is mature enough that we can vibe code small tools instead of buying them
What’s next
Next week, I’m looking forward to getting back to the app itself.
But I’m glad I took the time to do this work now. It felt like the right time to take the jump and this time I feel more motivated than ever!
If you want to follow along, you can sign up for the waitlist on the Otto Planner site: