Habit Kit

Sebastian shared development screenshots and progress on social media (X, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Threads) while building Habit Kit in summer 2022. The positive reception to his first screenshots convinced him to ship fast — he completed the MVP in just 2 months. This "building in public" approach drove his earliest downloads and awareness before the app was even launched. After launch, he ran a minimal Apple Search Ads campaign at just $100/month, not primarily for direct installs but as a ranking signal strategy — he believed Apple favors developers who spend on ads, potentially boosting organic rankings. He also immediately prompted users to leave a review right after their first habit check-off (their "first success moment"), which rapidly accumulated over 2,000 ratings and helped build early credibility and visibility in the App Store.

Computer science background (Master's degree) and 3 years of professional programming experience, which meant he could build a polished cross-platform app solo at near-zero cost. He also had enough savings to give himself a 12-month runway to focus entirely on development.

App Store Optimization (ASO) — ranking in the top 5 for "habit tracker" keyword in multiple countries drove sustained, high-volume organic installs with no ongoing marketing spend.

First 6 months of full-time indie development produced less than a dozen downloads. Early app projects made only a few hundred dollars. Sebastian also returned to his old job after his initial 12-month runway expired, implying the first phase of full-time indie dev was not commercially successful enough to sustain itself.