Compass
The daily planner for software engineers
After trying to appeal to the broad audience of "productivity enthusiasts," we decided to narrow our focus. Since we open-sourced our code, lots of our early users were software engineers. We decided to focus exclusively on makign the product as helpful as possible for engineers.
One request that kept coming up was shortcuts. More shortcuts. More integrations with the command palette. More customization.
We're finally listening and are committing to making the app the best place for anyone who never wants their hands to leave the keyboard.
There's a lot to do, but narrowing our focus on this user and use case is super energizing!
Instead of continuing my attempt to sell or shelf the project, I decided to give it all away. All 461 files, 21,905 lines of code, and 171 tests were made public on GitHub with a MIT license.
Too many developers are spending too much time recreating the same features. This increases the time it takes for teams to get feedback from their users, which decreases the likelihood of success, which means users don't get the valuable apps they could've.
I gave it a helluva shot, but I didn't make my dream calendar app. But now that my code is public, maybe you can make yours. Thanks to the MIT license, you could even fork it, add your spin to it, charge for it, and grow it into a great business.
All I ask is that you let me know once it's ready so I can finally stop using my Google Calendar 🙂
After launching some new features that I had hoped would result in more engagement, I found myself still pretty far off from profitability. I spent 2 weeks researching how to pivot to a B2B model. I found 3 paths that all seemed reasonable. I picked one and made a roadmap.
Then I remembered how tired I was.
I tried to convince the potential cofounders I was engaging with to join me in this pivot, but struck out.
So, I tried to sell on acquire.com
Handful of prospects, a few meetings, but no offer.
Money was tight after the initial public launch, so I split my time getting contract dev work and chipping away at Compass. I was considering just moving away from Compass for a while, but could never let myself do it. I fckning love this app and problem space too much to just move on without giving it a proper shot.
But instead of just coding blindly, I recommitted to measurable progress in 2 main ways:
- Launching (pushing to prod) on the 15th and 31st of each month.
- Tracking the # of active users each week.
It's helped me stay laser focused. It's hard making progress on those KPIs while contracting, but I'm making it work. Hoping to find investment / partner(s) soon.
After rebuilding the app from scratch (no 3rd party calendar), fixing bugs, talking to users, getting verified by Google I launched this at compasscalendar.
I spend a few months using it behind a closed waitlist and then, after feeling confident about it not breaking, opened it up for anyone with a Google account to use.
Invited people on the waitlist to test it out.
This is the first of two private releases. The product is in its passionate, yet awkward teenage days, where it's still figuring out its place in the world. There are imperfections galore. But it already helps you focus more on what matters.
A handful of people have followed up, and I'm getting some good feedback already. Everyone agrees the UI needs an upgrade. I've been using a 3rd party calendar, so this is a good excuse to throw it out and finally start building the calendar of my dreams from the ground up
After 3 months of marketing & researching, I finally started coding. I'm glad I waited - the design and value prop has improved a ton since my initial prototype. I'm so pumped to start making it come to life!
I have 'Ship ASAP' written in my notebook to remind me to not worry about making things perfect. Lets' see how I do 🤞
Turned the prototype and my research into a landing page: https://compasscalendar.app
Building it really made me get clear on the value-prop. I ended up cutting two features that complicated the pitch. Shared it with my network, and they liked it. Now I'm focused on growing the audience and getting more people excited about it while the product is built.
Resisted my primal dev instincts and waited to start coding. I instead built the prototype in Figma. Took a bit to learn the software, but it was worth it. I refined the idea, got it in front of a lot of people, and get clear on how to pitch it.
A calendar that prioritizes what matters to you--whatever it is.
After lots of conversations, research, and proof-of-concepting, I started feeling confident that there would be a market for one of my ideas.
The idea came from my personal pain-point of starting entrepreneurship. I suddenly had so much time and found myself filling it all up with work, neglecting the big picture priorities that I cared most about.
Comment