Lessons Learned From My First Indie Dev Attempt (And How They're Shaping My Next App)
Back in 2018, I took my first real shot at going indie. At that point, I’d been working as an iOS developer for a couple of years and had only released one app — QuidClaim, a basic expense tracker I built whilst learning to code at DevMountain. When I started seeing some traction with QuidClaim in the App Store, I figured that if I built a more advanced version — QuidClaim 2.0 — I might actually generate some significant revenue.
At the time, my day job wasn’t super inspiring. Even though I was hired as an iOS developer, I found myself doing a lot of backend work that just didn’t interest me. I was living in London and didn’t have a massive safety net, but I decided to take the leap and leave my job anyway. I thought that if I could just build QuidClaim 2.0, I’d have a shot at some real revenue.
For three months, I worked non-stop on QuidClaim 2.0 (which I later named to Expendmo), adding new features and building a new backend with cross-device syncing. I was convinced that a better product with multi-device support would attract a bigger audience. Sadly it didn't work out that way at all, but a few key lessons were learned.
