The Birth of Huck

We had just conceded another goal. As we walked to the far side of the field John called out "10-8"!

"Hey! It's 9-8! When did you go two ahead?!"

The rest of my team chimed in and, thankfully, so did a couple of their players, affirming that the score was, in fact, 9-8. Phew.

This happened regularly when Toby wasn't around. He was the trusted score-keeper. Honest, dependable and an accountant by profession, which apparently made him better at score-keeping than the rest of us. 🤷 But without Toby around the score was always up for debate.

The following week I trialed a solution: a neat little Apple Watch app that kept score. It was super simple - just two tappable numbers on the screen. “No more arguments” I thought as the game began.

It didn't take more than a few goals for me to realise that this wasn't going to work...every time I went to change the score I wasn't in the score-keeping app, but rather the fitness app which was tracking my workout and I had to switch back to the score-keeper. Arg, annoying!

After a little research, I realised two things: 

1. workout apps always steal the focus on the Apple Watch, but 

2. it’s possible to build your own workout app that keeps focus. And adding score-keeping to that is really simple.

And that is how Huck was born.

Building out the first version took about 1.5 days. I started on Monday morning and the following evening I was using it at our Tuesday night game.

Huck started with only two simple features: keeping score and tracking a workout. It was my first Apple Watch app. I had to learn some of the stuff that's special to WatchOS but for the most part an Apple Watch app is much the same as an iPhone app. That's my bread and butter so it was pretty simple to make the switch.

What made life even easier is that Apple has a tutorial, with sample code, to build a workout app with a music player. I copied the tutorial line for line, skipping the music player and building a super-simple two button counter instead. It was the smallest of tweaks from the tutorial, but it's all I really needed.

That first game using it was wonderful - everything worked perfectly! The concept worked! 🎉 There were no arguments about the score, my workout was tracked and I didn't have to swap back-and-forth between two apps to make it all work - absolute bliss!

The app was by no means ready to release to the public, but I was excited and spent the next few weeks building out a version that was ready for the App Store. I decided from the very beginning that I would charge for the app in some way and decided on a subscription option for unlocking the workout tracking feature, because that's what made Huck different from every other score-keeping app out there.

I went ahead and submitted Huck to the Apple App Store. There was a bit of back-and-forth during the App Store review process. It was a little frustrating, but I eventually got that sorted and it was approved and available for pre-order on the App Store.

In the lead up to the release I told everyone I could about the app - I set up a website and launched on Product Hunt. I sent out text messages to friends. Tweeted. Posted on every social media I could. I set the release date for around two weeks in the future and when the day finally arrived I released Huck into the world.

And people downloaded it. What?! Who?! How?! Why?!

Within a few hours someone SUBSCRIBED!!! 😳

I could not believe it.

But there was a problem - I offered users a 7-day free trial, but my first customer had been charged immediately - whoops 😅 I tried signing up and the free trial didn't work for me either - I also got charged immediately. Oh dear, something was broken! I checked out the product configuration on the App Store and realised that I'd used the wrong kind of introductory offer or something. I made a few tweaks and texted my wife at work to ask her to try installing it to see whether the change had worked and thankfully it had. Phew! 😅

And good thing that I did, because just after 6PM that same evening someone ELSE subscribed! Or at least started a free trial. Aaaah!

What an incredible launch. Two complete strangers had found and signed up for my simple, little app on the first day. It was thrilling!

That was the start of the Huck journey, but a lot has happened since:

• One of my early customers reached out via our website and we've chatted a few times about Huck. They've shared feedback and I've made some tweaks to features based on their input.

• HotshotTek came across Huck on the App Store and included it in a YouTube video they made about "New Apple Watch Apps You Don't Want To Miss!" (check it out here), which drove hundreds of downloads!

• I added a bunch of new features to the app, some based on user feedback and some that I've wanted to add. Interestingly, I've also chosen not to add some requested features that don't align with my vision for Huck.

• I enlisted my wife and our whole Tuesday social team to help create some content for marketing Huck - that's had some mixed success.

So, how is Huck doing? Well, it's been (almost) 9 months now, and this is how Huck is doing:

• 55 users / week, on average

• 6 subscribers:

  • 2 monthly,

  • 2 quarterly and

  • 2 annually

• It's earning $17/month,

  • that's before Apple takes their 10% cut

I won't be sending in my resignation any time soon, but it's a start!

Building Huck has been an incredible learning experience. It's shown me that I can take an idea from concept to product, and that there are people out there willing to pay for something I've created. While it's not paying the bills yet, it's a tangible first step on my solopreneur journey. Each download, each subscriber, is validation that I'm on the right path. There's still a long way to go, but Huck has given me the confidence to keep pushing forward, to keep building, and to keep learning. Who knows what the next idea might bring?