Why I am Building mintee
In this post, I share my motivation to build mintee – a minimalist time-tracking app. I also describe the steps I will take to launch it in early 2025.
Some time ago, I was reflecting on my past hackathon wins. I was thinking about what exactly made my experience joyful and rewarding. I realized that I was building in a sweet spot. And the sweet spot for me lay in the intersection of sellable, shippable, and fun.
Let me explain a little bit. During hackathons, I was working on a product that:
- I knew (or at least had an idea) how to sell to judges and community;
- could be built and shipped in short iterations;
- was fun because I used it myself, learned something new while working on it, or both.
So, I wondered what else I could do aside from hackathons? What project could be in the sweet spot?...
A time tracker!
I decided that I was going to build a time-tracking app. Not because it doesn't exist. I'm happy with using Tim, for example. But because the time tracker is sellable, shippable and fun to build.
I feel like if I focus on the very essential feature set I need myself, this project would be doable in a limited time frame. Even if I work on it part-time.
That's how the idea of mintee – a minimalist time tracker, was born. I'm building it in public. And I'm going to test out some fascinating technical ideas along the way. So, expect more posts about the process of building, shipping, selling, and (sometimes) having fun on this blog. You can also follow me on X.
Finally, here is the rough plan of how I'm going to launch it in early 2025.
- Build a prototype that I can personally use alongside Tim.
- Make it reliable and functional enough to replace Tim.
- Make it look nice.
- Make it public.
- ????
- PROFIT!!!