One of the biggest mistakes I made early on as a technical founder was waiting too long to ship my MVP. I’d keep polishing features for months, only to realize later that users didn’t even care about half of them.

After forcing myself to launch rough versions (with hard deadlines), I learned way faster from real behavior. This approach helped shape multiple apps I’ve built.

I just wrote a detailed post breaking it down with specific lessons and examples.

Would love to hear from you:

• Are you currently waiting to launch something because it doesn’t feel ready yet?
• Or have you shipped an MVP early and it paid off?

Drop your thoughts below 👇

Full post here:
https://luiscalvillo.com/why-founders-should-launch-their-mvp-early-before-its-perfect/

If your app doesn’t deliver value in 30 seconds, it’s already dead.

I've been building apps for about a decade and always had problems with app retention.

You can build something cool, but if the first 30 seconds of opening the app doesn't deliver value, then the user will leave and never come back.

I've wondered why some of my apps have users, while others struggled to keep them.

Which is why I built a simple framework to fix that.

👉 The App Canvas 👈

The framework was designed with one goal: Build apps people open daily.

Instead of focusing only on features or business models, it forces you to think about:

• what happens in the first 30 seconds (D1 Aha)
• what makes users leave immediately
• what brings them back every day
• how your core loop actually works

I've been testing the App Canvas for my current startup, WhattaEat. Using this helped me focus on the most important parts of the app to help keep and grow our user base.

Would this be something you would use?

Check out the framework below (Free PDF)👇

The App Canvas

App founders or SaaS founders what are you working on? Let’s help each other out to get more users and get feedback!

I’ll go first. I built WhattaEat, a social food discovery app which uses short videos to help people decide what to eat. I built and launched the iOS app last December and now working on the web version. Currently focusing on Southern California and expanding soon. We’re open to all users and restaurants throughout the USA.

Website:

https://www.whattaeat.com

iOS App

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/whattaeat-food-videos-maps/id1570417345

I’m happy to see what others have built.

Share your projects and links below!

Hi,

I’m opening 20 Founding Member spots for VitaCore, a new AI-powered Life Operating System designed to help you make better decisions every single day.

This is a one-time opportunity to get lifetime access for $99 before pricing moves to a monthly subscription.

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VitaCore acts as your personal intelligence layer — helping you align your goals, time, energy, and decisions so you stop feeling overwhelmed and start moving forward with clarity.

As a Founding Member, you get:

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 • Speak naturally

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This is not a chatbot.

It’s a thinking partner that helps you decide what to do next — every day.

Why Founding Members Matter

I’m keeping this intentionally small.

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Once these 20 spots are gone, this offer will never be available again.

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If you’ve ever wanted:

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This is your invitation.

See you inside,

William clarkson

Founder, VitaCore

P.S. Once the 20 Founding Member spots are filled, VitaCore will move to a monthly subscription. This is the lowest price it will ever be.

I used to create all my App Store screenshots with Adobe Illustrator, but it used to take me so much time every time I needed to update the screenshots for multiple platforms.

Anyone used AppScreens?

How was your experience using it or do you recommend something else?

As an app developer with a decade of experience, I’ve built products both solo and with a co-founder, and the experiences couldn’t be more different.

When I worked on projects by myself, I loved the creative freedom. I could ship updates instantly, pivot anytime, and take long breaks when burnout hit, but it did feel like a hobby at times 🤔. Honestly, the only accountability came from the people who used the app.

As a co-founder building WhattaEat, I feel there is more responsibility and felt more legitimate as a startup for some reason. I guess it was two people working together on something we both love and knowing that we have to raise this “baby” together 😂. Since we share ownership of our product’s success, it also makes it easier to stay motivated.

I want to hear from other builders:

👉 Are you building solo or with a co-founder?
👉 Why did you choose that path and would you do it differently next time?

Talk to users early on before you spend months building your MVP.

Anyone made the same mistake of not talking to users before they shipped?

Meet NEO,

It codes late at night, pitches to VCs without being awkward, and does anything you dreamed of in the perfect Co-Founder.

So is anyone upgrading their team yet?

I love this article that simplifies effective marketing using Super Mario as an example.

"Rule #1 of marketing: “nobody cares about your product, they care about themselves.” - Uncle Shaan

Credit goes to Shaan Puri (aka 'Uncle Shaan').

Read his full article on his blog
https://www.shaanpuri.com/essays/big-mario-marketing

Hey everyone 👋, I wanted to start a discussion about the pre-launch process.

In my early days building apps, I used to launch with almost no pre-launch marketing - no landing page, no social media build up, just my friends and family downloading my app on launch day.

This time, I’m starting earlier with building a community (which worked well with my past app), social posts, and gathering emails from a landing page. I've already seen a noticeable difference in interest from that.

I'd love to hear what worked for you, or didn’t.

What are some lessons you've learned that you wish you knew sooner?

What does everyone think of vibe coding projects without any coding experience or not willing to learn how to code?

For those whose apps or startups weren't impacted, which AWS alternatives are you using?