Mobile
TummyTrail — 15 Days from Idea to the App Store
A privacy-first gut-health pattern journal for iPhone, taken from idea to live App Store product — with validated positioning — in 15 days.
- Flutter (modular template platform)
- RevenueCat
- Apple In-App Purchase
- WordPress (marketing site)
- cPanel
The problem
People tracking gut symptoms for GI appointments were stuck choosing between apps that demand accounts and harvest health data, bury basics behind paywalls, or make logging so slow that tracking doesn’t stick. Competitor App Store reviews showed the gaps clearly: speed, privacy, and honest free tiers were all underserved.
What I built
TummyTrail, an iPhone app for logging meals, symptoms, Bristol-scale entries, meds, and stress factors in three taps or less. Radically private by design: no account, no ads, all data local to the phone, free CSV export forever. A premium Insights tier surfaces food-pattern insights and generates a PDF report users can hand their doctor. I also built the full launch package: marketing site, App Store listing copy, keyword strategy validated against Apple Search Ads data, and brand system.
Result
Live on the App Store 15 days after the idea, with the first production subscription recorded on launch day. Positioning was validated pre-build against competitor review gaps rather than assumed — the fastest-logging + privacy + free-export triad came directly from what incumbent apps’ own users complained about.
Technical notes
- Built on a modular Flutter template designed for reuse — TummyTrail is app #1 of a planned three-app portfolio on the same engine, which also powers a productized client app-building service.
- Launch-gate ASO research identified beatable keyword targets (e.g., an exact-match incumbent holding a top slot with 9 ratings at 2 stars) and shaped both the store listing and the phase-2 SEO content plan.
- Subscription infrastructure via RevenueCat: monthly, annual with 7-day trial, and lifetime tiers.
- All product and marketing copy holds a strict wellness-diary compliance line — pattern journal, not a medical device; no diagnose/treat/manage claims anywhere.