How I got my app to be Top 10 list in Grade 10
I built an app in Grade 10 and it was in the Top 10 Trending apps list in Canada for a week. I didn’t just happen, I had to make it happen 👇
In 2013, I was obsessed with building Android apps. I remember begging my Dad to pay the $25 fees to get Developer access to the Play Store. He didn’t know what it was for but I knew if he paid, he wanted me to make it count.
I would finish up my Math class in period 3 and spend the rest of the time in the library (had a skip on my 4th period :)). fire up Eclipse (iykyk), and start copy pasting code snippets I found online.
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Did I understand the code? Nope
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Did I care about the quality of the apps? Nope
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Did I care about TAM? Nope
I just literally wanted something in the world with my name on it.
At the start of the summer, I was done building small projects that were littered with bugs, so I made it a mission to launch an app in the Google Play store by the end of the week. That was the goal.
Sadly, it didn’t happen by the end of the week. But it did happen by the end of the summer. 4 painful months after, I had set the goal I had achieved it. Like most, I thought I was done…
Turns out, shipping an app doesn’t automatically mean people start using it (dang it!).
Every morning I'd sit down with a cup of tea and refresh the dashboard - “How many people are using it?” Maybe 1 install. On a good day, maybe 3. Most days though, none. I wanted that number to move.
That’s when I started hitting up malls in the evenings. I would go and and install my app on all the demo phones. Little by little, the install numbers started going up and to my surprise, one Wednesday I opened my laptop and it said I was on the Top 10 Trending list for apps in Canada. Gosh what a high!
I’ve been chasing that same high for over 10 years. See, the thing is I didn’t know anything about the world. The only thing I knew was that I wanted the install numbers to go up. How - I didn’t care. I wasn’t constricted by what I was "supposed" to do.
As you grow up, you take in advice, almost too much advice that makes you feel that the world around you is stiff. That the “rules” put in place are physical rules. They are not. They are more like suggestions and the world is more malleable than you think. You just have to dare to poke it.
Poke the world
If you’ve been sitting on something that you know you want to do, here’s what I recommend to psych yourself out of the stasis and get moving:
Focus on a singular goal at a time. Something that’s achievable. Forget about how to make money, how to get people to download, scale all of that. That will come later.