Four years ago today, the first Tappa app shipped to ten downloads on a Tuesday. I remember the number because I refreshed App Store Connect about thirty times.
Four years later, we have eight live apps, a five-person team, a quiet office in a converted apartment, and a habit of shipping every two weeks. This is a short post, more about temperament than tactics.
What survived
The discipline of saying no. We have killed more apps before launch than we have shipped. A lot of them were good ideas that did not pass our own internal bar. The portfolio you see is the small set that did.
The decision to stay small. Every year we look at hiring three more people. Every year we find a reason it is the wrong move yet. Five people who all ship is more powerful than fifteen who coordinate.
The aesthetic. Black, red, careful typography, the kanji that show up across the apps and now on this site. We did not plan it as a system. It emerged. Now we protect it.
What changed
The kind of apps we build. Year one, we shipped little utilities. Year four, half the portfolio is AI-assisted. The world changed and we changed with it. We try not to chase. We try to be early and patient.
Our relationship with marketing. When Eleanor joined, we stopped treating ASO like an afterthought. The portfolio doubled in revenue over the next twelve months. Some of that was new apps. Most of it was the existing apps being found by the right people.
What we are still learning
How to talk about the work. This blog is part of that. We have always been good at building. We are getting better at saying what we built, why it exists, and who it is for.
How to choose the next app. It is the hardest decision we make. There is no formula. We will keep writing about it.
Thank you, as always, to the people who use the apps. The work matters because you do.