💤 Until: The Countdown App I Talked AI Into Building

Will you invest, investor?

screenshot from James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter

I had a problem standing in my way.

A countdown app was holding one of its most basic features hostage behind a paywall. I wanted to track multiple events. The app wanted my money.

I may have paid if I were related to Dangote somehow, but I’m not. So I cracked my fingers, stretched my back & turned to AI & said: “Let’s build this thing ourselves.”

And that’s how Until came to life…

⏮️ Some backstory…

I enjoy looking forward to things. In fact, I think anticipation is one of the things that makes an event fun in the first place.

I have an upcoming getaway later this year, & I’ve found myself constantly checking the calendar to see how many days are left. Sometimes I’d even ask ChatGPT, “How many days until xoxo?”

A friend came through with a countdown app recommendation - I liked it, it was cool & it helped me see how many days exactly were left until the D-day.

But then I tried adding another event & that’s when I hit a roadblock.

The app wanted me to pay before I could add more than one countdown.

Pay what? Hell nawwwww.

I’ve been looking for something practical to build with AI anyway, so it felt like a no-brainer to spend that energy building my own solution instead of paying for one.

The need was simple - I wanted a fun countdown app where I could track multiple events in one place and, most importantly, without paying a monthly subscription.

That thought led me into Lovable - an AI app/web development platform.

👷🏾‍♀️ Building Until

Investor, you need to know that going into this, I had zero app-building experience. I mean, I have some experience in design, but I can’t code to save my life.

However, if there’s one thing my AI guru teacher - Tina Huang (you may know her; I love her content so much) has taught me, it’s that in this era of AI uprising, you don’t necessarily need to know how to code to get your idea off the ground.

Then I remembered I had her PRD Metaprompt saved somewhere.

So I dug it up.

I used the questionnaire to flesh out the idea, refined it with ChatGPT (shoutout to my co-founder), and then fed the final version into Lovable.

What happened next ‘shook’ me.

Because within minutes, Lovable had produced something that looked remarkably close to what I’d imagined. The idea that was just floating around in my head was now sitting right in front of me on a screen sksksksksk.

But we were just getting started.

This is where I had to start applying context, design thinking, UX writing, and all the other skills I’ve picked up over the years to make it feel more polished & more personal.

I’d prompt. Test. Notice something that felt… off.

Prompt again. Test again. And the cycle continued.

The more I worked on Until, the more I realized that building a product isn’t only about coding but about knowing what you want & communicating it clearly.

“Does this wording make sense?”

“Is this feature useful, or am I simply adding things because I can?”

The AI could generate the code, but it still needed someone to make the decisions.

Unfortunately, I soon encountered another roadblock. One that, yet again, wanted to collect money from my hands.

Credit limits.

Lovable’s free plan comes with a limited number of credits each day, so I’d prompt until my credits ran out, wait for them to renew the next day, then continue where I left off, etc.

Life is not easy for the unwilling-to-pay mehnnn 😪

Anyway, after a couple of days of prompting, tweaking, testing, & waiting for credits to refresh, I finally got to a stage where I could show someone my handiwork without cringing too much.

And so I hit publish!

💡 What Building Until Taught Me

Working on Until taught me a few things...

• First, AI is incredibly powerful (we already know that), but it still needs direction. The better I got at explaining what I wanted, the better the results became.

• Starting is the hardest part, followed by the energy to keep going. ‘Cos i could’ve slept instead of spending time tweaking stuff, but I really wanted to see this to the finish line so -

• The rough road will clear up as you keep going. If it doesn’t, ask someone (or AI) for directions.

• And lastly, building something gives you a whole new appreciation for the people who do it professionally. I was only working on a simple countdown app, & I still found myself thinking through dozens of tiny decisions.

⏳ Now, investor, meet Until (would you invest?)

na me be Aanu, btw.

Until is a cheeky, fun & simple countdown app built for people like me. People who enjoy having something to look forward to.

Trips.

Birthdays.

Hangouts with friends.

World Cup finals.

Anything worth counting down to.

The first version is now live, and I’d love for you to give it a spin.

CLICK HERE TO USE UNTILLLLL

Simply:

• Log in (best opened on your mobile device)

• Create your first countdown (& as many others as you like… for free 😌)

• Explore

• You can also add it to your home screen for easy access.

Now, full transparency as a ‘typical’ founder: Until is still a work in progress 🚨

I already have a list of updates I’d like to make, but Lovable’s credit limits have temporarily restrained my ambition until July. My hands are tied mehnnn.

If you find a bug, have feedback, would like to invest (hehehehe), or simply want to tell me what you’re counting down to, I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Maybe the next version gets better because of the people who use it.

Maybe it gets better because of you.

Thanks for reading, investor.

See you at the end of June,

Yours truly,

Chief Investing Officer 💜