Catchbox

Objectives

Build a genuinely useful, small-scope SaaS product end-to-end, solo — from idea to a paying product — as proof I can carry something from concept through pricing through shipping without a team.

Background

I lose good ideas constantly to the gap between "having a thought" and "opening the right app to write it down." Every existing note app either wants you to file the thought immediately (too much friction) or dumps it into an undifferentiated inbox you never revisit (too little structure). Catchbox is my answer: capture instantly, decide where it goes later.

Approach

Android-first, since that's the platform I use daily and the one where capture friction matters most to me personally. Core interaction: a swipe-in gesture triggers a lightweight capture sheet, the thought gets typed or dictated, and it's routed — either immediately or in a later batch pass — to one of three destinations: Notion, Trello, or Telegram.

Implementation

The capture sheet is built to feel instant: minimal animation, no login gate on the capture action itself, text persisted locally before any network call happens, so a bad connection never costs an idea. Routing is handled through direct API integration with each destination (Notion API for structured notes, Trello API for task-shaped captures, Telegram Bot API for quick forwards), selectable per-capture or set as a default.

Pricing was one of the harder implementation decisions, ultimately settled at €1.99/month, €8.99/year, or €14.99 lifetime, all following a 7-day free trial — the lifetime tier priced deliberately close to under two years of the annual plan, to make it an easy decision for long-term users rather than a bet.

Problems & challenges

The landing page's initial hero copy tried to explain the full three-destination routing concept in a single sentence and read as confusing rather than differentiated. Over-explaining the mechanism undersold the actual value, which is speed.

Solutions

Rewrote the hero around a single, concrete action rather than the underlying mechanism: "capture now, sort later." Informally tested it against a more feature-heavy alternative headline with people in a Telegram group chat — the simpler version won clearly.

Testing

Currently in landing-page and early-build validation: gauging interest and messaging clarity before investing further build time into the Android capture-sheet interaction, which is the part of the product that has to feel genuinely instant or the core premise fails.

Results

Landing page live with finalized pricing and messaging. Core product is in early build phase — the swipe-in capture UI is the current focus.

What I learned

Pricing a solo product is less a spreadsheet exercise than a confidence exercise — I spent more time second-guessing discount ladders than the decision actually warranted. The number that mattered most was "can I defend this to myself without hedging," not a theoretically optimal break-even calculation.

Future improvements

• Ship the Android capture-sheet UI and get it into real daily use by me first, before any wider release.
• Add a lightweight "sort later" review flow for captures that weren't routed immediately.
• Evaluate iOS once the Android core interaction is proven to actually reduce friction in practice, not just in theory.