July 2025. Brussels. One week of Control Systems course. One idea that wouldn’t leave my head. Four months later: live iOS/Android app. No team. No VC. Just me, Flutter, my laptrop and a robotics background. Here’s the real story — bugs, breakthroughs, and all.
I was walking past the Grand Place, staring at some random monument, thinking: “Why isn’t there an app that just tells me what this is — like a local guide, but for $5?” I tried ChatGPT — too slow, too much typing. Google Lens? No context. Tripadvisor? $45 tours. Nothing fit.
Back in Norway, I opened Google and wrote: "How to code an Android app". I had some coding experience from robotics — Python, ROS, C++ — but zero app experience. Didn’t matter. I started anyway. Just do it.
First version: Take photo → get explanation like a local guide. Built in Android Studio with Flutter, with the idea of quickly deploying for iOS in the future. My laptop is an Asus running on Windows. Learned by watching Youtube tutorial, Google searches and asking to Grok: one chat for main app planing; another chat for programming and fixing bugs.
Once the app was ready for Android, I started the process of deploying in to the Google Play Store. I wasn't expecting that it was going to take me 2 weeks of waiting for the app's approval. I debuged the app very intensely, thank to feedback from friends and family. During the waiting period. I decided to prepare the app for iOS as well. After trying to set up a VM with macOS in my Windows laptop, and seeing that it was ultra-slow (+1hour just for charging the app simulator, and didn't even charge it), I decide to buy a macbook. This was expensive, but I know that this was an investment for building more apps in the future. Finally, I had my app ready for iOS and Android, after 2 months of building.
Launched on Reddit, focusing on subredits talking about travel, and Product Hunt. Got a couple of users, and no feedback. Felt like a big punch in the face.
After the first big punch in my face, I was bleeding, but got a new idea.
AI route generation: one tap → full walking route with top sights aorund you.
Used Google Maps SDK and custom AI logic. It took me around a month to build, as this feature was a little more complex, but this time, the deployment was much faster. I also improved the UI of the app and the website, and created a video showing how the app works.
Funny fact: the day I went for recording videos of the app working, and arrived to the area where I wanted to record, it started raining like crazy.
Same strategy, Reddit and Product Hunt. This time with a new feature, more attractive UI and a cool video. However, just got some few users and 0 feedback. Felt like a super punch in my face again.
After 4 months (July–November 2025):
The foundation is solid and the app is live, so I'm pretty happy with it. Didn't get the traction that I was thinking about, but some people will use it if they find it usefull. The coolest part is that I have learned a lot, and future apps will take me less time to develop.
