Solo Developer Journey & App Experiments
Hi, I'm Clive. After seven years as a Software Development Manager building enterprise systems, I left in mid 2025 to answer a question: can I build sustainable products independently, doing what I enjoy, without venture capital or investor expectations? This website records my journey from employee to independent builder as I ship apps and explore the answer. Follow along as I journal all the success and the failures.
Less than two weeks since my last post and reality keeps teaching expensive lessons. Audibar's first sale lost 50% to fees. Chronode launched with bugs only real usage revealed. BillKit went from invoice folder to native app in eight days. The pattern from last time holds: shipping surfaces problems building never will.
Four months since my last update and I've left employment to build independently. I've launched AudiBar, built Chronode and Kanodo, archived two platform concepts, and learned that EU compliance costs more than expected. The technical challenges are easy - running a business is the hard part.
An AI-powered expense management application for macOS. Processes invoice files automatically using AI to extract amounts, dates, and vendor information. Manages multiple businesses with local data storage, duplicate detection, and confidence-based review for accuracy.
A menu bar audio player for macOS. Drag and drop audio files to play them instantly. Supports playlists, shuffle, auto-play, and multiple audio formats including MP3, WAV, FLAC, and M4A. No library management or complexity.
An automatic time tracking application for macOS developers. Monitors IDE activity and detects projects without manual timers or plugins. Tracks coding sessions, provides statistics and productivity insights, and exports data to CSV, PDF, and JSON formats.