How Youcef grew his productivity app to 10k downloads

Meet Youcef El Kamel.

Youcef is a 32-year-old tech entrepreneur from Paris, France.

His journey into the world of app development began with a passion for using technology to make people's lives better. He has always been fascinated by productivity and efficiency, both in his personal and professional life.

This led him to create BeeDone, a productivity app designed to help users achieve their goals with ease through gamification and AI.

The story told by Youcef El Kamel

The birth of BeeDone

BeeDone is not just another productivity app. It’s a blend of gamification and AI that motivates users to accomplish their tasks and habits. See video demo below.

Inspired by productivity books like Atomic Habits and The Power of Habit, BeeDone offers a gamified experience that rewards progress and keeps users motivated. Each feature of the app is a productivity hack, unlockable by achieving tasks.

The idea for BeeDone started brewing in my mind in early 2022. I wanted to create an app that not only helps people manage their tasks but also makes the process fun and engaging. After months of planning and development, BeeDone went live in late 2020. Initially, the app was well-received, but I struggled to monetize it effectively.

Then I had access to GPT and started incorporating AI for task analysis and an AI productivity coach. These updates led to quite a few paid users and some devoted fans.

The first 100 paying users

Reaching the first 100 users was a milestone achieved through Product Hunt. On my third launch, I gained significant traction and surpassed 100 paying users. While this was a rewarding experience, Product Hunt limits launches, making it an unsustainable long-term strategy.

I currently offer two subscription plans: 8$/month and 47$/year (with the yearly offering a 7 day trial).

Growth and challenges

Today (July 2024), BeeDone boasts over 10,000 downloads and a growing user base. However, the journey has been filled with challenges.

Initially, I tried various paid marketing campaigns, including Meta ads. For Meta I got a nice hook rate (60 - 70%) and I paid only 1.5$ per registration - but these users never subscribed.

Maybe people from social media didn’t want to be productive 🙂 or perhaps I didn’t have a big enough budget to feed the Meta algorithm.

What truly made a difference was my pivot to content marketing. Engaging reddit posts (like this one) turned out to be incredibly targeted and effective, drawing in a focused audience. To streamline this, I set up an extensive Airtable with 40 scheduled posts, which consistently attracted new users.

A pivotal moment came when BeeDone was featured in the Zapier blog;

The best AI productivity tools in 2024

This endorsement significantly boosted the authority and drove substantial traffic to my landing page.

To further enhance user experience and conversions, I added a video onboarding sales pitch (see below) on the paywall, which markedly improved the conversion rates.

Additionally, incorporating a blog for SEO has helped me reach a monthly recurring revenue (MRR) of around $1,000.

Today, BeeDone proudly holds the 44th spot on the all-time IndiePage leaderboard.

Vision and future plans

I have a ton of exciting ideas for BeeDone, especially with the integration of AI.

Through my work on BeeDone, I've gained extensive knowledge about incorporating AI into apps. This expertise has allowed me to take on freelance clients, helping them integrate AI into their systems, which has been crucial since BeeDone doesn't fully cover the bills yet.

Looking ahead, I'm planning to collaborate with a designer and a marketer to elevate BeeDone's reach and functionality. My goal is to hit $10K MRR by the end of the year, and I'm optimistic that with the right team and strategies, I'll get there.

For anyone interested in following Youcef’s journey, he regularly shares updates and insights on his LinkedIn.