Suhail Gupta

The app is now in Beta App Review. I’m looking for a select group of people who can help test the app and share feedback, while still keeping the app under wraps for a few more weeks. If you are travelling in the next week or so, you’re the ideal candidate; the more complicated your trip, the better. If you want to help test it out, drop a DM along with where you’ll be travelling (and how). I’m also trying to finish the app in the meanwhile, so please don’t mind if you don’t get invited, or if I take a while to respond. :)

…and we’re in the club. Private Beta should be ready very soon!

So today was going to be the day I start talking about my app. The usual hype stuff - screenshots, features, back story etc. Instead, I’ve decided to go the other way; keep building and finishing it in stealth, and announce it only once it’s live on the App Store. It sucks, to be honest, because I was very excited to share it. But anyone who is building in public can figure out why I’m doing this; the problem is more prevalent than I initially thought, and it comes down to one hard truth that I had to swallow: copycats are everywhere, shameless, and relentless. I took solace in the fact that my app isn’t going to be easy to reverse-engineer, even with AI - people can copy the front-end, the design, or just rip off my post and pretend like they created it, but they can’t replicate the app and infrastructure underneath easily. The problem though, is that some people don’t care about the app underneath; they just clone the look and feel, sell some vibe-coded slop that works like it, and outspend you on ads until you’re indistinguishable as the OG. I thought it’s only happening with the major apps; but turns out, some people/groups are specifically targeting those who’ve just started out, launched on TestFlight but aren’t yet on the App Store, or in similar groups as me, precisely because we’re the lesser-known targets and will have a much harder journey proving our authenticity. Apple is doing all it can to catch and throw out vibe-coded frauds, slop, and clones, but they clearly have their hands full; and in the midst of all the noise, a genuinely new app will easily get lost. I completely understand if they treat my app with the same skepticism as every other app, and the burden lies on me to prove that my app is genuinely novel, authentic, and not a fraud. So for the time being, the App will stay under wraps; I’ll start rolling out invite-only Testflight access to a select user base, that too only because my App needs a lot more real-world tests than others; if you want to be in this cohort, feel free to drop me a DM and I’ll see if I can send a build your way. Until then, I’m back to building in private, and will see you at the other end in early November, when it’s all done and live. :)

In 133 days, the project has evolved to 190,000 lines of code, 3800+ commits, 276 screens, and 35 Testflight builds, and used over 30 billion tokens. If you told me even a year ago that I’d be able to make my own app, solo, with nothing but a laptop and an AI subscription, I’d have laughed it off. But in 10 years of Product Design, the last year has taught me more than the previous nine combined. With AI, designers have unlocked a power they never held - the ability to put their vision to reality. The gap between prototype and production is now down to zero. It hasn’t been easy. I swore to start with the uncomfortable, invisible end of the app first - stateless backend, edge functions, self-hosted OSM table, data modelling, doorman hardening, app attestation, Claude API caching, and Apple’s laundry list of “Kits” - and keep the design and front-end a lower priority, until finally, a month ago, the app actually worked. Me being me, I didn’t make it easy for myself; not only is the app’s scope and vision gigantic (the kind startups raise funding for), I endured endless sleepless nights for months, juggling building the app with my daytime responsibilities, and constantly reworking (or starting from the ground up) when I learnt something new, or hit a new wall. It doesn’t help if you care about every detail. You start off by thinking 50 problems need to be solved; but by the end, you’ve solved 3,000, and there are still 20 more of the initial “problems” left, which you know are hiding 2,000 real decisions to take. But once you’ve spent enough time on it, and crossed that ugly “middle stage” where the entire project feels like a waste of time, you end up in a place where you can see the sum of all your decisions. An app that is entirely yours - why it looks that way, why it works that way, why this exists and not that, why it’s slow or fast, or why it’s stunning or ugly - all yours to answer. This is the first time (hopefully of many) that I can call an entire app my own - every pixel, bit, and judgement call. It’s a glorious feeling, and (I think) it’s a glorious app; and I can’t wait to share it with you soon.

I’ve been underground for over six months now, working on my own app. I promised myself, “no logo, splash screen, or branding work until everything else is done and the app works”. Well, here’s the logo.

Completed 1 year at District today.

I wish I had articulated it this cleanly. But this is absolutely on point, and will get only more visible and obvious in the coming months.

2026. Trying every other way to design. Things either go into Figma, or come out of it, but there’s still no going around it. Wondering if Figma is a bottleneck, or a really well-designed design tool that is always going to be indispensable to a designer.

Trying to keep up with news in Iran was a total fiasco because I don’t trust social media and most news outlets have terrible apps. Thanks @anmolarora_tw and @gow88_ for suggesting @particle_news - the app is, so far, absolutely perfect.

I’ve seen quite a few hackathon kits by now, but this one is my favourite.

District does hackathons differently.

We should give the Tim Cook era of Apple credit for one thing - they may not have moved their products far enough, but they did push the entire tech industry forward. Removing the headphone jack forced wireless earbuds to make a massive step-up; magsafe introduced an entire new line of products specifically based on it; and removing all but the USB-C ports off their MacBooks forced massive adoption of USB-C monitors, hard disks, etc. Sure, they really dropped the ball with a few things (looking at you, lightning port) but on the whole, a lot of things that we take for granted today simply wouldn’t have been adopted fast enough if Apple hadn’t pushed the industry in that direction.

Design - showcases clarity and priorities - showcases the lack of it

Over the past 6 months, I have completely transitioned into a post-Figma design style. I now think about design (and prefer creating it) in Play, with Figma just being a poor, two-dimensional snapshot good only for developer handoff and showing edge cases.

“What a privilege it is to be burdened with the things you once prayed for.” I relate a lot to this quote these days.

How to fix your entire life in 1 day (my much easier version): You can’t. (Obviously). What you can do is fix your attitude in 1 day, and set a new pattern for the days to come. That requires 3 physical and mental shifts each. Physical shifts - 1. Wake up 1 hour earlier than you have to - that’s enough to lead the day rather than follow it. 2. Drink water when you’re losing focus. 80% of your bad mood, exhaustion, and short attention span is the byproduct of dehydration. 3. Take the more physically intense path at least once a day. Get up to clean; take the stairs instead of a lift for two floors; change into fresh clothes; take the longer path when walking. Don’t go for the easiest, lowest-effort path every time. Mental shifts - 1. It is what it is. 80% of complaining you do is of things beyond your control - your boss, your work, the city, other people, civic sense, your family, partner, friends, traffic, pollution, government - you don’t control most of these things, so just accept them for what they are. Do what you can to insulate or ignore yourself from them - or if you wish, engage in performative outrage and “raising awareness”, but then, forget about it. 2. Live and let live. 80% of unhappiness is unmet expectations. You’re spending too much time “expecting” things - from yourself, people, or the world. Stop expecting things all the time. If you can act, act. If you can communicate, do so. If you can’t be bothered to, or can’t for other reasons (it’s pointless trying to tell an asshole he’s an asshole), then move on. Everyone’s out there imperfect, trying to live their best lives, and do what they can without breaking themselves. Cut people - and yourself - some slack. Perpetually increasing standards is the same as perpetually being disappointed. 3. Let shit slide. Your present is being ruined by ruminating about your past. And in the future, you will regret spending your present ruminating about the past. You are simply setting yourself up on an endless spiral of being disappointed about the past and then having wasted time being disappointed about the past. Whatever happened happened - move on quickly, vent quickly, get yourself together quickly, and keep moving forward. Bonus: every now and then, imagine you are being filmed right now for a biopic. I promise you, imagining yourself in your present in third person is enough to get you to change the direction of your day immediately (or at the very least, your posture). It really helps to listen to music, and imagine it as the background score to this biopic. (It’s why AC/DC is my Spotify go-to).

My boss made me work this weekend. @anmolarora_tw (Jokes aside, best Secret Santa gift I’ve received yet!)

3 years, 45,000km, loan fully paid off. Firefly is one of the best decisions I’ve taken in life.