How Tanmay got the first 60 paying customers for his meditation app

Meet Tanmay. A 19 year old developer from India.

At the age of 13 Tanmay learned about 3D modeling and animations. At 14 he learned his first programming language - C#. In late 2022 he got interested in web development, indie hacking, and building SaaS products.

This is the story of how Tanmay built and marketed the meditation app BeMindful.

The story told by Tanmay

BeMindful is a meditation app designed to elevate your meditation experience. Legeraging the power of AI, it generates personalized, five-minute guided meditations.

I also implemented a leaderboard as a gamification element. It allows you to track your progreess, compete with friends, and transform meditation into a fun and interactive experience.

Building the app was a challenging yet rewarding journey. I had built a prototype long before BeMindful came into existence. The prototype was a simple timer accompanied by soothing background music for meditation.

I decided to improve on the prototype and breathe life into the idea of BeMindfuld. It was not easy. It took me two months to build as I was still learning React.

I encountered production error and limitations with Vercel’s API limits, which necessitated migrating the backend to Google Cloud. This unexpected challenge delayed the Product Hunt launch by a few weeks.

Now Bemindful is live and available in two plans;

• A free version with 4 AI guided voices, leaderboards, progress tracking, and background music

• A paid version where you generate AI-guided meditations based on tokens. 5 tokens cost $3.99.

Stats, marketing, and beyond

Despite the challenges, BeMindful has received an overwhelming response. It made its grand debut on Product Hunt on December 1st 2023, getting 200+ upvotes and securing the #4 product of the day.

Two months after launch BeMindful reached the following milestones:

• 200+ users have created an account on BeMindful

• 2000+ impressions across Product Hunt, X (Twitter), and other platforms

• 60 paying customers!

I must admit that I haven’t been able to do that much marketing - but planning to do more going forward 💪

Marketing the app is actually quite a challenge for me, but I am exploring various avenues. I am leveraging X to share free AI-guided meditation videos, behind-the-scenes glimpses of the app, and more.

I also plan to extend marketing efforts to YouTube and Instagram.

That is all. Remember to check out BeMindful and hook up with Tanmay on X.

Or check the video below where Tanmay explains a lot more about BeMindful for a podcast.