It started with a simple observation
My wife and I both meditated, but we couldn’t find an app that matched how we actually wanted to practice.
Everything was pushing guided meditations when what we really wanted was a beautiful timer, a journal, and meaningful insights into our practice over time. We’d tried them all—Headspace, Calm, Ten Percent Happier—but they were built for a different kind of user.
“We could build something better,” we thought.
Famous last words from a product person who used to code and his entrepreneurial wife.
The Numbers Tell a Story
Let me paint you a picture with data. Over the past 54 days (July 23 to September 14, 2025), I’ve:
- Coded on 32 different days
- Made 66 commits
- Written 382 Dart files
- Created roughly 160,000 lines of code
- Most frequently committed code at 10pm (13 times), 9pm (7 times), and 11pm (6 times)
Those late-night commit times? That’s the reality of building something while parenting a 3.5-year-old and a 1.5-year-old.
My typical day:
- 5am: Wake up with the kids
- Day: Full day of family life and day job
- Evening: Bedtime routine
- 9pm to 1am: That’s when StillMind came to life
But it wasn’t just late nights. I’m actually writing this blog post in an airport, heading home from celebrating my nan and grandad’s birthdays with the extended family. Even during the trip, every spare moment was spent working on the app. I fixed bugs in the morning before family breakfast, submitted the next iteration to Apple between birthday cake and dinner.
This hustle mindset means work happens wherever there’s a moment—airports, early mornings, late nights, even family gatherings.
A True Partnership
My wife has been incredible through this journey. This isn’t just my project—it’s ours.
She came up with some of our best features (the compass for directional meditation was her idea), she tests everything, and she’s leading our marketing efforts. While I’m deep in code, she’s thinking about user experience from a practitioner’s perspective.
When I’d emerge from a coding session at midnight, she’d have feedback ready and coffee brewing. We’re a team, and StillMind is better for it.
Building with AI: A Partnership, Not a Replacement
Here’s something I want to be transparent about: I built StillMind in partnership with AI—primarily Claude and ChatGPT. After years in product management, my coding skills were rusty. But I knew what I wanted to build, and AI helped me bridge that gap.
The collaboration was fascinating. AI excelled at:
- Scaffolding features
- Implementing standard patterns
- Debugging routine issues
But then we hit a wall…
When it came to the journal writing experience—the heart of what makes StillMind special—AI struggled. Hard.
I wanted something smooth, beautiful, and powerful. Something that felt as natural as writing in a physical journal but with all the benefits of digital.
We went through probably 20 iterations of the text editor.
- The AI would generate code that technically worked but felt clunky
- Or it would make something beautiful that would crash when you typed too fast
This is where the partnership really mattered—I had to understand what the AI was producing, debug its assumptions, and guide it toward the user experience I envisioned.
Features We’re Genuinely Proud Of
After 54 days of hustle, StillMind has some unique features that we don’t see in other meditation apps:
🧭 The Compass
My wife’s brilliant idea for practitioners who meditate facing east (or any specific direction). It’s a small detail, but for those who follow this practice, it removes one more friction point.
🎙️ Voice Notes
This came from personal experience. Sometimes after meditation, you have insights you want to capture, but picking up your phone and typing breaks that post-meditation calm. With StillMind, you can record voice notes without even opening your eyes. Complete relaxation, no lost insights.
📊 Real Analytics
Not just “you meditated 5 times this week” but meaningful patterns:
- When are you most consistent?
- How does session length correlate with your mood ratings?
- What patterns emerge in your journal entries over time?
✍️ The Journal
After all those iterations with AI, we finally nailed it. A writing experience that’s fast, beautiful, and powerful. Rich text formatting when you want it, invisible when you don’t.
Why We’re Doing This
Let me be real for a moment. We’re not building StillMind to become the next unicorn startup. We’re building it because we want a different future for our family.
Every late-night coding session, every bug fixed during a family gathering, every feature shipped between diaper changes—it’s all an investment in flexibility.
I want to be there for our kids’ school plays, their soccer games, their random Tuesday afternoon adventures. The traditional career path—even in product management—doesn’t offer that flexibility.
So we’re betting on ourselves. Betting that we can build something valuable enough that it creates options for our family. Maybe it’s StillMind, maybe it’s the next thing, but each line of code is an investment in a future where we control our time.
The Tech Stack (For the Curious)
- Flutter for cross-platform mobile (iOS/Android)
- Firebase for backend (Firestore, Auth, Cloud Functions)
- RevenueCat for subscriptions
- Local SQLite for offline-first journal storage
- And yes, a lot of AI assistance to move faster
What’s Next?
StillMind is live on both app stores now, and we’re already working on the next big update. We’re redesigning the home screen to better guide users into different types of sessions—body scans, breath work, traditional sitting meditation—to enable more varied practice and showcase the depth of features we’ve built.
We’re looking for early users who want a meditation app that respects their practice without forcing a particular style on them.
If you’ve ever wanted to:
- Track your meditation journey without the guided meditation upsell
- Have a meditation app that includes thoughtful journaling
…we’d love for you to try it.
Reflections from 30,000 Feet
As I finish writing this, I’m watching the departure board for my gate announcement. In a few hours, I’ll be home, and tomorrow morning a little voice will call out “Daddy!” at 5am sharp.
Building StillMind while maintaining family life has been exhausting but also energizing. There’s something powerful about creating something from nothing, about solving real problems, about pushing through when you’re tired because you believe in what you’re building.
Even more powerful when you’re doing it as a team with your partner.
The hustle looks different than I imagined. It’s not just late nights in a home office—it’s:
- Bug fixes during birthday parties
- Feature planning during flights
- Code reviews while kids nap
It’s messy and chaotic and beautiful.
To anyone else grinding on side projects while raising young kids:
I see you.
It’s hard. You’re tired. You’re probably reading this during your commute or while your kids watch Bluey. But you’re also building something—not just an app or a business, but a possibility. A chance at a different kind of life.
Keep going. Ship it. The perfect journal editor can wait for version 2.
StillMind | Meditation Timer and Journal is available on iOS and Android. If you try it, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Find us at [email protected] or just leave a review. Every piece of feedback helps shape what StillMind becomes.
P.S. - To my nan and grandad: Sorry for typing code during your birthday dinner. But you always taught me to work hard for what I want. This one’s partially for you too.