The Buddy SystemHi, I'm Matt.
The Buddy System isn't a startup. It's six apps built by me, an engineering PhD student at the University of Tennessee, who kept wanting tools that didn't exist and eventually got tired of waiting for someone else to make them.
Why these six
Every one of them started as a thing I wanted for myself and couldn't buy. A tea journal that understood a gongfu session is eight steeps and not one cup. A coffee log that would tell me what my best brews had in common instead of what a barista on YouTube thought. A body-transformation tracker that couldn't shame me for missing a Tuesday. A ninety-day planner with room for exactly two goals. A reading journal that was a journal, not a leaderboard. A limit on short videos that actually blocks them, instead of a reminder I'd swipe away.
So they're all shaped by the same bias: record what actually happened, then let the app find the pattern later. None of them try to be a social network, and none of them will ever tell you that you've broken something.
Where your money goes
The web apps are free, so the money comes from the iPhone apps: the ones you buy outright, and SwipeBuddy's optional Pro plan. In roughly this order, it goes to:
- Apple's Developer Program. $99 a year, before a single app is downloaded.
- Apple's cut. Apple keeps a share of every App Store sale.
- This domain and the hosting for the site and the web apps.
- Whatever's left goes to tuition. A PhD stipend is a real thing, and so is the gap between it and what a semester costs.
There's no investor to pay back, no growth team, no advertising budget, and no plan to sell any of this to anyone. That isn't a marketing position, it's just what happens when a project is one person's evenings.
One more honest thing about the price. I notice I take things more seriously once I've paid for them, even a little. Free apps I download, open twice and forget. The ones I paid five dollars for, I actually use. That isn't why these cost money (the list above is), but it's why I've stopped feeling bad that they do.
What that buys you
Being small is the reason the apps can be the way they are:
- No accounts, anywhere. Not on iPhone and not in the browser. You never need an email address or a password to use any of them.
- No analytics SDK, no ads, no data sale. Your journal is on your device. I've never seen one and I've built it so I can't.
- Bought once, not rented. The App Store apps are free or a one-time purchase, and they stay bought. I'd rather sell you the thing than lease it to you. SwipeBuddy is the one exception: its Safari extension needs steady upkeep as YouTube and Instagram change their sites, so its optional Pro plan is a subscription.
- A person reads the support email. It's me. Sometimes slowly, but it's me.
If you want to help
Honestly, the most useful things are free:
- Buy the app you'd actually use. One you open is worth more to me than three you don't. If you've been using a web app for free and it's earned a place on your phone, that's the way to say so.
- Leave a review. For an app with no marketing budget, App Store reviews are the entire marketing budget.
- Tell me when something's broken. I can't test on every device, and the bug you shrug off is one nobody else has reported.
Thanks for reading this far.
Matt
Start with whichever one you'd open tomorrow
That's the whole trick. One small app, one thing you already do.