Getting a custom app built for your business

Beyond the apps you start with, your co-founder can have custom software built for your business — a booking tool, an inventory tracker, a customer database, whatever fits how you work. Just describe what you need in chat.

How it works

Tell your co-founder what you're trying to solve, in plain language — you don't need to write a spec or know any technical terms. It'll ask any clarifying questions it needs, then line the build up for your go-ahead.

You approve it right where you asked. The same yes-or-no card everything else waits for you on turns up directly under the reply confirming your request, so there's nothing to go looking for and nothing is built until you say yes. One request gets one card — you won't be asked the same thing twice, or told twice that it's been arranged.

Once you say yes, you'll get a heads-up when the build starts and when it's done (or if it runs into a problem), and once it's ready it shows up alongside your other apps.

How long it takes

Builds vary — a simple tool is faster than something with a lot of moving parts — and your co-founder won't promise a fixed number of minutes. Ask "how's my build going?" any time and you'll get the real, current status rather than a guess.

You don't have to ask, either — while a build is running you can see it live in the list of builds next to your chat. Tap it to see exactly what step I'm on right now (working out what you need, building it, checking my own work, and so on), with each step checked off as I finish it, plus how long it's been running.

What can happen along the way

• Just getting started — your build was just accepted and hasn't begun yet; your co-founder will say it's queued to start rather than already making progress.
• Still going — your co-founder will tell you it's in progress, and roughly what stage it's at if that's available.
• Waiting on something — a build can pause on a question that needs a decision before it can continue. Your co-founder will tell you what it's waiting on.
• Finished — you'll be told it's done and where to find it, with a card showing what changed.
• Ran into a problem — sometimes a build hits something it can't resolve on its own. Your co-founder will say so plainly, including what went wrong, rather than leaving you guessing or pretending it's still working. That build won't pick back up, but it won't hold you up: ask again, or for a different app, and the new build goes ahead.
• Ran long and stopped short — sometimes a build runs for a while and reaches a working limit before it's finished. Your co-founder will tell you it didn't get all the way there this time and offer to give it another go, so you can decide whether to try again.
• Cancelled — if you or your co-founder stop a build partway through, it's cancelled cleanly and you can start a new one any time.

When the app is for your customers, I'll offer the page too

Some apps are for you and your team. Others are for the people you serve — somewhere your customers sign in and see what's theirs. An app like that needs two things, not one: the app itself, and a page on your website where your customers actually sign in.

You only have to ask once. Once the app is finished and your customers can reach it, I'll come back and ask whether you'd like me to add that sign-in page to your site. It's an ordinary yes-or-no, on the same card everything else waits for you on, and nothing is built until you say yes.

Two reasons I ask instead of just doing it: the page goes live on your own website, where anyone can see it, and your website can only have one thing being built at a time. Both of those are yours to decide.

If you'd rather not have the page, say no and I won't ask again for that app. If you change your mind later, just ask me for it in chat. And if you're in the middle of other website work when I ask, saying yes is still fine — the page waits its turn and I get to it once the site is free.

Only one build at a time, per lane

Your business can have one custom-app build going at once (a website build is separate and doesn't block it, or get blocked by it). If you ask for a new app while one is already running, your co-founder will tell you which app it's already building — which may not be the one you just asked about — and won't start a second one alongside it.

A build stopped by a problem doesn't count: asking for the next one replaces it.