The episode, in writing
by Richard Lovatt · from the episode above, checked against what was said
I submit my app to Apple and it gives you something called TestFlight, where you can download your app to the phone before it goes live. Apple wants some kind of video of you going through certain things and showing the features, so I sent a video where it was the simulator doing it, obviously easier, but it wasn't accepted. I've been through five builds now. Every time it's not accepted, I go back to it and have to do it myself, working through the app, and every time you think you've got your app to where it needs to be, at least in line with the web side of things, something's not there, something's changed. I put a rule in with Claude or ChatGPT, I can't remember which, that if we ever add any features or create something new we have to always check the code base against the web app and the mobile app. I thought we were doing that. Once you realise something's off, you have to go through a whole new build. It creates a new build, submits it to Apple, Apple puts it on TestFlight, and then you get it again. I'm through five builds and it's going through the sixth one. It's so frustrating.
On the brighter side of things, yesterday I spoke about the idea at length with the patent attorney and he was excited, he said it was a really good idea. One thing about me is I like to work fast, I have urgency, though I try not to have urgency with everything. What I've just realised is that not everyone has the same urgency, and not everyone wants to work on your stuff the way you do. I have a hundred percent care about it, and that's normal, but when he calls me and says this is great, he's going to go speak to his colleague and call back in the afternoon, and then he doesn't call, that kind of stuff really annoys me. I trust people on their word. He might call today, I'm not sure.
I did also submit my trademark internationally. It's weird because it's called something like the Madrid something, and you pay in Swiss francs, super weird. I know I'm going to have a large international audience, especially maybe in the USA, a lot of my colleagues and friends are there, so I want to protect myself over there. There are other things you can protect yourself with, not just patents. You've got trademarks on both sides, copyright, image rights, stuff like that, and I'm going to be doing all of that anyway. The patent side of things is a whole new world, it might not end up going through, it's a lot of money, and you can pay a lot of money and still not end up getting any protection. These are the things I'm weighing up.
Today's all about a new submission to the App Store, getting the mobile app exactly where it is on the web, and submitting to the App Store. I'm just keen and eager to launch, not a proper launch, just to get it out in public, get these videos out and drip in some users, not necessarily paid users. I'd like five to ten people using it, maybe for free, all working together, to see how it works, what people like, what they don't like, what they'd add, and especially what bugs come up. Then I'll think about launch.