Scooter Tools: From an idea to 34K downloads

I want to share the story of how Scooter Tools 🛴💨 has become the success it is today.

The Beginning

On November 23, 2020, I bought a scooter, but the speedometer wasn’t very visible in daylight. I looked for an app as an alternative to view it in the App Store, but none were compatible with my model.

The Idea During Quarantine

Quarantine came and this was just an idea. When I returned to Seville, I discovered an app for electric unicycles in the App Store. I bought it and used it for a while, but it didn’t quite convince me. Seeing the capabilities of other apps on Android, I decided to create my own. On September 4, 2021, I had a functional prototype that used BLE to connect to the scooter.

First Pause

I took a break due to lack of time from university, work, and other projects.

Technical Advances

On June 22, 2022, I managed to connect to my scooter to get data, initially visible only in Xcode’s console.

On June 26, 2022, I managed to display the data on the iPhone screen. However, despite the effort, I felt that Swift and Swift UI were too complex for me at that time, so I postponed the project again.

The Return

On April 13, 2023, I would resume the project focusing only on work, gym, and app development.

The Minimum Viable Product

In 4 months I had the minimum viable product ready. The last month I dedicated to continuing development and trying to get it accepted in the App Store. I made 12 publication attempts, with reviews that took between 1 and 3 days. Finally, on July 26, 2023, they accepted version 1.0, which we now call Scooter Tools.

Total Dedication

I began dedicating evenings and nights to this project, to the point of seeing the sunrise from the window if I had the next day free.

Improvements and Growth

I went on “vacation” in August and during that time I improved Scooter Tools. It wasn’t an immediate success, but word began to spread and by Christmas I already had 50/60 daily downloads.

Simulators and Dashboard Pro

Without access to all scooters on the market, I created my own simulators to improve compatibility. On January 16, 2024 I restructured the business model and Dashboard Pro was launched on April 6, 2024. This attracted the electric scooter user community, achieving:

• 34.6K downloads since launch
• 800/840 daily downloads
• 300/430 daily active users
• 32nd place in the App Store navigation ranking

Reflections

This is the story of Scooter Tools so far. Not everything has been easy, but now I’m on a good streak, supported by my friends, happy and grateful to those who have accompanied me in recent years.

Advice for Developers

My advice if you’re a developer in your free time is to socialize as much as you can. Ideas arise outside the desk, any idea, no matter how silly it may seem, can become a feature (even some bugs are).

Try Scooter Tools

You can try Scooter Tools at https://lnkd.in/dcQgiw_v

You support me by leaving a review on the App Store.

For trial codes or whatever you want, send me a message.

Thanks for your time 💙

Original LinkedIn Post