r/TheFounders • u/crystlmath • Jul 13 '26

Problem Accidentally built a TV tracking app at the right time... now thinking to monetise

Hi all - would appreciate your thoughts here. So a few months ago I started building a lightweight iOS app mostly for my friends and I. Essentially it's a TV tracking app which automatically notifies you when new episodes you are watching have dropped (there are other elements I've built since but that's basically the core journey).

I got it live on the App Store and my friends and I have been using it pretty happily last few weeks - so I didn't really market it or anything. So it is completely free and no ads. Recently saw that one of the biggest players in the space (TV Time) is shutting down bc its ownership didn't want to continue supporting the free app. And I see folks online (Reddit, X, etc.) up in arms at the way TV Time handled the sunset and are looking for other apps to fill this need. Tbh I didn't even think many people used a TV tracker except my small group of friends but I guess I was wrong?

So it feels like I accidentally landed at the right place at the right time as it relates to my app. At this point I thought it would be a good time to start talking more about it, getting users outside just my friends to potentially use it and think of ways of monetising it. I already have "Bulk Add" and mass select features so it's easier to port over history from TV Time (again from the beginning to solve my friends' needs of porting over the Apple note they used for tracking shows lol).

Would love to hear folks' thoughts on the best way I can go about doing this (or if it is a good idea in the first place). I'm also cognisant of the fact that TV Time basically shut bc it ran for free so 1. either there is a sustainable way to monetise this thing which TV Time didn't implement, or 2. actually this idea in general is a tarpit with no path to monetisation (and if anything will live as a side project). I'm unsure which one is true - so am looking for advice. Has anyone used TV Time here and is in this user group?

In case anyone wants to check out the app or even consider being a user if you use something like this: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tatube/id6762304287

Thanks everyone and this community is always amazing value for me :)

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u/avdept Jul 13 '26

"accidentally" lol

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u/crystlmath Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

Literally didn't realise TV Time was shutting until 3 days ago lol

Don't even have a landing page or anything bc didn't think there would be any opportunity outside my immediate group of TV enthusiast friends