The Proofing Room Issue #08

We're in the final stretch. Five days left on our 30-day timer, and we're firing on all cylinders.

Here's what building a consumer app in 30 days actually looks like: You hit the wall around day 23, question everything, then find a second wind that changes the entire trajectory of the product.

That's exactly where we are right now – day 25.

Remember when I said we'd stop redesigning the app? Well, sometimes you have to break your own rules when something better emerges.

We landed on an aesthetic that made everything click. The writing hands, the classical imagery, that sense of timeless wisdom and personal transformation – it feels right in a way our previous iterations didn't. Sometimes the best design comes in the eleventh hour.

Looking at these new screens, I can finally see Virtue becoming what we envisioned. This isn't just another habit tracker. It's something with soul, with personality, with that ineffable (big word, I know) quality we call "software with taste."

Here's a lesson we've coached countless founders on, yet fell victim to ourselves: scope creep is the cardinal sin of product development.

We didn't sufficiently reduce our initial product vision to fit our timeline. No one is immune - not even those of us who preach the gospel of MVPs. Pride comes before the fall. The irony isn't lost on me – we've built products for years, yet here we are, learning the same lessons we teach.

But that's the beautiful thing about building in public. You get to watch us make the same mistakes every founder makes, then figure out how to recover.

Alan and I had a hard conversation this morning. Consumer apps are notoriously difficult if you aren't immediately solving a core problem. The question keeps coming up: Are we solving one?

The data says maybe. User interviews say probably. But in the world of consumer apps, "maybe" and "probably" are dangerous words.

Meanwhile, the startup ecosystem in 2025 is dominated by AI-driven solutions. Walk into any Y-Combinator demo day and 75% of companies are leveraging AI in similar ways. Our approach hasn't been "find a problem and AI-ify it," but watching the market, you can't ignore where the momentum is.

Right now, as I write this:

The pressure is real. The timeline is tight. But pressure makes diamonds.

Building in public is grueling work. Every decision is scrutinized. Every pivot is public. Every redesign is documented.

But here's what nobody tells you: The hardest part isn't the public failure. It's the public mediocrity. It's easier to fail spectacularly than to ship something that's just...okay.

We're pouring our hearts into Torta because:

Even when "hard things" means redesigning your app five days before launch because you finally found the aesthetic that makes it sing.

Five days. That's what's left on our timer.

Will we make it? Will the app be perfect? Will we have solved product-market fit on day one?

Probably not.

But will we ship something we're proud of? Something that pushes the boundaries of what a habit tracker can be? Something with personality and soul?

Absolutely.

Sometimes the best products come from teams willing to redesign everything in the final hour because they refuse to ship mediocrity. Even if it means working through the weekend. Even if it means admitting scope creep got us.

Even if it takes 10,000 iterations to find the one that works.

Five days and counting,

Colin, Alan, and the Torta Studios team