Building a Monetizable Fitness MVP in 4 Weeks: My Experience with Shipyard Creator Contest for Rebecca Louise

Introduction

The Shipyard: Creator Contest, powered by RevenueCat, is a unique hackathon that stands out from typical events. Instead of building random ideas, participants select a real content creator and develop a mobile app tailored to their audience, with a strict requirement: the app must include proper monetization from day one. The contest ran for 4 weeks, from January 15 to February 12, forcing focused execution on a true minimum viable product (MVP).

What makes Shipyard different is its emphasis on real-world viability—apps need to solve genuine problems for engaged audiences, integrate subscriptions or in-app purchases seamlessly, and be demo-ready. No points for flashy demos without revenue potential.

I chose Rebecca Louise, a well-known fitness and wellness YouTuber and coach. She has built a dedicated community of over 4 million followers across platforms, including around 728,000 YouTube subscribers and an established fitness app called BURN. Her audience resonates with her motivational "It Takes Grit" philosophy, home-based workouts, and positive mindset coaching. I saw an opportunity to explore a complementary companion app concept that enhances her existing content with more personalized daily guidance—something fans often request in comments.

Understanding the Creator’s Audience

Rebecca Louise's core audience is primarily women aged 25-45, many of whom are busy professionals, moms, or individuals seeking sustainable wellness without needing a gym. They are drawn to her accessible, equipment-free workouts, practical nutrition tips, and emphasis on mental resilience.

Common pain points I identified from analyzing her YouTube comments, community feedback, and niche trends:

• Busy schedules make consistent routines hard to maintain.
• Low-energy days lead to skipped workouts and guilt.
• Tracking progress feels clinical or demotivating in generic apps.
• Desire for Rebecca's motivational voice integrated into daily habit-building.

These users need something that feels personal, encouraging, and tied directly to Rebecca's style—quick sessions that fit real life, with rewards focused on mindset shifts rather than just calories burned.

The Problem

The exact problem: Rebecca's fans struggle with consistency in fitness and wellness routines due to fluctuating motivation, limited time, and progress tracking that doesn't align with a positive, grit-focused mindset.

Current solutions fall short. Generic apps like Peloton or Nike Training Club are excellent but often feel intimidating with competitive elements or gym-heavy content. Free YouTube videos (including Rebecca's) are fantastic for discovery but lack built-in personalization, streak tracking, or seamless integration across devices. Even her existing BURN app, while comprehensive, could benefit from a lighter, hyper-personalized companion focused on daily mood-based recommendations and quick habit nudges—something many fans mention wanting for those "off" days.

The Hackathon Challenge

The 4-week timeline was tight: build a functional MVP, target real users (Rebecca's audience), and implement monetization properly—no fakes or stubs. Scope creep was the enemy; everything had to prioritize the core user loop while ensuring the app could generate revenue.

As a solo developer, I had to balance ambitious features with realistic delivery, knowing the judges would value working products over unfinished polish.

The Solution

I built GritFlow, a mobile companion app that delivers personalized daily wellness flows inspired by Rebecca Louise's content and mindset.

The app solves the consistency problem by asking users quick onboarding questions (mood, energy level, available time) and serving tailored workout recommendations from her video library, paired with habit tracking and motivational prompts. It turns wellness into a rewarding daily ritual rather than a chore.

(Habit tracker and progress streak inspiration for GritFlow's motivational dashboard)

Core Features Implemented

I focused on four core features to create a tight, engaging loop:

• Personalized daily workout recommendations: On open, users select mood/energy and time available. The app suggests curated videos from Rebecca's library, pulling in embeds. Value: Feels custom-made, reduces decision fatigue.
• Curated video workouts with offline download: Embedded player for her YouTube/hosted videos, plus download for offline use. Value: Accessible anywhere, no internet excuses.
• Habit tracker with motivational prompts and streaks: Daily check-ins with Rebecca-inspired quotes ("It Takes Grit") and visual progress. Value: Builds rewarding consistency without overwhelming metrics.
• Simple meal suggestion feed tied to workouts: Quick, healthy ideas synced to the day's routine. Value: Holistic wellness in one place.

These formed the MVP's essential flow: open app → get personalized plan → complete → track and feel motivated.

Tech Stack & Architecture

To deliver quickly, I chose Flutter for the frontend—its cross-platform nature gave me a solid iOS build while laying groundwork for Android.

Backend: Firebase handled authentication (email/social), Firestore for user data/profiles, Cloud Functions for light logic, and Storage for any custom assets.

Data flow was straightforward: User preferences stored in Firestore → On app load, client queries and filters recommendations locally → Video embeds from public URLs → Offline via cached downloads.

Integrations: RevenueCat for subscriptions (more below). No heavy custom backend—kept it lean to avoid time sinks.

This setup allowed rapid iteration: hot reload in Flutter sped up UI work, Firebase's no-ops scaling meant no server management worries.

Monetization with RevenueCat

I implemented a classic freemium subscription model, proven in fitness apps.

• Free tier: Limited to 3 workouts per week, basic tracking, with non-intrusive ads (planned via AdMob integration).
• Paid tier: $7.99/month or $59.99/year — unlimited access, full personalization, ad-free, premium meal guides, exclusive audio coaching snippets from Rebecca, and offline everything.

RevenueCat handled all the heavy lifting: entitlement checks, subscription management across platforms, webhooks for server-side validation, and analytics dashboards. Implementing it took under a day—SDK integration, configure products in their console, and gate features with simple checks.

This approach demonstrates real monetization knowledge: free hooks users with value, paid removes friction and adds exclusives, encouraging upgrades. Churn reduction via annual discount.

(Example of a clean analytics and user management dashboard, similar to RevenueCat's interface for tracking subscriptions and revenue)

Challenges & Trade-offs

Honest challenges:

• Time and scope: 4 weeks solo meant prioritizing the core loop. I deprioritized advanced AI personalization (e.g., machine learning recommendations) in favor of rule-based logic—effective but simpler.
• Content sourcing: Embedding Rebecca's videos efficiently without violations. Stuck to public embeds and placeholders for premium.
• Onboarding UX: Capturing user preferences quickly without friction. Iterated multiple designs; settled on a 3-step flow after testing.
• Monetization testing: Sandbox subscriptions work, but real App Store Connect review delays meant relying on RevenueCat's testing tools.

Lessons: Ruthless scoping is key. Trade-offs like no community features yet kept the MVP shippable.

Final Result

The MVP is fully working: Built in Flutter, deployed via TestFlight for iOS internal testing. Functional end-to-end—onboarding, recommendations, video playback (with offline), tracking, and live subscriptions via RevenueCat sandbox (ready for production).

Demo-ready with smooth flows. Total build time fit the 4 weeks, including polish iterations.

Roadmap & Future Improvements

To turn this into a real business:

• Community challenges and social sharing.
• Integrations with Apple Health/Google Fit for auto-tracking.
• Live workout sessions.
• Expanded nutrition with personalized macros.
• Full Android release.
• Deeper content partnerships for exclusive Rebecca material.

With user feedback, this could scale to thousands of paid subscribers, leveraging her engaged audience.

What This Hackathon Proved

Shipyard reinforced that focused execution beats perfection. In 4 weeks, I shipped a monetizable MVP solving a real niche problem—proving that indie developers or freelancers can deliver production-ready apps quickly when scoped right.

It highlighted practical product thinking: validate problems via audience research, build tight loops, integrate revenue early. Speed with quality is possible.

If you’re a founder, creator, or startup looking to build a mobile app or MVP:

Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~015e94f70259a74e1d?mp_source=share

Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/s/Q7ArERy

Portfolio: https://girma.studio/

X (build in public): https://x.com/Girma880731631