I Didn't Win RevenueCat's Shipaton. But I Shipped an App.

I got the email: Justa wasn't selected as a winner in RevenueCat's Shipaton. They'll announce the winners on October 21.

That stung for about a day. Then I remembered what I had at the start of the hackathon: an idea and a five-week plan.

What I have now is Justa: Pilates & Yoga, live on the App Store.

I don't know exactly why Justa didn't win. But I know why it shipped: I cut a lot of what I originally planned.

Where the idea came from

Justa started with Shipaton's Yoga & Fitness Influencer Award track, judged by Simone Sharice.

Simone already has a library of Pilates and yoga classes. For me, the track came down to one question: "What should I do today?"

Some mornings you want a full flow. Some mornings you want to slow down. Some mornings you need recovery. The content already exists, but you still have to decide what fits today.

I wanted to build something that helped with that decision.

What I built

Justa starts with a short check-in about your energy, sleep, soreness, available time, and what you need today.

Along with your preferences, those answers shape a daily plan: guided movement, breathing, or selected Pilates classes from Simone Sharice.

Check in. Get a plan. Do it.

That's the core of the app.

Here's a quick demo of Justa:

What I cut to ship

My first plan was a five-week build with HealthKit integration, a tappable visual body map, and native Swift.

None of those choices was unreasonable on its own. Together, they made the first release bigger than it needed to be.

So I cut. Here's what changed, and whether I'd make those decisions again.

HealthKit → self-reported check-in

I planned to pull sleep and activity data automatically. I shipped with a check-in and profile preferences instead.

I'd make that cut again. The check-in let me build around how someone said they felt without making a health-data integration a requirement for launch.

It also helped clarify the product: the daily check-in was central to the experience, rather than a fallback for missing device data.

Visual body map → simple area selection

I wanted a tappable body diagram where you could mark soreness.

I shipped a list of areas to select instead.

It was less visual, but it collected the information I needed with much less implementation work. The body map could wait.

Swift → React Native and Expo

I originally planned to build in native Swift. I switched to React Native and Expo.

Using a stack I already knew helped me move faster. I could spend more time on the check-in and daily plan instead of learning my way through a different implementation.

Five weeks → about two

I compressed the build to roughly two weeks and submitted to the App Store on September 20.

That date made the scope concrete. Every feature had to earn its place in the release.

Could someone check in and get a useful plan without it? If yes, I considered cutting it.

What I didn't cut: the "today" part

The thing I protected was the daily plan.

Justa combines my own guided sessions with selected classes from Simone's library, used with her permission. The check-in helps shape what appears in that plan.

I could simplify how someone selected a sore area. I could ask about sleep instead of importing it. But I still wanted the app to help someone decide what to do today.

That distinction made the cuts easier: I was changing how I delivered the idea while keeping the reason for building it.

What I'm taking into the next build

• Define the core interaction early. For Justa, it was checking in and getting a daily plan. That gave me something concrete to protect.
• Simplify the input before expanding the implementation. A list could collect soreness information. A question could collect self-reported sleep.
• Use familiar tools when time matters. React Native and Expo fit my experience and the deadline.
• Shipping and validation are separate. App Store approval meant people could download Justa. It didn't prove they would keep using it or pay for it.

What's next

Honestly? I'm not planning to develop Justa further.

It's live, it works, and it delivers the core experience I set out to build. But finishing a hackathon project doesn't mean I have to keep expanding it.

I wanted to win, and I didn't. I'm still glad I built it.

For now, I'm leaving Justa available and taking what I learned into the next thing I build.

Try Justa: Pilates & Yoga on the App Store