TL;DR: After 60 days of running an indie iOS dev experiment, here's the literal template you can fork to run your own 100-day experiment. Phases, decision tree, public artifacts. Works for any indie product (SaaS / iOS app / Gumroad SKU / B2B service).
Why 100 days
Not 30 days (too short for compounding signal).
Not 365 days (too long for early-stage tight feedback).
Not 90 days (slightly too short for distribution channel maturation).
100 days is the sweet spot for cold-start indie experiments:
- Long enough for ~10 product/content iterations
- Short enough to keep urgency
- Long enough for at least 1 algorithmic breakthrough on dev.to / Substack
- Long enough for 2-3 cycles of customer feedback
The template (5 phases × 20 days each)
Phase 1 (Day 1-20): Setup + first ship
- [ ] Day 1-3: Pick ONE product. Specific niche, not "for everyone".
- [ ] Day 4-7: Set up infrastructure (GitHub repo, domain, lead capture, payment)
- [ ] Day 8-14: Build MVP. Ship publicly even if rough.
- [ ] Day 15-17: First content piece (dev.to article OR Substack issue)
- [ ] Day 18-20: First distribution attempt (Reddit / Twitter / niche community)
Phase 1 success metric: 1 public ship + 1 piece of content published. NOT revenue.
Phase 2 (Day 21-40): Funnel building
- [ ] Day 21-25: Build lead-capture funnel (15 static HTML pages or 1 well-converting page)
- [ ] Day 26-30: Set up email capture → webhook → digest workflow
- [ ] Day 31-35: Iterate copy on highest-traffic page
- [ ] Day 36-40: Track conversion rate (target: 3-7% email capture from visitors)
Phase 2 success metric: Email captures > 0. NOT email captures > N.
Phase 3 (Day 41-60): Content compound
- [ ] Day 41-50: 5+ dev.to articles published (or platform of your choice)
- [ ] Day 51-55: 1+ Substack issue per week
- [ ] Day 56-60: Identify which content piece broke through (algorithmic top 5%)
Phase 3 success metric: 1+ piece of content gets >500 views. NOT 10k.
Phase 4 (Day 61-80): Monetization activation
- [ ] Day 61-65: Set up affiliate program (30% commission, lifetime tracking)
- [ ] Day 66-70: Add high-ticket SKU ($99-499) to capture serious buyers
- [ ] Day 71-75: B2B outreach to 5 specific prospects with paste-ready emails
- [ ] Day 76-80: Iterate on pricing based on conversion data
Phase 4 success metric: 1+ paying customer in any channel. NOT $10k MRR.
Phase 5 (Day 81-100): Decision
- [ ] Day 81-90: Summarize Day 1-90 actuals: revenue, audience, conversions, hours invested
- [ ] Day 91-95: Decide one of: (A) continue + scale, (B) continue with adjustments, (C) pivot, (D) stop
- [ ] Day 96-100: Public postmortem (Substack + dev.to). Even if you're stopping.
Phase 5 success metric: Public decision document. Not "TBD next month".
The decision tree (Day 100)
| Day 100 revenue | Path | Action |
|---|---|---|
| > $5k | Path A: Scale | Hire + invest in growth |
| $1k-5k | Path B: Stay | Continue plan, no major changes |
| $200-1k | Path B modified | Continue, cut underperforming channels |
| < $200 | Path C: Pivot or D: Stop | Customer interviews then decide |
Public artifacts (whatever happens)
Whether you continue or kill the experiment, these stay public:
- GitHub repo(s) — open source where possible (MIT / Apache)
- Substack archive — every issue you wrote
- dev.to articles — every technical writeup
- transparency.html — actual numbers (revenue, hours, conversions)
- postmortem.md — what worked / didn't, lessons learned
This compound regardless of revenue. Your future self + future indies benefit.
What I learned at Day 60 (mid-experiment)
(My current state, Day 60 of 100):
- 4 iOS apps shipped to TestFlight
- 5 Gumroad SKUs LIVE ($572 catalog)
- 24 dev.to articles published
- 12 Substack newsletter issues
- 0 paying customers
- $0 MTD revenue
- 47 email captures (7.8% from $0 funnel)
Day 90 milestone (in 30 days) will give the real signal.
What's NOT in this template (and why)
- "10x growth strategies" — these are mostly hype; consistency beats growth-hacking at indie scale
- "Build in public on Twitter" — works for some, costs time for most. Skip if you don't have 500+ followers
- "Find your tribe" — vague, not actionable
- "Find product-market fit" — doesn't happen at Day 100; happens at Day 365+
- "Raise money" — VC route is different game; this template is for non-VC indies
Source
This template is what I literally followed for my 60-day experiment + extended to Day 100. All public:
If you fork this template for your own experiment, drop a link in the comments. I'll feature good ones.
If you want the playbook that produced this template (real numbers, real timeline, real decisions): iOS Indie Launch Playbook ($19).
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