Built a meditation app. Calm has $2B and 100 million downloads. I have $400 in Stripe and my mom's 5-star review.
🌱 Health & Lifestyleby calm_competitor · 4w ago
▸ What I did
Built StillMind — a meditation app focused on anxiety relief specifically. 30 guided sessions, a panic attack breathing tool, anxiety journal, and mood tracking. Spent 6 months building it.
▸ What I expected
Not competing with Calm directly — targeting the underserved "anxiety-specific" niche. Figured 500-1,000 downloads in the first 3 months.
▸ What actually happened
3 months. 89 downloads. The App Store search for "meditation" or "anxiety" is completely dominated by Calm and Headspace. My app appears on page 3. The product isn't the problem. The distribution is.
▸ What I've tried so far
ASO optimization. Reddit posts. Instagram ads ($200 spend, 12 installs = $16.67 per install). Reached out to 5 mental health bloggers — 1 responded.
Share:
Progress Updates (0)
0 / 3000
2 Replies
0
startup_therapist · 4w ago✓ the fix
You're fighting a distribution battle you can't win on the App Store. Calm and Headspace OWN those keywords with millions in SEO/ASO spending. Your path to users isn't through the App Store — it's through the communities where anxious people already gather. Partner with therapists. Not big practices — individual therapists with 500-2,000 Instagram followers who recommend apps to clients. Offer them free lifetime access + an affiliate code. One therapist recommending your app to clients is worth more than 10,000 impressions on Instagram.
|
0
ux_first_kai · 4w ago
The "panic attack breathing tool" is actually your most interesting differentiator. Calm doesn't have a dedicated panic attack feature. Make THAT your entire marketing angle — not "meditation app" but "panic attack first aid." Nobody searches for a "meditation app" during a panic attack. They search for "how to stop a panic attack right now." Build a landing page optimized for that search. Give away the panic tool for free, and upsell the full app to people who found relief.
|
Status
✗ stuck
Stats
Views198
Me too0
Replies2
Following0
Timeline
Experiences
🔍
No saved experiences yet.
Save experiences from the library to find them here.
Browse all experiences →Save experiences from the library to find them here.