Hi! I’m Romain Lefebvre, or just “Roman”. For the last couple of years, I’ve been working on Sequel, an all-in-one media tracker for iOS.
In this post, I want to share my experience as an early-stage indie dev, in the hope it can be valuable to aspiring indies. I’ll be as transparent as possible, reflecting on what worked, what could be improved, and the challenges ahead, as the next six months will likely be decisive for my indie journey.
A Quick History of Sequel
I started my work on Sequel in June 2021, working weekends and evenings. In May 2022, I volunteered for redundancy as a way to fund my side-hustle and eventually launched Sequel on the 1st of August 2022.
I cut down on scope to ship an initial product I could learn from as soon as possible. It had tracking for movies, series, games, books and audiobooks, a unified search interface, release notifications, collections, and that’s about it. It lacked the ability to watch trailers, discover popular items, or even read a synopsis.
After a few quality-of-life updates, my attention shifted to a more ambitious 2.0 release. This would bring Sequel closer to my original vision and address user feedback.
In March 2023, 2.0 introduced rich media details, widgets, new ways of managing items and a new business model. Sequel 1.0 was free up to 25 items tracked (as a trial of sort), beyond which users needed to subscribe to add more items. In 2.0, that limit is gone and Sequel+ unlocks some more advanced features instead. This was the model I always wanted, but 1.0 simply did not have enough features to paywall. My hope is that a free core experience would encourage word of mouth and user growth.
Sequel 2.1 launched seven months later, once again addressing users’ top requests like synchronisation with Trakt – a movie and series-tracking service developers can integrate with. While this update took me a lot longer than I initially thought, it was an important one as I realised that without Trakt support, Sequel was a non-starter for many prospective users.
State of the Business
Sequel garnered unexpected attention in 2023, starting with a MacStories review of 2.0 which really put Sequel into the spotlight. Users recommended the app so much that it was highlighted in a Quinn Nelson video and David Pierce’s Installer newsletter at The Verge! Surprisingly, Sequel 2.0 even received a MacStories Selects award for Best App Update of 2023. I really can’t express enough gratitude for the overwhelming support!
With this kind of coverage and recognition, it’s easy to think I’d be able to live off Sequel comfortably. The reality is a little different but still incredibly encouraging!
Performance
Revenue from Sequel relies solely on subscriptions. At the start of the year, five months after launch, Sequel had around 30 subscribers, growing to a little over 1500 at the time of writing.
This growth, impressive as it is, doesn’t cover my current living costs however. Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly grateful for every single one of my subscribers but I feel it’s important to put this in the context of what I’m trying to create: a sustainable business. As a side project, it represents a stellar income but as my main job, I’m not there yet.
Conversion
While the trajectory above looks promising, it’s crucial to acknowledge the impact of media coverage on these numbers.
This is more apparent when looking at active trials. For context, a yearly Sequel+ subscription comes with a 2-week trial. Interestingly, the period around September shows what I would call Sequel’s organic performance, stabilising at roughly 3 new trials a day.
I can’t control media coverage, and it would be unrealistic to rely on it for growth. I started looking into ways to improve this organic performance by improving conversion, particularly from “first app open” to “trial started”.
In September, only 3.5% of new users would start a trial. Sequel 2.1 later introduced changes to encourage users to try out Sequel+ without disrupting the free experience. Conversion currently sits at around 7%. However, it’s hard to confirm that my recent changes are actually responsible for the uplift as factors like volume and source need to be taken into account. Traffic following media coverage usually converts better.
Of course, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to conversion, and this will be a significant focus for 2024.
Retention
Inspired by David Smith’s Tyranny of the Churn Equation, I created a spreadsheet to estimate my revenue over the next few years by taking into account daily new trials, trial conversion, and yearly retention. When using my organic daily trial numbers as a worst-case scenario, I would need another 3 to 4 years before Sequel can cover my current cost of living.
In practice, my daily trial numbers for 2023 are much higher than this, but I think using organic adoption helps me stay realistic about what the app can achieve.
Yearly retention is a significant unknown, with over 95% of Sequel+ yearly subscribers having subscribed less than a year ago. I don’t yet have an understanding of what their retention will look like come their renewal. If anything, my model is likely making an optimistic assumption with a 70% year-1 retention. Time will tell, but in the meantime, I’m doing everything I can to retain subscribers.
Life as an Indie
I also want to touch on the more personal aspect of being an indie. At the beginning of 2023, I realised that my work-life balance wasn’t sustainable long-term. I would essentially work on Sequel all day until I went to sleep. I made a conscious effort to not do any work past dinner time, and while this was hard at first as I’d feel guilty for not working, I’m happy I made this change.
It helped me get through some of my media backlog and, more importantly, it changed my relationship to Sequel. I couldn’t keep treating it as the side project it used to be, cramming in work at every opportunity. I was in danger of burning out and even resenting working on the app.
In 2023, I faced a different challenge: the solitary nature of being independent. While I was accustomed to working from home, I did not anticipate that I would miss the human interactions – albeit remote – that come with being part of a team. Working by myself day after day in my living room became a bit disheartening.
One thing that has helped has been to work from a coffee shop. In many ways, it’s a step down from my usual work setup: it’s noisier, less comfortable, and limited to a laptop screen. However, being in a different environment, surrounded by people, helps clear my head when I find myself in one of those moods.
What’s Next
The Business
I expect 2024 to be the year where I might be forced to find a full-time job or take on short-term contracts. As such, the focus will be on improving Sequel’s “organic” performance. First, by allocating a small marketing budget and experimenting with a few different channels. Second, by attempting to improve conversion. Lastly, I want to ensure I retain as many subscribers as possible ahead of their renewal. Hopefully, I can achieve this by shipping highly requested features and adding to the list of benefits Sequel+ provides.
The App
For 2024, I’d like to ship three major updates vs 2023’s two. I’ll be partly focused on doubling down on what makes Sequel unique: the all-in-one tracking of your entertainment. I have a lot planned for Collections, which can really push Sequel to the next level. By popular demand, I also expect Music to be added to the types of media users can track. Another area of focus will be on missing features that early adopters are willing to see past initially but come to expect as time goes on. Things like a Mac version of the app, notes on individual items, data backups and export, etc.
By all accounts, 2023 was an incredible year for Sequel and there’s a lot to look forward to in 2024. But it likely won’t be smooth sailing, and now is not the time to take my foot off the gas. Hopefully, you’ve found the above insightful. If you’re an indie or aspiring indie, I hope that can somehow help you on your journey.