Failure to Launch

Robot Alarm Clock

In 2019, I wanted to introduce my son to computer programming—so we built a robot.

What problem would it solve? Like many teens, he was struggling to wake up on time.

Our solution: a robot alarm clock.

With some cardboard, a Raspberry Pi, and a few connectors, we created a working prototype with two core features:

• Wake-Up Challenge – A motion sensor on the back required him to get out of bed and wave his hand to turn off the alarm.

• Notifications – Once silenced, the robot would text me to confirm he was up.

It worked. He got up on time, and I had peace of mind during my morning workout.

A few months later, I was chatting with fellow gym-goers after a workout when one woman excused herself:

“I need to get home to make sure my son’s awake.”

I laughed and showed her the text I’d just received from the robot. Her reaction was instant:

“I need one of those now!”

“I have five friends who’d buy one—please build it!”

The robot, however, was nowhere near a minimum viable product (MVP)—unless you could code in Python.

Building a physical product is tough and expensive.

I knew this firsthand—my first startup had me spending a week in China troubleshooting manufacturing issues at a toy factory.

Besides, I figured most kids had phones, and this idea seemed better suited for an app.

Surely someone had built it already, right?

I looked into it:

• There are plenty of alarm clock apps

• A few make turning off the alarm intentionally difficult

• None notify a third party when the alarm is silenced

Although I could code in Python, I had no idea how to build iPhone apps. So, the idea died—for a while.

A few years later, I was searching for a side project and remembered the alarm clock.

By then, I’d learned iOS development during COVID—and decided to build it as an app.

ImUp

I named the app ImUp, inspired by the classic half-asleep teen reply to a parent:

“Yes mom, I’m up!”

For the wake-up challenge, I replaced the motion detector with mini games—a word scramble and a simple math quiz featuring both arithmetic and basic algebra.

Push notifications were trickier. Instead of sending texts, I used the phone’s native notification system.

To support that, I had to learn a new programming language to build the backend—the cloud-based infrastructure that runs behind the scenes.

It was the most time-consuming part, but once complete, users could:

• Add friends to alarms

• Notify friends when an alarm was set

• Notify friends when the alarm rang

• Notify friends when it was turned off

Development took nearly three years. I averaged a few hours a week—sometimes going months without touching it.

ImUp Development Timeline

2022

August —Development Began

December—Basic clock & alarm functions working

2023

March—Word scramble game complete

December—Began developing notification functions

2024

October—App feature complete for launch—ready for beta testing

November—ImUp , launched ahead of app launch

2025

March—ImUp officially available on Apple’s App Store

Lessons Learned So Far

I should have launched sooner!

It’s been three months since ImUp launched on the App Store—and my biggest lesson is that I should have released it two years ago, as soon as the word scramble feature was done, even without notifications.

Pre launch you assume—post launch you know.

ImUp was a viable product as early as March 2023.

Everything I’ve learned in the past three months, I could have learned back then—with real user data instead of guesses.

Let’s apply the FI₂R₂ST framework (read more about it here) to ImUp:

Familiar - ✅ - As a parent of four, I knew the problem and I already used alarm clock apps.

Identifiable - ✅ - Who is the market?—teens and their active or working parents

Independent - ✅ - The solution didn’t introduce new problems (assuming the teen has a phone).

Recurring - ✅ - The problem occurs daily—every school morning

Realized - ☑️ - Similar solutions exist (e.g. wake-up challenges), but none offer notifications.

Severe - ☑️ - Severity varies. For parents who leave early for work, it could be very meaningful.

Testable - ✅ - I validated the concept by talking to other parents and doing market research.

The real problem ImUp solves—and how painful that problem is—was unclear before launch.

Plenty of apps already address the wake-up challenge. But I didn’t know how important that challenge really was to users.

And while no apps addressed the “peace of mind” problem through notifications, I didn’t know if that feature solved a must-have problem—or just a nice-to-have.

Hard Data

Social media used to be a powerful launch tool—until Apple limited ad tracking in 2021. That change made it harder to connect ad clicks to app installs.

Today, the most effective channel is Apple Search Ads.

When someone searches for terms like “alarm clock”, I can bid to have ImUp appear in their search results.

• Broad terms like “alarm” or “alarm clock” are highly competitive and expensive.

• Niche terms like “parent alarm” are less searched—and cheaper to target.

Impressions (how often an ad is shown) offer a rough proxy for search volume:

• Broad terms have the highest volume.

• Wake-up challenge terms (e.g., “loud alarm clock”, “math alarm clock”) follow closely.

• Notification-related terms (e.g., “teen alarm”, “parent alarm”) trail far behind.

This data reinforced a key insight: users search for wake-up help ten times more than peace-of-mind features.

That has major implications for how I build, position and promote the app.

The news isn’t all bad for the notification feature.

While fewer people search for terms like “parent alarm”, the conversion rate—how many people download the app after clicking—has been strong. In fact, notification-related keywords convert above 50%, outperforming even broader categories.

That tells me:

Fewer people are searching for this solution—but when they do, they really want it.

Interestingly, notification-related keywords are also the cheapest to acquire.

If I convert just 10% of installs into subscribers, my customer acquisition cost (CAC) ranges from $10 to $15.

With an estimated lifetime value (LTV) of $50, that gives me an LTV-to-CAC ratio of 3.3 to 5.0.

Not ideal—5+ is the target—but still profitable.

The Next Step

If you’re working on a product or service—ask yourself: Are you waiting too long to launch?

Remember, a minimum viable product (MVP) is a test, not a final product.

It should include one feature that solves one problem for one specific customer—nothing more.

Once it’s in customers’ hands, you can start learning from real data, not assumptions.

For me, the next step with ImUp is expanding the Wake-Up Challenge features—starting with the math quiz.

Why? “Math alarm clock” is one of the highest-performing keyword searches. And with back-to-school season in August and September, search volume for alarm apps spikes—perfect timing.

My goal with The Leap is to provide you each Saturday with the knowledge, tools and lessons learned to help you get started and keep going toward building your future. 

Whether you are making the leap to startups, solo-entrepreneurship, freelancing, side hustles or other creative ventures, the tools and strategies to succeed in each are similar.