My app is too ordinary for investors

Disorganized (a note-taking app) has just ended a 6 week sprint at a startup accelerator, averaging +20% retention each week.

It wasn’t good enough for an investment. 

The setup

The accelerator worked with entrepreneurs over ~6 weeks, and at the end they invested in entrepreneurs/products they found promising.

Some pretty amazing things happened during these weeks:

- D1 Retention increased by ~20% each week.

- Organic user growth increased by ~10% each week

- In line with the "Excellent" target for growth defined by Paul Graham, which the accelerator themselves quoted.

- The app averaged a 4.7/5 rating on Google Play, up from 4.4.

A hobby project

Disorganized is a young app, and big improvements are easier than for established apps. That said, a 20% increase to D1 retention each week for 6 consecutive weeks is fantasy numbers. Heading to a 4.7/5 rating for an app that has mostly been developed in my spare time is fantasy numbers.

Despite that, the accelerator chose not to invest.

- There are too many other note-taking apps

- The app doesn't do anything that couldn't be done 10 years ago.

- The app isn't sexy.

- It feels like a hobby project

The hobby project comment I'm really not sure what to do with. The other points are true, but similar points can be made for many other successful products.

Social media was a thing before TikTok entered the market, it was a thing before even Facebook, and Slack didn’t invent group text chat.

It's strange to me that the focus is so often on novelty in the startup sphere, when many successful products are just minor improvements over what existed previously. If I look around, almost every product I use is just an improvement of something that existed decades ago. AI is a counterpoint here, and that's fine - both novelty and improvement are worthy pursuits.

Happy users, happy investors?

The accelerator warned me that they were unlikely to invest early on. However, right before their warning, and consistently after, I've received user feedback so positive that there's no way I'm giving up.

I believed that user feedback like "Your app is a masterpiece" in combination with the retention improvements would be enough to show that Disorganized can compete with the big boys, but the lack of novelty was just too unattractive.

What happens now?

For now, I'm continuing development of the app in my spare time, the bank needs its monthly sacrifice (mortgage).

For each improvement I see in the data, and for each happy user I hear from, I get more and more convinced that I can one day get Disorganized off the ground. The stock note-taking apps lack features, and the advanced apps are filled with friction that shouldn’t be there.

If you are or know someone who is an investor, please reach out to sam@getdisorganized.com. 

PS: The people at the accelerator are great and I respect them. In this case, I think they're wrong, but clearly I'm biased.

Weird way to pitch...