I’ve been working on Dream Pilot for the past few months—it’s an app that helps people journal their dreams quickly (voice-to-text on wake) and uses AI to surface recurring symbols, emotions, and themes so they can spot patterns for lucid dreaming practice. The problem I was solving: I’ve been into lucid dreaming for years, and everyone says “keep a dream journal and look for patterns.” I did that manually for 6 months, but reviewing 180+ entries to find recurring stuff like “broken tech” or “water scenes” was exhausting. So I built this to automate the boring parts. What took longer than expected: • Getting the AI analysis to feel useful instead of generic. I iterated on prompts and models for weeks before it stopped sounding like a horoscope • App Store review drama—screenshot text, privacy policy tweaks, metadata rejections • Building a landing page that actually converts (still not sure it does) Current status: • Live on iOS • ~20 beta users from Reddit/friends • Freemium model: free core features, premium for deeper analytics • Zero revenue so far (just launched, realistic about timeline) What I’m struggling with: • Distribution: Posted in r/LucidDreaming (low engagement), r/SideProject (got removed for low karma). TikTok seems promising but haven’t cracked viral content yet • Retention: Early users journal for 3-5 days then drop off. Trying to figure out if it’s onboarding, habit formation, or the product just isn’t sticky enough • Monetisation: Not sure if dream journaling is a “pay $5/month” problem or if I need to pivot the value prop. Questions for this community: How did you get your first 100 users for a B2C mobile app without spending on ads? What retention tactics actually worked for habit-based apps? Anyone else launch in a niche like lucid dreaming/wellness? How’d you find your early adopters? Happy to share more about the tech stack (React Native, Firebase, OpenAI API, RevenueCat) or lessons learned if anyone’s curious. Also open to brutal feedback on the landing page—does the value prop make sense or is it confusing?

Dream Pilot - AI Journal

AI dream journal that reveals your recurring patterns

AI dream journal that reveals your recurring patterns