Everyone’s vibecoding apps in 3 prompts. I spent 10 days fixing my app name.

A few months ago I decided to ship my first iOS app. I didn’t know App Store Connect. I didn’t understand subscription logic. I just had an idea and wanted it live.

Here’s what it actually looked like...

Week 1: Built the core app. It worked on my phone. Felt like winning. Then the real work started. Bugs I didn’t see at first. State issues. UI glitches. Things breaking the moment I touched something else.

...Then Apple.

App Store Connect is not “sign up and upload.” It’s agreements, tax forms, waiting periods. As a Canadian, that meant GST details, business info, tax classification, before I could even charge a buck. Then entitlements, privacy policies, terms. Stuff I didn’t know existed a week earlier.

I thought I was building an app. I was actually setting up a digital business.

Week 2–3: First submission. Rejected. Fixed it. Rejected again. Three rejections total. Learned quickly that App Store Connect is its own product you have to master.

Week 4: A random string appears in my app name on the iPhone home screen. It wasn’t there before. Support says one thing. ChatGPT says something else. 10 days of back and forth over something that looks tiny but eats your brain.

Week 5: Subscriptions. Sandbox is not production. “Cancelled due to billing error” becomes familiar. Real money running through systems I barely understood.

Week 6+: Marketing. Posted videos. Mostly got ~100 views. Realized building is maybe 20–30%. Distribution is the rest.

And after all of that work…

41 downloads. Please hold your applause.

What I learned:

The first 80% is exciting. The last 20% builds you. Shipping teaches faster than researching. Distribution is hard.

Also, be clear on your requirements before you start vibecoding. Know what you are actually building and what you are shipping. Iterating blindly with AI tools gets expensive fast.

I’m not stopping. I’m not quitting my job. I’m building, fixing, learning and repeating. And this is the beginning.

If you’re thinking about starting, start. Ship something imperfect, learn, iterate or pivot fast.