True story:

February 6th, 2007 I was doing anything else but working on consumer apps.

A month earlier, the iPhone was launched.

I was very much into the Apple platform. But buying a white MacBook was out of reach, let alone this new device Steve Jobs presented to the world.

I was learning how to code on a Windows desktop that a friend custom built.

I knew shit about fuck, but I was trying. Someday, that desktop would allow me to learn the skills that would fund my first white MacBook purchase.

And at that very day, my father started a business entity in Brazil. He used it to run a local business, but the business failed.

Closing the entity was too much of a hassle and he postponed for later. He didn’t have a use for it.

Years down the line, I would find one.

The Web Development Agency

It’s 2010 and I know a bit more shit about fucks.

With more experience under the belt in coding sites in PHP and Macromedia Adobe Flash, I was running my own web development agency and making some money.

I needed a business entity to pay less tax on my income, so I took over that one my father opened.

The accountant asked me what I wanted it to be called.

“Ghost Ship”

Dude, I have no idea why. I don’t remember anymore. I wanted to be clever and international.

Not sure about the clever part, but little did I know I was on the right path to be international.

I still worked in web for three more years. Now with a MacBook, I was getting ready for the next pivot.

The Mobile App Boom

By 2008, Apple already allowed developers to ship apps to the one-of-a-kind AppStore (the first one in the world).

But I think it took to 2010 for things to get traction with the iPhone 4.

I really love Apple products and by 2011 I got my first iPhone.

I decided it was about time for me to learn how to make apps for it. I got the Mac, I got the iPhone.

And I had learned how to make sites from scratch, by myself, so how hard would making apps for the iPhone be?

Spoiler alert: a lot harder.

I grinded for 3 years, learning it on the side while I worked on my agency and my day job. I knew someday I would publish my first app to the store. I just needed to know how.

Soon enough, Ghost Ship would be shipping apps, not sites.

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The Big Opportunity

By 2015 I had already five years building various apps for local and national businesses in Brazil.

Ghost Ship became a profitable app agency.

Here’s what I built:

I built one for local deals. It worked for a couple months.

I built one for collecting business cards of people around you, used as my university graduation project.

I built one for countdowns, the first one I submitted to the store.

I built one for manipulated drugs marketplace, a concept I haven’t seen before.

I built one for managing credit cards with installments, which didn’t exist in the AppStore.

I built many, many for local bars, clubs and parties. Way before I was really into electronic music (the irony).

I built one for managing CrossFit gyms, for an entrepreneur that became a long time friend.

And finally I built one for a startup that was aggregating cable TV programming at scale.

That last one took me to Pluto TV, which was doing something similar in the same industry (TV) but much different: direct streaming.

By accepting this position, I put aside Ghost Ship until this mission was done.

And now it’s time to pivot again.

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The Ghost Ship Sails Again

I have written about two months ago that I stepped away from my position at Pluto TV, after 10 years working on that product.

It was like a school. It gave me the perspective and the skills I needed to take Ghost Ship to its next growth cycle.

Apps have been my passion since the iPhone was launched. It is just elegant, convenient, and cool to use apps (compared to websites). It feels more personal.

I recently spoke to DamnGood® podcast about the vision I have for the future.

We Are Entering the Era of Personal Apps

I believe we are entering an era of Personal Apps, in which common people and creators will ship their own take on common processes or solving problems for their audiences.

AI makes it way simpler and cheaper to ship.

Software development has changed fundamentally, and I am positioning Ghost Ship to sail this new wave in the market.

In general, we will see more people launching apps that have never coded before. The marketplace will be crowded. And that’s a good thing.

I predict that AI will democratize software creation the same way personal computers democratized access to technology.

As building becomes trivially easy, people will stop settling for big average user apps that are completely bland and soulless. Instead, they’ll either use software crafted by creators they trust (who add their own quirks and personality), or they’ll build their own tools tailored specifically to their needs.

I see software becoming an art form. A way for people to express themselves.

Distribution Is the New Bottleneck

This shift means the constraint is no longer production, it’s distribution.

When anyone can build an app in a day, capturing attention becomes the real competitive advantage.

I see a future where software creators are like micro-influencers, serving niche communities who choose their tools based on trust and affinity rather than feature lists.

The market will fragment from a few dominant platforms into countless personalized solutions, and the winners will be those who can both build something with soul AND attract an audience to use it.

This ocean’s movement will generate many business opportunities, and the veteran makers and software engineers will have more demand they can handle.

I am positioning Ghost Ship as a holding company, an app portfolio, to profit from this revolution.

And I am so proud of having launched already two products under its name: Good XP and Sharingram.

Speaking of Good XP…

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Pivoting Good XP Value Proposition

I mentioned in my previous edition I was embarrassed, and many of you got the click bait.

And it was truth: my perfectionist side was convincing me to wait more until the product was ready.

But I can confidently say that shipping it already was the best thing I could have done, because I got good feedback from actual users now.

What’s New in Version 0.3.0

Today, I shipped the 0.3.0 build (the second update to hit the store), and that brings:

• Adventure mode for Fat Loss

• Browsing past scanned images

• New image analysis workflow, more precise calorie counting

• Allowing editing of onboarding data

I noticed that Good XP needed a real tangible and painful problem to solve for an audience, and after talking to some users I found that fat loss is a big enough problem I can help to solve (including for myself).

Muscle gain is another, but will come soon (Jordan, if you’re reading this, hold on tight).

I will bring more maker updates soon.

— Thiago Ricieri

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