I Run a Screen Printing Shop. A Few Weeks Ago I Built an iOS App. It Flopped. Here's Everything.

Let me be honest with you from the start: I have no idea what I'm doing. I run a screen printing and embroidery company in Lithuania. We put logos on t-shirts, hoodies, tote bags — the merch companies order for team-building events that nobody actually wants to attend. I've been doing this for years. It pays the bills. It's fine. And "fine" is exactly the problem. So a few weeks ago, I decided to build an iOS app — a tip tracker for bartenders and service workers called TipJar. Never opened Xcode before. Didn't know what SwiftUI was. The app is now live on the App Store, and almost nobody downloaded it. But before you feel sorry for me, let me tell you how this actually went — because every "I built an app with AI" post gives you the highlight reel. This is the behind-the-scenes footage. Why I'm doing this I could give you something inspirational about following my passion. But the real reason is simpler and less pretty: I'm afraid of spending the next 30 years pressing logos onto hood