Karthik Dechiraju

Indie product builder shipping real products.
Sharing growth experiments & lessons
@matineeapp

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Shipped something new today.

Matinee is now live on iOS 🍿

A movie tracking app built around friends and recommendations.

You can:
- Track movies & TV shows
- Connect with friends
- Share recommendations

This is v1.
Building & improving in public.

[Kalyan Dechiraju @kalyandechiraju]

Built a Chrome extension that tells you how well your resume matches a job posting!

Powered by TypeSafe Jev. Open source and BYOK. Works with both direct typesafe key or Vercel gateway key!

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Building Pinlyy made me realize Apple Maps is great for maps, but pretty limiting for place discovery.

Attractions, richer place data, and especially good photos quickly become separate problems.

Anyone building on MapKit found a good setup for this? Would love suggestions.

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

I was away from X for a little while, but I’m finally back.

Spent the last few days pulling the whole onboarding experience together, from the first screen to creating your first memory.

It’s starting to feel like the product I had in my head.

Would love to know what you think
#Shipathon

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Had a few Sol tokens left before the reset, so I put them to work 😄

Expanded Pinlyy’s initial onboarding to better explain what the app is about and make the story click from the very first screen.

Build Log #5 for #Shipathon
@RevenueCat @kalyandechiraju

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Had a few Sol tokens left before the reset, so I put them to work 😄

Expanded Pinlyy’s initial onboarding to better explain what the app is about and make the story click from the very first screen.

Build Log #5 for #Shipathon
@RevenueCat @kalyandechiraju

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Added a fun theme switcher to Pinlyy’s onboarding.

It’s a small detail, but choosing a theme early makes the experience feel a little more personal from the very beginning.

Build Log 03 for #Shipaton

@kalyandechiraju
@RevenueCat

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Added a fun theme switcher to Pinlyy’s onboarding.

It’s a small detail, but choosing a theme early makes the experience feel a little more personal from the very beginning.

Build Log 03 for #Shipaton

@kalyandechiraju
@RevenueCat

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Log 3:
Improved keepsake extraction pipeline + animation. Been using sol lately, its amazing.
@kalyandechiraju
#Shipathon @RevenueCat

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Log 3:
Improved keepsake extraction pipeline + animation. Been using sol lately, its amazing.
@kalyandechiraju
#Shipathon @RevenueCat

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Build Log 02

After someone creates their first pin, we didn’t want to simply drop them onto the map.

So we extended the onboarding with a memory details page - A place to revisit the photos, notes, location, and keepsakes connected to that moment.

A pin remembers where it happened. The details preserve why it mattered.

Shaping this together with @kalyandechiraju for @RevenueCat’s #Shipaton.

[Manish Kumar @Manixh02]

Came across this today.
Huge shoutout to whoever built it. 👏

link; https://t.co/VAt74NJ6gg

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Build Log 02

After someone creates their first pin, we didn’t want to simply drop them onto the map.

So we extended the onboarding with a memory details page - A place to revisit the photos, notes, location, and keepsakes connected to that moment.

A pin remembers where it happened. The details preserve why it mattered.

Shaping this together with @kalyandechiraju for @RevenueCat’s #Shipaton.

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Build log - 01
Onboarding is always hard. It’s about deciding how the experience should begin.

Not with feature explanations. Not with an empty dashboard.

With a real memory.

This is the first part of Pinlyy’s onboarding: pick a place, add a photo and a few words, and create the first memory on your map.

One small part of what we’re shaping for #Shipaton.
@kalyandechiraju
@RevenueCat

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Build log - 01
Onboarding is always hard. It’s about deciding how the experience should begin.

Not with feature explanations. Not with an empty dashboard.

With a real memory.

This is the first part of Pinlyy’s onboarding: pick a place, add a photo and a few words, and create the first memory on your map.

One small part of what we’re shaping for #Shipaton.
@kalyandechiraju
@RevenueCat

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Your camera roll remembers what happened. Pinlyy remembers where it belongs in your life.

For #Shipaton, my brother @kalyandechiraju and I are building Pinlyy , a map where each pin holds a place, photo, note & feeling. @RevenueCat

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Your camera roll remembers what happened. Pinlyy remembers where it belongs in your life.

For #Shipaton, my brother @kalyandechiraju and I are building Pinlyy , a map where each pin holds a place, photo, note & feeling. @RevenueCat

[Kalyan Dechiraju @kalyandechiraju]

The value that 5.6 Sol unlocked is just massive!

Basically I got a small script generated along with timestamps and then asked 5.6 Sol to generate a video in this style and the first version itself is mind blowing 🤯

The important part is the value that you get from these tokens that you are paying for!!

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

This is a great starting point for anyone interested in loops

[ClaudeDevs @ClaudeDevs]

https://t.co/v694m8Eaj6

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Matinee went from ~5 downloads/day to 200+/day and I genuinely have no idea why.

No ad spend, no viral TikTok, nothing unusual on socials or SEO. Everything looks completely normal except this graph.

Not complaining. Just confused.

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Matinee went from ~5 downloads/day to 200+/day and I genuinely have no idea why.

No ad spend, no viral TikTok, nothing unusual on socials or SEO. Everything looks completely normal except this graph.

Not complaining. Just confused.

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

It’s not available in the EU yet, which is sad but not surprising.

[Sakana AI @SakanaAILabs]

Introducing Sakana Fugu: A full multi-agent orchestration system accessible via a single model API.

Our ‘Fugu Ultra’ model matches the performance of Fable and Mythos, delivering frontier capability without the risk of export controls.

Try it: https://t.co/hhO6qTawgb 🐡

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Everyone: “Fable 5 is incredible.”

Me: “Absolutely.”

Also me: still searching for a use case that won’t financially ruin me.

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

One of the best ideas I’ve seen in the recent times.

[Andrew McCalip @andrewmccalip]

Get paid to wait

The Claude Code spinner might be the most watched line on Earth.

So I turned it into an ad marketplace.

Advertisers bid on it. You keep 50% of the money.

Install the extension → get cash from ads.

Introducing Kickbacks

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Here we go

[Claude @claudeai]

Introducing Claude Opus 4.8: it builds on Opus 4.7 with sharper judgment, more honesty about its own progress, and the ability to work independently for longer than its predecessors.

Available today at the same price.

[Karthik Dechiraju @KDechiraju]

Time to upgrade

[Expo @expo]

Expo SDK 56 is out 🙌

◆ Expo UI is stable on iOS and Android
◆ iOS builds 16% faster, plus another 20% on EAS from precompiled community libs
◆ Android cold starts 40% faster
◆ Expo Router decoupled from React Navigation
◆ Inline native modules: write Swift and Kotlin right next to your TypeScript
◆ Hermes v1 by default
◆ Bytecode diffing on by default (~58% smaller OTA updates)
◆ iOS Widgets stable
◆ React Native 0.85 + React 19.2

It's been two months since SDK 55, and we packed in everything we could fit. Your iOS build times are going to thank you. Full changelog ↓

[Expo @expo]

65 to 70% of app downloads still come from App Store search.

Not ads. Not social. Not influencers. Search.

If your listing doesn't rank for the right keywords, most of your users will never find you.

ASO is the work that closes that gap and @imeronn built a repo of open-source ASO Skills you can use to make sure your app is optimized.

Full blog with the repo and best practices below ↓