Esther Sarasua

Building iOS apps. Wins, dead ends, all of it.

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

For years I lived in a tent.

Forests of Canada. Mountains of California. Three months working brutal hours as a seasonal worker, then the rest of the year as a nomad — Mexico, India, Nepal.

The deal was simple: work hard, sleep under stars, trade time for time. A day off was a missed paycheck. Total ownership of my hours.

I loved that life. Freedom wasn't a concept. It was a random Wednesday at 1pm, on a beach in Oaxaca eating mango with friends.

Then came the pandemic.

It caught me in Spain. My seasonal job stopped paying what it used to. The road closed. I went to Thailand to learn massage thinking I could trade one honest trade for another. Beautiful detour. Didn't stick.

Madrid happened. Waitressing. Precarity. Forty years old serving cañas at 1am wondering how the hell I got here.

Something cracked.

I enrolled in a bootcamp. Code. Logic. Systems. The opposite of campfires and visas. A company liked my profile and called me mid-course. Now I work remote on a legacy project I don't like. Nobody turns on their camera. Nobody mentors me. I work alone with the AI. I'm not growing. Not professionally. Not as a person.

The job pays €1,300. The work bores me. The comfort is dangerous.

I'm 40. I'm not afraid of hard work. I'm afraid of fading.

So here's the plan:

— Build apps from this quiet Galician flat
— Save what I can
— Camperize a van with my partner
— Reach €2k MRR
— Then point the wheel south

Comfort is not my priority. Freedom is.

If you're here grinding for the same reason — silently, slowly, against the gravity of safe — I'm building in public. Follow along.

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

This is sad

[Marc Lou @marclou]

Higgsfield gave me $100,000 to realize my dream:

A hackathon where participants build a real business, not just an app.

So... Introducing The $100K Hackathon:
🏴‍☠️ https://t.co/nHDJ5Qruhu 🏴‍☠️

It starts on November 16, and you'll have 30 days to build a startup and make it profitable. The prizes:

🥇 $100,000
🥈 iPhone Duo
🥉 MacBook Neo

This is not a joke. The winner will get $100,000 in cash.

To win, you must:

1. Start a completely new business on Nov 16
2. Build a digital product (SaaS, directory, etc.)
3. Make the most profit (not revenue)

You can already register at $99. When the hackathon starts on Nov 16, you can still join for $149.

I'm running this with my dear friend @jackfriks, and we'll manually review each potential winner to make sure everything holds up.

See you on November 16, builders 🏴‍☠️🫡

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@denpoint1 like yor mug! ☕️

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@lexrodba Not only that, he literally threw the entire $100k into Tesla stock lmao

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@browsingcyber @skpnky @naowizz A few words: being racist

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

Antes de llamar borregos a millones de españoles, igual deberías comprobar los datos.

Los pensionistas no cobran una "paguita", cobran una pensión por la que han cotizado durante años. Los funcionarios no viven de subvenciones, cobran por trabajar. Y muchos desempleados reciben prestaciones porque también han cotizado.

Además, tus cifras del 60 % no demuestran lo que afirmas. Estás mezclando pensionistas, trabajadores públicos y beneficiarios de ayudas como si fueran lo mismo.

Y lo más absurdo es pensar que cobrar del Estado significa apoyar al Gobierno. Acaso todos los jubilados y funcionarios votan a Sánchez?

Se puede criticar al Gobierno todo lo que quieras, faltaría más. Yo también lo hago. Pero para hacerlo no hace falta insultar a medio país ni inventarse estadísticas. Y menos aún recurrir a ese discurso arrogante, cargado de prejuicios hacia los países del sur de Europa, que presenta a sus ciudadanos como vagos, subsidiados e incapaces de pensar por sí mismos. Esa supuesta superioridad moral e intelectual dice bastante más de tus prejuicios que de la realidad española.

Lo irónico es llamar "borregos" a los demás mientras repites cifras sin comprobarlas.

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@pelloiafilippo Lets gooo

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@dark_coderz postgresql always

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@matt_teeixeira That's awesome Matt, congrats!🤜🤛

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@adriamatz 👀

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@pelloiafilippo morning!

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@MomentumJustus twitter loves numbers lol

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@dkahhori @adamlyttleapps good to know, thx!

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

ASO got me this far. Time to see what Tiktok can do.

22 popularity is not crazy, but it’s not bad either. Feels like ASO can still take me a bit further, but maybe TT gives it the push it needs.

Starting TT distribution this week to see if I can turn some views into actual sales.

Let’s see what happens 👀

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@benfchi Congrats! huge milestone

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@pelloiafilippo come on españita!

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@pelloiafilippo hahahha your mind

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@PashaBorsai @MarkoCirix @Yasha_br @OliverBugar This is so cool. Would love to get something like this going in my area too

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@mubeenchatthaa lmao I’ve been wondering the same thing. Starting to feel like a poke at this point 😂

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@CodeWithTamara facts

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

@andr3barroso Hi André! Happy to connect

[Esther Sarasua @esarasuadev]

Wow. 500+ new followers in 2 days 🥹

All because of just 2 posts.

82K+ impressions and 1.4K profile visits later, so many of you decided to stick around.

I’d actually left this account pretty quiet for a while, just focusing on building. I came back to share my first sale and connect with other indie devs. Didn’t expect this at all!

The craziest part? Almost 1 in 3 people who visited my profile decided to follow me 🤯

Looks like the algorithm is connecting me with the right people :)

So happy to have so many new indie dev friends to share the journey with 🫶