francis john 🍅

all in on accountability. building @BodyBuddyCoach - an accountability coach for your health in iMessage.

(prev staff eng Nerdwallet, Dropbox, Epic, Manifold)

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

introducing @BodyBuddyCoach - an accountability coach that texts you everyday for your health & nutrition.

here's why I'm building it:

three years ago I was the most out of shape I'd ever been. sluggish, low energy. I figured it was just getting older.

i hired an accountability coach. every morning he'd text: "what's your plan for food and exercise today?" every evening: "how'd it go?"

within a year I lost 25 lbs and was in the best shape of my life. just having someone asking every single day made me actually stick to my word and stay consistent.

but it cost $300/month. for most people that's simply too expensive to try. I started wondering: what if AI could replicate the same daily accountability without the steep price tag?

i honestly wasn't sure. but one early user told us it was "the best success I've ever had in this area." another lost 7 lbs in the first month and said they "couldn't recommend it highly enough".

so I'm going all in on BodyBuddy. and my original coach loved the idea so much he joined me.

i want to end by saying: you're perfect the way you are. but if you've been wanting to lose a few pounds, get in better shape, or just take your health more seriously, it would mean a lot if you gave BodyBuddy a shot. And if you know someone this could help, please send it their way. 🙏

comment "🍅" and I'll send you the link.

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@jasonyuan yeah this was nice

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

https://t.co/qF2A5nPbed

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

i asked claude design to help deisgn a new website. wasn't exactly what i asked for but not bad all in all for one prompt

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@benhylak i like the direction you guys are heading already. just continue making it more and more obivous what to improve and easier and easier to do it

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@interaction @marvinvonhagen Wow this is cool. Excited to see Poke paving the way again for agent UX!

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@gregisenberg i think they're simply moving too slowly. very basic stuff like communicating with agents over slack that is a bad UX today.

prediction: Codex ends up being multiplayer and wins this market

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@akiffpremjee @morganlinton

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

when you're building a consumer app, it can be tempting to stick to online marketing channels.

organic social
seo/geo
paid ads
ugc campaigns

i mean this is where your customers are, right?

but.. there's no replacement for setting up a booth, talking to people, and seeing their reaction to your idea in real time.

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@anirudhmain @AbiChittin deadlifts + bench press are the main lifts i focused on during this time.

body fat dropped from ~19% to ~9% + major strength gains in those compound lifts

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@ganganadhi18 @AbiChittin there's this parable of a Stonecutter.. he whacks a stone 99 times. nothing happens.

on the 100th whack the stone splits in two.

was it the 100th whack or the 99 before it that caused it?

that's the mentality you need to have. set your goal and trust the process.

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@taobanker It is definitely mostly mental. Not sure I’d categorize it as path to hotness lol but I would agree the internal transformation happens before the external one

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@hoyup_ I think dashboard first is missing the point lol.

If you were personally coaching someone would you show them a dashboard or would you talk to them like a human

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

Everyone is tracking everything now..

V02 max, sleep score, apple watch on your wrist, Oura ring on your hand.

What are you actually *doing* with this information?

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@zeroxjackson if i was interviewing someone today i would prefer working on a new business idea and we can go from idea to $$.

that will tell me everything about your ability not only to ship functioning code quickly but how high agency and how well you can navigate the changing landscape

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@zeroxjackson I've solved leetcode hards on the clock in interviews at big tech co's..

that said its a muscle and i can't at this moment just solve it out of the box without doing some review / prep.

that said i think it was a dumb heurisitc before AI and i think it's extremely dumb now.

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

building discipline is essentially a super power for any skill or any pursuit you have... so def doesn't help to *not* have that.

specifically for health goals.. in the short term it does seem to be a silver bullet.

but in the long term when any sort of adversity comes up with your health or life then if you haven't built up any skills or resilience then that seems not good

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

🎉 we just crossed 150k messages with BodyBuddy.

every one of those conversations nudges people toward the 1-3 decisions a day for their health goals that they might not have made otherwise.

follow along as we put daily accountability in everyone’s pocket!

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

why is no one building an app to find new apps

[Viktor Seraleev @seraleev]

January 2026: App Store launches doubled to 16K/week. Looked insane.

May 2026: 23-24K new apps per week. Every. Single. Week.

And this is despite Apple actively trying to ban apps for vibecoding on iPhone.

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

@gdb idea: OpenAI for everyone

https://t.co/BwCKcdXOwD

[francis john 🍅 @franjohn21]

What if instead of income,

UBI = Universal Basic Intelligence.

you don't get income you get a token stipend to build something that creates value