This is a project that started around May 2021, at that time I was starting in the iOS world with Swift (mainly UIKit). I really wanted to create something that would cover different aspects of the framework and touch things that I wouldn't at my 9-5 job.
The idea was simple: Let's use SwiftUI and CloudKit to build something fun!
At that time, the new iOS 14 had just released widgets, and I loved to exchange drawings with one of my friends (mainly because I'm terrible at it and it would end up in a funny comparison), so that was it! The idea was set, it would be an app where you can send drawings directly into the Widget of your friend!
My first 1k users
When I started using the app with one of my best friends that's when I saw how fun it was to simply wake up or at a random time see my home screen with something unexpected, so I make a post on reddit about it:
It got 639 likes & 137 comments and about 1,500k downloads!
This was when I realized that what I'd built was actually something people were loving! (Basically validating PMF without even knowing) Users were craving for an Android version to use with their partners, sending me DMs through reddit, finding my Instagram to DM me to beg for an Android version, send emails. It was everywhere.
That's when I decided to partner with one of the Android developer at my day job: Gabriel. He would take care of the Android app, replicate the iOS functionalities and that was it.
The problems
As I mentioned, the initial setup used CloudKit for handling the backend. It would be a good alternative for Firebase if the app would never support Android, this was not the case. CloudKit is heavily focused on backups and for obvious reasons does not have an Android SDK.
So we came up with a plan: Migrate everything to Firebase, the holy grail of BaaS at that time. It was not simple, users lost their data and had to start fresh (I never received a complaint about it though).
The iOS app with Firebase released after about 3 months the initial CloudKit release, which would enable Android x iOS connections.
What happened after?
Nothing. For months, I didn't touch the project, would just work at my 9-5 and play games (League of Legends as Swain). January 2022 hits and I see a new app called Locket, the idea was very similar to mine, the only difference being instead of drawings, you could send photos. I even wondered if the creator copied my idea. At that time I was telling one of my friends
That's it, they won the battle I never fought. I might as well open-source the app and use it as a portfolio
He insisted that I should not do that, because even though the ideas were similar, you can't send drawings on Locket, the app would still serve a niche. I gave up on the idea of open sourcing it, since in the end he was right, Noteit had a very specific niche of mostly long-distance partners + artists (mostly). Noteit was solving the pain of being able to communicate with your significant other by drawings. You can always send a snap to someone, but on Noteit you had the tools to create something special to someone special.
The Boom
I remember that on that weekend, it was Saturday, and I was playing League until 5am, went to bed, woke up at ~1pm with 2 emails from Google:
My budget was $20. I open Firebase and I get shocked, 100k registered users. What is going on?
This was 1 week after my friend convinced me to not open-source the app. The app went viral. Someone on TikTok posted about it, comparing my app to Locket. The person would say something in the lines of:
I know everyone is talking about Locket and it's fun BUT look at this app!
I couldn't find the video–they probably deleted it for some reason, but it got about ~5M views total.
During that week I got reached out by so many people, mainly users with some feedback/requesting help and, of course, VCs. To name a few: Sequoia, a16z, General Catalyst. Apple also reached out, their team is really helpful, they really care about developers and try to help with ideas and things to improve.
At that time, I had no idea what to do, I've never had companies wanting to put money into my project, but one thing I knew for sure is that I actually needed money if I wanted to continue with the app, since the Firebase billing was hitting ~$500 a day!
On that same week, the app reached #1 on the free category on the App Store of multiple countries such as US, Australia, UK, Canada.
Noteit Acquisition
Noteit was acquired March 14, 2022. No, I didn't become a millionaire with the acquisition. One thing I noticed at that time is that I needed to learn, I knew nothing about building products, the project I had was just something that I had put together and with a lot of luck, had became successful.
The acquisition was an equity acquisition, I joined FullSenders (currently Iconic Hearts) as a Senior Software Engineer, my goal was to learn as much as I could from Hunter (the CEO), which would help me get answer to questions like: What do we do from now on? Should we focus on X or Y? These were some of the things that I learned through my journey so far.
Nowadays
As of Jan 2026, I work as a PM at Iconic Hearts. I've read some awesome books about product (will probably make some posts about) and know so much more about building apps than I've ever imagined.
Noteit has so far over 50M users registered in the app, with over 500k reviews on the Google Play/Appstore.
iconic hearts, inc.
iconic hearts holdings, inc.
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