Focido: Social To-Do for Dreamers

Focido is a social action app that helps ambitious women turn big dreams into completed goals with real human accountability, micro-actions, and motivating nudges - turning inspiration into execution.

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Inspiration

Focido: Social To-Do for Dreamers was inspired by a gap we repeatedly see in ambitious communities: people are highly inspired, full of ideas, and rich in potential - yet struggle to consistently act on what matters most.

Gabby Beckford’s brief articulated this gap perfectly. Her community dreams big - about travel, financial freedom, and bold life choices - but many get stuck between wanting and doing. This aligned directly with our core belief: inspiration alone doesn’t create progress - action does.

What it does

Focido is a social to-do app that helps ambitious women turn big dreams into completed goals through real human accountability.

Instead of relying on self-discipline in isolation, users break dreams into small, actionable tasks and move forward with support from real people. Progress is driven by:

  • Clear micro-actions instead of vague intentions
  • Social accountability instead of solo motivation
  • Short, motivating nudges instead of noisy chats
  • Visible progress instead of silent effort

The result is a system where inspiration naturally turns into execution.

How we built it

We built this project from the ground up during the Shipyard hackathon, focusing on a social to-do system designed specifically to help Gabby’s community turn dreams into action.

We designed a mobile-first experience centered on tasks, accountability, and momentum. The product emphasizes simplicity and clarity, using social nudges and lightweight gamification to support consistent progress.

Monetization was implemented using RevenueCat, allowing us to validate a sustainable subscription-based model aligned with long-term user value.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was scope discipline.

It was tempting to build a broad motivation or mindset app filled with content, affirmations, or inspiration feeds. We deliberately avoided that path. Instead, we focused on what truly moves people forward: clear actions, accountability, and follow-through.

Balancing inspiration with execution - without losing the simplicity of a to-do app - required careful product decisions and constant prioritization.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Building a focused social to-do product aligned with a real creator’s community
  • Preserving simplicity while introducing meaningful social accountability
  • Designing accountability to feel supportive, not stressful
  • Shipping a coherent MVP within the hackathon timeframe

What we learned

We learned that motivation is rarely the core problem.

Most people don’t fail because they lack ambition - they fail because acting alone is fragile. When goals are visible, shared, and supported by real humans, progress becomes easier and more consistent.

We also learned that structure beats inspiration when it comes to execution.

What's next for Focido: Social To-Do for Dreamers

Next, we plan to expand the product with creator-focused experiences, including:

  • Structured dream-to-action challenges for communities
  • Deeper progress insights for participants and creators
  • Cohort-based accountability flows
  • More flexible social matching within trusted groups

Our long-term vision is to make Focido the execution layer for ambitious communities - starting with Gabby’s audience and scaling to many more creators.

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Updates

posted an update —

Focido v0.3.3 is live, and nudge timing just got smarter

Ever been pinged by your motivator at the worst possible moment? Early morning, late at night, right in the middle of something?

Now you can set your own nudge hours. Pick when reminders start and when they stop. Accountability that fits your schedule, not the other way around.

Also new: ✅ Favorites redesigned into People, Tasks, and Clubs tabs ✅ Share any user profile via a link ✅ Tap users on the Leaderboard to see their profiles ✅ Change password and control profile visibility ✅ Cleaner premium and profile edit screens

Update is live: https://focido.com/download

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posted an update —

Focido v0.3.1: Settings, Discoverability, and Small-Screen Sanity

Apps die from a thousand tiny cuts. No settings screen. Unscrollable dialogs on small phones. Categories you can’t tap. Unread notifications that blend into the background.

v0.3.1 fixes those cuts.

This update is about control, discoverability, and polish. The stuff users notice when it’s missing – and appreciate when it’s there.

What We Added A Real Settings Screen (Finally) Before: settings scattered or non-existent. Notifications? Good luck finding the toggle. Language? Account deletion? Hidden deep in the drawer.

Now: a dedicated settings screen with:

Notification preferences: granular controls for what you get Language switching: EN/ES/RU (more coming) Account deletion: clear path if you need it No more menu archaeology.

Tappable Category Chips See a category chip on a task view? Tap it.

That’s it. Browse all tasks in that category instantly. No extra screens, no back-and-forth.

This makes task discovery feel natural, not like work.

Profile Tasks Show Motivator Status + Actions Your profile now clearly shows:

Motivator status for tasks you’re supporting Action buttons right there (nudge, thanks, etc.) Less hunting. More doing.

Visual Flagging for Reported Comments Reported comments now have a flag icon. Clear, immediate transparency.

You know it’s handled. No wondering.

What We Fixed Small Screen Sanity iPhone SE, compact Androids: we’ve been there. Auth dialogs and report sheets wouldn’t scroll.

Fixed. Everything scrolls properly now.

Red Unread Dots Notification unread indicators were too subtle. Now they’re red. You won’t miss them.

Faster Drawer Navigation The drawer used to load profile data after you opened it. Felt laggy.

Now it loads upfront. Instant access to your profile from anywhere.

Why This Update Matters Early versions focus on “does it work?” This version asks “does it feel good?”

Control (settings) Discoverability (tappable categories) Polish (small screens, visual cues, speed) These aren’t sexy. But they’re the difference between “I might use this” and “this is my daily driver.”

What’s Coming Next up: better matching algorithms, onboarding tweaks, and more granular privacy controls.

We’re shipping weekly now. User feedback drives the roadmap.

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posted an update —

We Rebuilt the Motivator Experience (And Fixed the Stuff That Was Driving You Crazy)

Here’s the thing about building a social accountability app: the “social” part has to feel natural. Not confusing. Not mysterious. Just… clear. New version Focido v.0.3.0

For the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing the same feedback on repeat: “I got a nudge from someone, but I have no idea who they are or why they’re in my queue.” Or: “The app went blank when my internet cut out.” Or: “I tried to rename a folder and had to dig through three menus.”

Fair points. All of them. So we sat down, tore apart the motivator system, and rebuilt it from scratch. This update isn’t about adding flashy features – it’s about removing friction. The kind of friction that makes people close an app and never come back.

What We Changed The Motivator System Got a Complete Overhaul Before, motivators kind of… appeared. You’d get a nudge, maybe recognize the name, maybe not. The invite process was vague. The queue was invisible. It worked, technically, but it didn’t feel good.

Now:

New dialogues explain what’s happening at each step A visible motivator queue shows you who’s supporting you and who’s next A clearer invitation flow so you actually understand who you’re inviting and why This was the biggest change in the update, and it touches everything – from onboarding to daily nudges. If you’ve been using Focido for a while, it’ll feel familiar but way less mysterious. If you’re new, it’ll just make sense.

Swipe Actions for Folders and Tags You know that satisfying feeling when you swipe to delete an email? We added that to folders and tags.

Now you can:

Swipe right to rename Swipe left to delete No more hunting through menus. Just swipe and done.

Task Owners Can Delete Tasks from the View Screen Before, if you created a task and wanted to delete it, you had to back out to the task list. Annoying.

Now task owners can delete directly from the task view screen. One less tap. One less moment of “wait, where’s the delete button?”

Proper Error Screens (When the Server Is Down) This one’s subtle but important. Before, if the server was unavailable, you’d just see… nothing. A blank screen. Maybe a loading spinner that never stopped.

Now you’ll see an actual error message: “Can’t reach the server. Check your connection and try again.”

Not exciting, but way less frustrating.

What We Fixed Sign-In on Slow Internet If you tried to log in on a slow connection, the app would sometimes just hang. Forever.

We improved the auth flow so it handles flaky networks better. It’ll retry, show progress, and give you a clear error if something fails – instead of pretending everything’s fine while nothing happens.

Crashes on Auth Errors at Startup Some users were experiencing crashes if the app couldn’t authenticate when it launched. Not great for first impressions.

We fixed the crash and added proper error handling, so now you’ll see a message instead of the app just… disappearing.

Notification and Feed Sync Notifications and the feed weren’t always in sync. You’d get a push notification, open the app, and… nothing. Or you’d see something in the feed that never triggered a notification.

We tightened up the sync logic. Now what you see in notifications matches what’s in your feed. Every time.

Why This Matters None of these changes are “launch on TechCrunch” material. There’s no AI, no gamification gimmick, no viral loop.

But here’s what we’ve learned: people don’t abandon apps because they’re missing features. They abandon apps because something feels broken.

A mystery motivator. A blank error screen. A folder you can’t rename without googling “how to rename folder in Focido.”

Those are the moments that kill trust. And trust is everything when you’re asking people to share their goals with strangers.

What’s Next We’re not done. We’re tracking a few more quality-of-life issues – things like better onboarding for first-time users, more granular notification controls, and smarter matching between goal-setters and motivators.

But we’re also listening. If you’re using Focido and something still feels janky, tell us. Email, Reddit, X, wherever. We read everything.

Building a product is one thing. Building a product people trust is another.

This update is one step toward the second thing.

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