Allowance Arcade: Building for a Market of One

About 12 years ago I got into woodworking when I got some cheap hand-me-down equipment from my brother-in-law. And I had a friend who does fine wood working and he gave me some pointers which helped me get started a little quicker. 1 My carpentry is far more utilitarian than beautiful, but I love the craft of it and making things that fit my home and my life.

Last year I went through something similar with Claude Code. I had been using Claude and ChatGPT on a daily basis via their UIs and IDE plugins, but a friend encouraged me to set up Claude Code and gave me a few pointers. 2 Then earlier this year I had an idea for a kid-oriented chore tracker, the Allowance Arcade, and...

I just built it.

I didn’t need to hire developers or raise any capital or figure out if my total addressable market was worth the investment. I just needed the vision and the motivation to make something for one key customer, Max.

Max is my oldest son and he loves video games. For a couple years he’s been begging for a PS5. And back in March when he asked if he could get one for his upcoming birthday I told him that he could buy one with his own money. So my very smart, soon-to-be-11-year-old, son told me he wanted chores and an allowance. My wife and I have tried giving all of the kids their own household duties and it never lasted. Tracking the chores and incentivizing the kids was the hardest part.

But at that particular moment I could build something just for him to help him manage his chores and stick… Read more ↗