Inspiration
The idea for Stakely came from a very real wake-up call—literally. A few months ago, the town announced two months of weekday road construction on my street. I parked on the side of the road and had to move my car early every morning or risk being towed.
At the time, I struggled with waking up early. Alarm clocks didn’t help; I’d just hit snooze and fall back asleep. But the thought of losing my car to a tow truck was stronger than any alarm. Within weeks, I didn’t even need to set one—I’d wake up naturally, motivated by the risk of loss.
That experience opened my eyes to the power of loss aversion—the behavioral science finding that the pain of losing something outweighs the pleasure of gaining something.
Stakely was born from that realization: to help people stay accountable to their goals by putting something on the line—so ignoring them simply isn’t an option.
What it does
Stakely makes accountability real. Set a goal, deadline, and stake Stake Coins—if you miss the deadline, you lose what you staked. Complete goals on time to earn XP and unlock more Stake Coins by leveling up, checking in daily, or purchasing them.
Stake coins are intentionally scarce to make every stake meaningful. Track your growth with detailed stats: streak, goal history, and an accountability score that measures four key metrics—completion ratio, punctuality, consistency, and stakes ratio.
How we built it
Programmed using Xcode and SwiftUI RevenueCat for in-app purchases, subscriptions, and paywall OneSignal for notifications Canva for screenshots and assets
Challenges we ran into
The biggest challenge came when my original business model was rejected by Apple. Initially, users would stake real money on their goals—if they missed a deadline, they could either pay the stake or reset their level and progress to zero. Apple rejected the app because of its penalty-based features.
I tried small tweaks to fit the guidelines, but it was rejected multiple times. At one point I seriously considered giving up on Stakely and starting something new for the Shipaton event.
The breakthrough came when I pivoted to Stake Coins—a virtual currency required to set goals instead of real-money penalties. This not only solved Apple’s policy issues but also made the stakes feel scarce and valuable. I’m glad I kept iterating instead of quitting.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Reached 1000+ users since we released. $900+ in revenue
What we learned
The importance of shipping early. It took 10 days of constant review and iteration for it to finally get approved by Apple. This was my first time building in public. I learned to be comfortable sharing my progress online. Posting daily also made me more accountable to getting work done. This shipaton also introduced me to some things I haven't done before like: building a landing page, writing blog posts, and building in public.
What's next for Stakely
The main priority is marketing and looking to see if i can collaborate with influencers, behavioral psychologists, and newsletter outlets. I'll also look into building it for Android as well.
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