I just hit submit on build 72.

I just hit submit on build 72.

Not build 7. Build seventy two - that's how many attempts it took to get the app from 'works on my machine' to sitting in Apple and Google's review queue.

Somewhere around build 40 I stopped being embarrassed by the number. Apple rejected a binary for being a duplicate. Auth cookies expired mid submission. Push notifications were registering zero tokens and I only caught it becuase I went digging in the server logs.

Nobody posts about builds 25 through 71. You see the launch post, the screenshots, the confetti.

The real work is the boring middle - fixing the keyboard offset for the fourth time, rewriting the app security layer, resubmitting, waiting.

I used to think needing this many attempts meant I was bad at this. 15 years in, I think the founders who ship are just the ones who tolerate the boring middle longer than everyone else.

Build 72 is waiting for review now. If Apple rejects it, build 73 goes out tomorrow.