Cuanto. Why I launched a Dominican Currency Converter App as a total noob in 10 weeks 🇩🇴💵
I like to feed my curiosity.
I can remember my very first “ah-ha” moment in 2014. The second I realized that I wanted to become a part of what seemed to be an upper echelon community of creators who build apps that were going to impact people all over the world — and I desperately wanted in.
Downloading Instagram for the first time literally changed my life. Frankly, it became a major turning point that completely 10x’ed my innate desire to devote the rest of my life to creativity. I became a proud internet nerd obsessed with the realms of design, entrepreneurship, and tech that naturally strengthened my contant will to search for answers or die trying.
But this was a different ball game. I never coded a day of my life! I had poor discipline, I (still am) a serial procrastinator and I spent way too many valuable hours debating which ideas were “worth” exerting energy toward instead of just f*cking doing it! 😒
Roughly two and a half years later, I adopted a solid daily creative routine fueled with bookmarked Medium articles where I became more productive than ever before. (I wish it made sense to place my resume here).
I learned how to produce instrumentals, self-published my first book as a gift to my girlfriend, and even picked up DJ’ing. But most importantly, I allowed myself time to learn Swift: the iOS development language that birthed Cuanto in Xcode on my laptop — now active since its initial launch on July 16th, 2017.
I think it’s ironic that with the to physically bouncing around my apartment the moment I received the email from Apple stating it was live.
Soooo…WTF is Cuanto?
Cuanto is a simple, beautiful niche currency converter tailored to the international Dominican community. Whether you are an entrepreneur, investor, citizen, or tourist — you can immediately discover how much the island Peso is worth without searching for an internet connection.
Why? Who Cares?
I wanted to be a part of the elite core and see my name on the App Stores!
No, but seriously. Creating an app was simply a goal of mine that I needed to accomplish in this lifetime. There are literally thousands of articles that can explain the insane benefits of learning how to code in our age of innovation (even at a basic level). **Disclaimer: I am a novice developer! Far, far away from intermediate. Believe me.**
I created Cuanto for the following reasons:
- It solves a popular problematic narrative experienced generally within the Dominican community. A problem for me is a problem for we.
“Well…how much is the Peso worth now?”
- It’s niche! Sure, there are dozens of currency converter apps. Look it up. BUT they’re all functionally similar (ie. Global $$ converters). Just different UI.
- (Again) I fed my curiosity. The truth is, I conceptualized Cuanto by gazing into the screen of an introductory online lesson plan called “Building Your First App”. The idea was playfully absurd and that’s all you’ll ever really need to get started with anything.
Who cares? You care.
What’s the big picture?
My vision is to evolve Cuanto into a company that can educate financial literacy, encourage innovation, and promote philanthropy within the Dominican community.
Sculpting a super simple app as a practical know-nothing was far from an easy, but quickly proved to be one of the most fulfilling projects I’ve ever completed. I may not be an expert seeking to disrupt the world with the “next” Instagram, but this was a huge personal win that completely sharpened my confidence as a creator. It’s what really helps writing this worthwhile and I’m proud of the end product.
This entire process of launching Cuanto has taught me so many valuable lessons discovering a new medium to learn from, committing to a fun idea that speaks to a native niche audience, and creating a service millions of people can use traveling in and out of paradise. 🇩🇴
I want to thank malikthebest who I hired to develop my Android version and jonmlk who edited my work into perfection. None of this would have been possible without collaboration!
Cuanto is available for free in the App Store and Google Play Store now.
That’s all folks! I hope that you found it inspiring, semi-entertaining, and ultimately helpful. It would mean the world to me if you give Cuanto an honest rating in your App Store. #cuantoapp
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