Meet the Residents #8: Nicolas Papegaey 🇫🇷

We're introducing each of the residents joining the Uneed Residency in Nantes, France, from May 26 to June 2.

Laid off. Built an app for fun. It worked.

Nicolas was a data/product guy in a company. One day, he got laid off. To keep busy, he built a mobile app. Just like that, for fun.

Except the app worked. For real. 120,000+ downloads and around 3,500 active subscriptions later, Nicolas is now a full-time indie dev 😎.

His projects

Nicolas doesn't bet everything on a single app. His approach: building a portfolio of mobile apps, mainly in the Apple ecosystem (with a small Android side quest 😄), gradually specializing in health and fitness.

And he has one obsession: design. Every new app is a chance to do better than the last. The kind of mindset where version 2 always looks like a leap forward.

His biggest challenge

Marketing. And more specifically, staying consistent on social media — he admits himself he rarely lasts more than 2 days 😅.

Paid acquisition is also a work in progress. The apps are solid, the numbers prove it — now they need more visibility.

Why he's joining the residency

Meet other indie devs, share experiences, maybe start a new app, and improve his English. A mix of learning, building, and connecting — the kind of week that tends to unlock new ideas.

Fun fact: Nicolas made his first dollar online on his son's birthday, in May 2024. Hard not to see it as a sign.