What happens when a teenager builds a productivity tool that’s more thoughtful than most adult-run startups?

I Met Him on Reddit

It started as a casual post.

A 17-year-old developer had just launched his app: Tudu, a simple iOS task manager that lets you type or speak your to-do list naturally. Nothing fancy. No gimmicks. It looked like the kind of thing you’d use because it worked; not because it was trying to wow you.

So I downloaded it.

And it did exactly what it promised.

Over the next few days, I kept coming back to it; not out of habit, but because it never made me feel behind. It didn’t flood me with red dots or overdue reminders. It just helped me keep going. Quietly.

I reached out, and we scheduled an interview.

What followed was one of the most grounded and inspiring conversations I’ve had with any builder regardless of age.

What Most Productivity Tools Get Wrong

If you’ve ever used a task manager, you know the drill.

You add a task. Then you add a due date. Then a reminder. Then a label. Then a priority level. And before long, you’re managing the app instead of the actual task.

Tudu doesn’t do that.

You write one line—something like:

“Submit assignment by Friday, takes 45 minutes. Remind me Thursday.”

And it handles everything. The task shows up at the right time. You get a nudge when it matters. No dashboards. No dopamine traps.

“I didn’t want it to feel like AI. Just natural. Something you’d use without thinking too hard.”
—Monish, Tudu’s creator

That line stuck with me. Because it’s true.

Tudu isn’t trying to make you feel productive. It’s trying to make life feel lighter.

Built in Three Weeks. By One Person. At Seventeen.

Monish built Tudu in less than a month. By himself. In Swift. From scratch.

He used:

• Google Gemini Flash to process natural language commands

• Firebase to handle cloud sync and user data

• A clean, minimalist UI that feels intuitive without explanation

“Everything I used had to be free or very cheap. I don’t have a budget. It’s just me, learning and building.”

There’s no funding. No team. Just one teenager quietly building something useful—and releasing it to the world with almost zero noise.

How Reminders Actually Work in Tudu

One of the best features in Tudu is how it handles time.

Let’s say you have a task due at 6pm and it takes 2 hours. Tudu reminds you at 4pm because that’s when you should start.

You can also say, “Remind me 4 hours early,” and it will add an extra notification at 2pm.

There are motivational nudges, smart timers, and even streak tracking all handled with context.

“There’s a single long prompt behind the scenes that handles it all. Add, edit, reschedule, batch everything.”

But Monish doesn’t talk about this like a coder flexing. He’s more interested in whether the result feels effortless.

No Wireframes. No Figma. Just Vibes and Rebuilds.

Ask most founders about their design process and they’ll walk you through flowcharts and figma screens.

Not Monish.

“I don’t design first. I build. If it feels bad, I delete it and try again.”

That explains a lot about the app’s simplicity. Every button, every flow shaped by feel. It’s the kind of app that skips the design language but nails the experience.

Recurring tasks, for example, don’t feel like duplicates. They regenerate cleanly with all your preferences intact.

Even the Pomodoro timer feels thoughtful, with subtle motivational messages during breaks.

“It felt empty without them. I added them for myself at first.”

That mindset shows up everywhere in the app.

What Happens When You Actually Listen to Users

Monish gave early testers free access to the Pro version. Not for reviews. For feedback.

“One guy told me I needed a confirmation screen before deleting a task. I pushed the update that night.”

So far, every major update has come directly from user feedback.

What’s coming next?

• The ability to snap a photo of a handwritten list and turn it into tasks

• Notification sounds (finally!)

• More Pomodoro options (Oi, actually we also have a free pomodoro timer on our site, test it out for free)

• Custom themes (maybe)

And probably more but only if someone asks for it, clearly.

What About Privacy?

All data is stored on Firebase, and yes it’s encrypted.

“Firebase handles encryption. I haven’t added anything extra on top of that, but everything is safe. Nothing is ever shared.”

Eventually, Monish hopes to make the app fully local by using Apple’s new on-device intelligence features. But for now, your tasks are secure, private, and accessible only to you.

He also has a clear line around moderation:

“People talk how they talk. I don’t want the app filtering anyone’s language unless it’s actually dangerous. It’s your space.”

That’s rare. And it’s refreshing.

The Night He Nearly Deleted the Whole Thing

“I was up at 2AM looking at the app, and I nearly pulled the plug. I thought, maybe it’s not good enough.”

He had finished most of the core features. But the self-doubt hit.

“I didn’t build it for App Store downloads. I built it for me. But then I realized… other people might need something like this too.”

That’s when he hit publish.

If Productivity Didn’t Exist, Would Tudu Still Matter?

I asked him one last thing.

What if the world forgot about to-do lists? What if we stopped chasing productivity altogether? What would be the point of Tudu then?

He paused.

“Even if you had nothing to do you’d still want to remember what matters. You’d still want to show up for the things you love.”

And that’s exactly what Tudu helps you do.

Try Tudu — It’s Worth It

Tudu is free on iOS.
Pro features are $5/month or $30/year. No ads. No nonsense.

📲 Download Tudu from the App Store
📬 Want to send feedback or join the tester group? Email Monish directly at monish.sd.2008@gmail.com