We're starting a company. This probably isn't news to anyone reading this—you're on our website—but it feels worth saying officially: Ugly Computer is real.
Who We Are
Three people who met through the New York iOS developer meetup and realized we were all complaining about the same things:
- Apps that prioritize growth metrics over user experience
- Feature bloat disguised as "full-featured solutions"
- The pressure to make everything look like a Y Combinator pitch deck
- The way most apps feel designed by committee rather than by people with taste
So we decided to do something about it.
What We're Building
We're starting with three apps, each addressing a problem we've personally felt:
Habit Garden came from Sam's frustration with habit tracking apps that made her feel guilty. She wanted something gentle that visualized progress without the psychological manipulation.
Uptown came from my constant mental translation between "north/south" and "uptown/downtown," plus Riley's obsession with making predictions that admit when they're uncertain.
Mono came from all of us watching each other try every note-taking app and eventually returning to a single text file. Maybe that was trying to tell us something.
Why iOS
We love iOS development. We love SwiftUI (even when it's frustrating). We love the attention to detail in the platform, the way animations feel, the way widgets integrate into the home screen.
We also think the App Store has room for weirder, more opinionated apps. Not everything needs to be a platform or a productivity suite. Sometimes the best app is the one that does exactly one thing really well.
What's Next
We're aiming to ship all three apps in 2026:
- Habit Garden in spring
- Uptown in summer
- Mono in fall
We'll be posting updates here as we build. No marketing speak, no press releases written by committee. Just honest updates about what we're working on and what we're learning.
If you want to follow along, you can subscribe to updates for individual apps on their pages. Or just check back here occasionally.
Thanks for being curious about what we're doing.
— Robert, Sam, and Riley