Consumer appLive

BackTrack

Know exactly when to start.

Role
Founder. Product, design and build.
Team
Solo
Timeline
2026
Stack
React Native with Expo (iOS, Android, web), TypeScript, Vite web, Node server, Drizzle, Supabase, Playwright, an MCP server for AI assistants
Year
2026
Live
web app, with iOS and Android builds through Expo
Status, not a metric
1 codebase
for phone, web and the companion wearables
Architecture fact

The problem

Alarm clocks answer the wrong question. A sports parent with a 10:00 AM game, a traveler with a 2:00 PM flight or a commuter with a fixed train does not need to know when to wake up. They need to know when to start, and working backwards through prep, buffers and drive time by hand is the overhead BackTrack removes.

Key decisions

Constraint

The product sits between alarms, habit trackers and calendars, and could be mistaken for any of them.

Options

Call it a smarter alarm, or name a new category.

Decision

An arrival-time planner. The copy, the onboarding and the templates all start from the arrival, never from the wake-up.

Trade-off

A category people have to learn. The tagline carries it.

Constraint

It has to work on a phone at 6 AM and on a watch in a parking lot.

Options

Native apps per platform, or one shared codebase.

Decision

Expo for iOS, Android and web from one codebase, with Apple Watch and Wear OS companions, home-screen widgets, and an MCP server so AI assistants can answer the leave-by question with BackTrack’s math.

Trade-off

Fewer platform-specific flourishes. Far less to maintain alone.

The work

BackTrack landing page: know exactly when to start, with three example plans
Landing pageA reverse alarm clock, with example plans for a flight, a hockey game and a dinner reservation.
BackTrack planner in light mode showing the time to start, 8:45 AM
Time to startSet the arrival time and BackTrack shows the moment to begin, recalculated as tasks and the commute change.
BackTrack planner in dark mode showing the time to start, 8:45 AM
Dark themeThe same planner, for the early mornings it is built for.
BackTrack planner: a hockey practice at 9:00 AM with four tasks worked backwards from arrival
Plan from arrival timeEach task runs backwards from a 9:00 AM arrival with its own start and end, then the commute gives a leave-by time.

How it was built

  1. 01DiscoverCalls and walk-throughs with the people who would use it
  2. 02CompileTranscripts, files and constraints in one requirements brief
  3. 03SpecifyA detailed, sourced spec from Perplexity, reviewed and locked
  4. 04BuildDesigned and built with the latest AI models, in the production stack
  5. 05TestUser testing on every preview, with real users on real tasks
  6. 06IterateFindings turned into the next round of changes, worst problems first
  7. 07ShipTests, security review and release, then back to testing and iterating↻ Back to Test
How I work, step by step →

Where AI was used

The spec and design system were drafted with AI assistance. In the product, the MCP server lets assistants use BackTrack’s calculator rather than guess.

What’s next

Wearable companions and widgets.