Geda Taye Merga was spending 6+ hours a day scrolling his phone and producing nothing. He tried every focus app out there. They all felt like polite suggestions. So he built NONOX, a focus app that physically locks you out of distracting apps with no easy escape. He coded the entire thing on a 6-inch smartphone in a room with flickering electricity. No laptop. No team. No server bills. Just 420 hours of patience with a tiny screen.
Product: NONOX
Category: Productivity / Focus / Android
Founded: 2025
Team size: Solo founder
Website: nonoxapps.com
SaaS Hive page: https://saashive.com/products/nonox
What were you doing before NONOX, and how did the idea come to you?
Before NONOX I was running Jaba Shop, a digital education platform where I taught over 1,000 students video editing and online business basics. I also built PINAXA, a personal safety app with a panic button and stealth mode.
The idea for NONOX came from my own addiction to my phone. I was spending 6+ hours scrolling and producing nothing. I tried every focus app out there, but they all treated the problem like a gentle suggestion. I wanted a bouncer, not a reminder. So I built the lock I wished existed.
In one or two sentences, what does NONOX do and who is it for?
NONOX is a brutal-focus Android app that physically locks you out of distracting apps, or your entire phone, for up to 24 hours with no easy escape. It's for people who already know they want to focus but need a system that removes willpower from the equation entirely.
How long did it take to build your first version, and how much did it cost to get there?
The first version took about 420 hours of coding, done entirely on a 6-inch smartphone using AIDE IDE, spread across months of nights and weekends. It cost basically nothing. No laptop, no team, no server bills, no APIs to pay for. Just time, electricity, and a lot of patience with a tiny screen.
What did you spend time or money on that turned out to be a complete waste?
I spent weeks obsessing over making the UI look "Silicon Valley pretty." Complex animations, gradient overload, multi-screen onboarding. It was a complete waste. My users don't care about aesthetics when they're fighting the urge to open Instagram for the 20th time. I stripped half the UI out, and the app got better immediately.
How did you get your first users, or if you're still early, how are you planning to?
I'm still early. Zero sales so far, though I've had 50 Gumroad visits and some Telegram interest. My strategy is a $19 lifetime license on Gumroad and a 500 ETB local price via Telebirr for Ethiopians. I'm posting daily on TikTok and LinkedIn, launching a 40% affiliate program, and aiming for 10 sales this week to prove the model before I scale hard.
What's one decision you've made so far that had the biggest positive impact on your product or business?
Going architecture-first and building everything offline with zero cloud dependencies. I encrypt everything locally, use device-protected storage so lock states survive reboots, and the app never needs internet. That means it works flawlessly in Ethiopia's patchy connectivity, keeps user data completely private, and I never have to worry about server costs or outages.
What's the best feedback or reaction you've gotten from someone who's seen or tried your product?
A friend told me, "This app actually scares me, and that's why I need it." Another tester said it was the first focus tool that didn't feel like a polite suggestion.
What's been the lowest moment so far? What kept you going?
Month three, hands down. I had 8,500 lines of working code, a product I believed in, and zero sales. I was coding on a phone in a room with flickering electricity, watching founders on Twitter raise millions, and genuinely wondering if I was delusional.
What kept me going was the mission I started with: to prove that talent exists everywhere, even in Ethiopia, even on a phone. That belief is bigger than any revenue chart.
How do you decide what to work on next? What gets priority and what gets ignored?
I work backward from my 30-day targets: 100 users, $1K revenue, 10 affiliates. If a task doesn't move one of those numbers, it goes on the "later" list. I have about 40 features sitting there right now. Marketing, sales, and critical bug fixes eat first. Everything else waits.
What's the one reason someone would pick your product over the alternatives?
NONOX doesn't trust your willpower. It removes it from the equation. Most focus apps send a notification and hope you listen. NONOX puts a wall between you and your distractions.
It's also built for reality: it works 100% offline, stores nothing in the cloud, costs less than a coffee, and was built by someone who knows what unreliable internet actually feels like.
Where can people find or try NONOX?
Get NONOX for $19 lifetime at Gumroad or 500 ETB via Telebirr if you're in Ethiopia. Visit nonoxapps.com to learn more and download the free trial.
Follow Geda on TikTok: @gedatayeofficially
Connect on LinkedIn: Geda Taye
Follow on X: @GedaTaye41598
Join on Telegram: t.me/nonoxapp
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and flow. All answers are Geda's own words.
Comments (0)
Sign in to leave a comment.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.