A founder wanted to launch an AI companion app on iOS, where people chat with characters that each have their own personality.
The hard part wasn’t the chat screen. It was making 60 characters feel distinct and alive, keeping AI costs under control on a free tier, keeping content safe for the App Store, and being able to change the cast and pricing after launch without shipping app updates. They had the idea and no product.
I built Kiko end-to-end, from an empty repo to an App Store-ready 1.0 in about 9 days. iOS app (SwiftUI, MVVM): onboarding, an interest-based home feed, 60 characters with rich profiles, real-time chat with streaming replies, voice notes, photos and reactions, hidden chats behind a passcode, character creation, 6 languages, and a StoreKit paywall. AI backend (Python, Firebase): each character has its own server-side prompt. Replies stream token by token, voice notes are transcribed, and every message goes through a moderation check. Characters can pull live news, weather and local time, so conversations feel current. Cost and abuse controls: per-user daily limits for free users, server-verified Pro access and App Check, so the AI bill can’t run away. Admin app: the founder edits characters, moods and pricing live, with no app update needed. Result: a launch-ready product instead of an idea, backed by around 195 automated tests, privacy-safe analytics, and a backend the founder can run without me.
- Time to results
- Under 4 weeks
Problem: Validation and prototyping that takes months before a real user sees it
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