Project summary

Reading for pleasure has severely declined over the past decade. Several studies show that reading for pleasure among both adults and young people has hit historic lows as short-form algorithms, social media and mobile gaming compete for our attention. Despite this, traditional e-readers have failed to adapt to compete with modern digital distractions.

I built epup to solve this problem. epup transforms any book file or reading session into an RPG ecosystem where reading time is the core gameplay which in turn will help the user rebuild their daily reading habit and joy of reading.

epup has been downloaded for a total of over 1000 times on iOS and Android. It has a 4.7/5 rating (21 reviews) on the Apple App Store and a 4.9/5 rating (12 reviews) on Google Play. Multiple users have shared that epup helped them rediscover their lost love for reading.

Project Legal Status & Future Roadmap:

• Current status: epup is currently operated as a free public-utility application. It is intentionally kept free of charge to serve the wider reading community while the founder complies with UK student visa restrictions regarding self-employment and active business trading.

• Funding use: All requested grant capital will be used strictly to offset direct infrastructure costs (such as server hosting and developer deployment expenses) to keep the utility operational, rather than as personal employment income or salary.

• Future monetisation & sustainability: While the core reader and literacy features will remain permanently free to the public, the project plans to transition into a sustainable commercial hybrid model (such as publisher partnership tools or premium cosmetic expansions) once the founder's visa conditions permit business establishment following PhD graduation. This ensures the project becomes financially self-sustaining long-term without ever paywalling essential reading features.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

• Help everyone regain their lost love for long-form reading: Provide positive RPG game loops (pets, expeditions, crafting and reading clubs) that bridge the friction of picking up a book and make reading habit-forming again.

• Keep our servers fast and reliable for the users: Maintain the server infrastructure to sync reading progress, focus session logs, loot tables, room customisations and reading club data across devices.

• Maintain and update the app through my PhD thesis phase: Fix bugs, add new features and ship performance updates quickly using AI developer tools as a solo developer while completing my doctoral research.

• Advance attention and literacy research: Grow adoption across student and reading communities, demonstrating how positive habit loops can successfully redirect human focus back to deep literature.

How will this funding be used?

This funding will cover 100% of epup's core backend infrastructure, app store distribution and developer software tools for the next 15 months (through October 2027):

At Minimum request ($1,000):

• Supabase cloud infrastructure ($525): Production database hosting, real-time sync for reading clubs, island customisations and user state backups (~$35/month for 15 months).

• App Store distribution and developer fees ($225): Apple Developer Program renewals ($99/yr), Google Play Console registration ($25) and domain maintenance.

• Developer software suite and tooling ($250): API subscriptions for developer tools (Gemini) that enable me as a solo developer to maintain and update a complex cross-platform app in my spare time alongside my PhD studies.

At Maximum request ($1,500):

• Expanded supabase database & CDN bandwidth ($750): Higher database tier to support user growth, multiplayer reading club sync and asset CDN bandwidth through October 2027.

• App Store fees & distribution ($250): Multi-year developer accounts and domain hosting.

• Developer tooling & infrastructure ($500): Software subscriptions and AI developer API credits, this will allow for fast bug fixes and feature updates during my PhD thesis writing phase.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

I'm M. Haries Ramdhani the solo developer & founder. Currently a full-time PhD student in Medical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Previously worked for over 4 years as a Senior Data Scientist at Home Credit Indonesia, specialising in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), user retention modelling and behavioural data.

• Track record: Built and launched epup on iOS, Android and Web, growing it organically to over 1,000 downloads with a 4.7/5 rating on the Apple App Store (21 reviews) and a 4.9/5 rating on Google Play (12 reviews). In my spare time I also love to built things that I find cool.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

• Time constraint: As I get closer to writing my PhD thesis, I will have less free time. If bugs arise and I cannot patch them quickly, user engagement might drop.
  How I plan to mitigate this -> Using AI developer tools allows me to push bug fixes in minutes rather than spending weekends debugging.

• Gamification loopholes: Users might attempt to fast-swipe the pages to farm loot without reading or just having the focus timer turned on without doing anything.
  How I plan to mitigate this -> epup enforces Words-Per-Minute speed validation inside the reader. For physical book readers using the Focus Timer, epup relies on positive habit design, as users choose epup specifically to build real reading habits.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

$0. All development, server hosting and store fees have been 100% self-funded out of my personal PhD stipend.