Tiny Tools, Big Wins

The best productivity tools aren’t found on the App Store—they’re built at 11 PM on a Tuesday because something kept bugging you all week.

That’s exactly what happened to me with SpaceId, a simple macOS menu bar app I built last week using ChatGPT and Xcode. I wanted to name my Spaces (virtual desktops on macOS), so I could stop flipping through them like I was auditioning for a new productivity app commercial.

There’s no native way to do it, so I built one.

One hour later: done. It works, it’s clean, and I now use it on all my Macs.

SpaceId on my MacBook Air

Here’s the kicker: it was easier than I thought. ChatGPT handled 100% of the code, helped debug some weird AppKit behavior, and gave me just enough confidence that I could focus on user experience, not stack overflow rabbit holes. The final product? A tiny tool that saves me a few minutes a day—and a few brain cycles. That adds up fast.

But the real story here isn’t about my little utility app. It’s about why this matters for founders, solo operators, and scrappy startup teams.

Lesson 1: Friction is a feature request in disguise.

If something annoys you every day, your users probably feel the same. Don’t wait for it to show up in customer feedback. Scratch it early, scratch it fast. That’s product intuition.

Lesson 2: GenAI is your second engineer.

We’re well past the “gee-whiz” stage of AI. Tools like ChatGPT can now help you design, build, and even ship micro-products in record time. It won’t build your product vision—but it will reduce the friction between idea and execution. If you’re not using it yet in your dev flow, you’re paying a real tax.

Lesson 3: Small wins stack up.

Building SpaceId didn’t change the world, but it changed my daily rhythm. And for startups, that’s the point: accumulate enough tiny improvements and suddenly your velocity jumps. Your team feels it. Your customers feel it. And yes, your bottom line eventually feels it too.

At Appmosis, this is what we do. We help startups move faster—not by throwing more bodies at the problem, but by removing friction, building better tools, and helping teams stay in flow. Whether it’s customer onboarding, internal tools, or product-market fit validation, the principle is the same: simple, elegant solutions driven by empathy and speed.

Got a bottleneck that’s slowing your team down? A nagging issue in your funnel or product that nobody’s had time to fix?

Let’s talk. Sometimes all it takes is one good idea and an hour with the right tools to unlock something big.

And if you’re still flipping through your Mac Spaces trying to find Slack… I’ve got an app for that.