People are addicted to ordering takeaways, spending £200-400/month despite knowing it's wasteful, and feel powerless to stop once cravings hit.
Detects when users open delivery apps, shows a friction screen with their monthly takeaway spend, a 10-minute cool-down timer, and suggests a cheaper homemade or supermarket meal-deal alternative that scratches the same itch. Tracks savings over time.
Freemium — free tier tracks spending; £3.99/month premium unlocks meal alternatives, grocery list generation, and accountability partner features
The Reddit thread is gold — people literally say 'I think I'm addicted' and 'once cravings hit there's no stopping it'. This is classic addiction language. The pain is acute, recurring (daily/weekly), and quantifiable (£200-400/month = £2,400-4,800/year). People feel genuine shame and frustration. However, it's a 'nice to have' pain not a 'hair on fire' pain — nobody's business fails because of takeaway spending. Docking 2 points because shame-based problems have high stated intent but lower follow-through.
UK adults 25-45 who order food delivery regularly: ~8-12M people. Those who self-identify as overspending: maybe 30-40% = 3-5M. Those who would download and pay for an app to fix it: realistically 2-5% = 60K-250K addressable. At £3.99/month, that's £2.9M-£12M ARR ceiling for UK alone. Decent indie/bootstrapped scale but not venture-scale without geographic expansion. The niche is real but narrow.
Tricky. The core value prop is 'pay me £3.99/month to save you £200/month' which is rational. BUT: people who can't control takeaway spending are, by definition, poor at financial impulse control. The same psychology that makes them your target makes them unlikely to maintain a subscription. One Sec proves people will pay for friction tools, but churn will be brutal. Free tier needs to be compelling enough to build habit before upsell. The 'I saved £X' counter is your best conversion lever.
This is the biggest red flag. iOS severely restricts app interception — Screen Time API is limited, and Apple actively blocks apps that interfere with other apps' launches. One Sec uses clever workarounds with Shortcuts and Screen Time, but Apple has cracked down repeatedly. Android is more feasible via Accessibility Services but Google is also tightening policies. Building reliable 'detect when user opens Deliveroo' functionality is technically fragile, platform-dependent, and at constant risk of being broken by OS updates. The meal alternative suggestion engine and spending tracker are straightforward, but the core differentiator (interception) is the hardest part. A solo dev could build an MVP in 4-8 weeks only by leaning heavily on the Android side and accepting iOS limitations.
The gap is genuinely clear and defensible. Nobody combines moment-of-temptation intervention + financial tracking + food-specific alternatives. One Sec is closest but is deliberately generic. Fintech apps are retrospective only. Meal planners are proactive only. CraveCurb would be the only product operating at the exact psychological moment where the decision is made. That's a meaningful insight.
The irony: if CraveCurb works perfectly, users eventually break the habit and churn. If it doesn't work, they churn from frustration. The subscription model fights the product's own success. Mitigation: evolve into a broader 'mindful spending' tool, add new categories (Amazon impulse buys, in-app purchases), or pivot to a savings/rewards model where the value grows over time. The accountability partner feature adds social stickiness. But the core habit-breaking use case has a natural endpoint.
- +Clear, validated pain point with real emotional language from target users — not a hypothetical problem
- +Obvious gap in the market at the intersection of behavioral intervention + financial tracking + food alternatives
- +Strong 'save £X' narrative makes ROI instantly tangible and shareable on social media
- +UK cost-of-living crisis creates perfect timing and cultural relevance
- +Freemium model with clear upgrade path — free spending tracker is genuinely useful standalone
- !Platform risk is existential: Apple and Google can break the core interception feature with any OS update, and both are actively tightening app-interference policies
- !Success paradox: the better it works, the faster users churn — habit broken = subscription cancelled
- !Target users with poor impulse control are statistically the hardest to convert to paying subscribers
- !One Sec could add a food/spending vertical overnight and has 2M+ user head start
- !Manual spending tracking (if bank integration isn't built) creates fatal friction — users won't log orders
iOS/Android app that forces a breathing exercise and intentional pause before opening any chosen app
Android/iOS app that adds customizable delays and usage limits before opening distracting apps. Lets you set wait timers per app.
UK personal finance app that tracks all spending including categorizing takeaway/delivery transactions automatically from bank feeds via Open Banking.
Open Banking fintech apps that categorize spending, set budgets, and send alerts when you overspend in categories like dining/takeaways.
Meal planning apps that suggest recipes, generate grocery lists, and help users cook at home more. Some show cost per serving.
Android-first app using Accessibility Services to detect Deliveroo/Uber Eats/JustEat app opens. Shows a full-screen 'pause' overlay with: (1) your total takeaway spend this month (manually entered initially, Open Banking later), (2) a 10-minute countdown timer you cannot skip, (3) one suggested alternative meal with estimated cost and prep time. Track 'savings' when timer expires and user doesn't order. Skip iOS v1 entirely — the platform restrictions make it a trap for an MVP.
Free: spending tracker + basic timer with 3 pauses/day → £3.99/month Premium: unlimited pauses, curated meal alternatives matched to cravings, grocery list generation, weekly savings reports, accountability partner pairing → Future: Open Banking integration for automatic tracking (£5.99/month), partnerships with UK supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury's) for meal deal affiliate revenue, white-label to employers as financial wellness benefit
8-12 weeks to first paying user. 4-6 weeks for Android MVP with manual spend tracking + timer + basic alternatives. 2-4 weeks for beta testing and iteration. Convert early adopters to premium in week 8-10. Realistic first month revenue: £200-500. Path to £1K MRR: 3-4 months post-launch with strong Reddit/TikTok marketing to UK frugal-living communities.
- “I spend about £300 a month on them”
- “I actually think I'm addicted”
- “Once the cravings hit there's no stopping it”
- “I hate it because outside of that I'd say I'm pretty frugal but this wipes me out”