This Simple App Makes $18K/Month — Transcript

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1. 0:00I am obsessed with finding niche apps
2. 0:02that make money, and today I have one to
3. 0:04show you that will blow your mind.
4. 0:06>> With the help of AI, we built an app
5. 0:09that makes over 18K a month now.
6. 0:12>> Meet Ryan. He's a normal guy who quit
7. 0:14his designer job and decided to start
8. 0:16building apps.
9. 0:17>> I left my 200K job to build my own
10. 0:19business.
11. 0:20>> And the first one that he built already
12. 0:22crossed $18,000 a month. And when he
13. 0:24showed me what this app does, I knew I
14. 0:26had to bring him on to the channel. In
15. 0:27this episode, we're going to dive into
16. 0:29the ridiculously simple app idea that's
17. 0:31making him $18,000 [music]
18. 0:33a month, exactly how he found this idea
19. 0:35and built it 100% with AI, and his
20. 0:38advice for building apps that stand out
21. 0:41from the rest. All right, this is one
22. 0:43that you cannot miss. Let's dive in. I'm
23. 0:46Pat Walls, and this is Starter Story.
24. 0:50Ryan, welcome to the channel. I'm pumped
25. 0:52to have you on here and talk about this
26. 0:53super cool app that you built. So, tell
27. 0:56me who you are, what you built, and
28. 0:57what's your story.
29. 0:58>> Hi, I'm Ryan, a product designer turned
30. 1:00to indie developer. I left my 200K job
31. 1:04to build my own business. It took a few
32. 1:06years, but with the help of AI and my
33. 1:08girlfriend, we built an app that makes
34. 1:11over 18K a month now.
35. 1:13>> Okay, cool. You're a solopreneur with
36. 1:14the help of your girlfriend, you were
37. 1:15able to build an app that makes $18,000
38. 1:18a month. Let's see it. What is the app
39. 1:20that you built? And then also, if you
40. 1:21could pull up some of your Stripe
41. 1:22screenshots to show that this is legit.
42. 1:24>> So, the app is called Cat on Chair.
43. 1:26[music]
44. 1:27It's a Pomodoro timer for cat lovers. Uh
45. 1:30we didn't want to build another boring,
46. 1:32cold productivity app. We want to have
47. 1:35some fun. So, for this app, it's not
48. 1:37just a regular timer, but when you are
49. 1:40start focusing, the cat will jump on the
50. 1:42chair and just be there with you. And
51. 1:45once you are done, the cat will leave
52. 1:46you a gift. Overall, we crossed 127K
53. 1:50downloads. And for our sales, we made
54. 1:54close to 80K for span of 8-9 months. In
55. 1:58the last 30 days from April 13, we made
56. 2:01over 18K. That's our sale. And in terms
57. 2:04of first time downloads, it's around
58. 2:06[music]
59. 2:0724K downloads. It is a free app.
60. 2:09Everyone can download it, use it. And
61. 2:12but we have many pro features. And our
62. 2:15lifetime plan is $29.99. And our annual
63. 2:18is $19.99. We also have a family share,
64. 2:21which people can buy it and there is up
65. 2:23to six people. Most of sales come from
66. 2:26the lifetime. So at the peak, we hit
67. 2:29rank three for free productivity apps
68. 2:32and rank 11 for all free apps in Taiwan.
69. 2:35>> All right, cool. So one thing I love
70. 2:36about your app is it's super fun. It's
71. 2:38like designed really well. I can see why
72. 2:41it potentially went viral and you had
73. 2:43all this word of mouth. So we're going
74. 2:44to talk more about that. But before we
75. 2:46do, let's talk about your background.
76. 2:47Have you always been building apps? Were
77. 2:49you working a job before? How did you
78. 2:51get to this point where you have an app
79. 2:52that's doing almost $20,000 a month?
80. 2:54>> Yeah. So this is actually the first app
81. 2:56we released. So I was a product designer
82. 2:59at various tech startups. [music] But I
83. 3:01always felt like I'm wasting my
84. 3:03potential because I was only doing
85. 3:06design works. So I quit my job and tried
86. 3:08to build something on my own. And so
87. 3:10about a year ago, AI coding became a
88. 3:13viable option for building iOS apps. And
89. 3:16it [music] was always my dream to ship
90. 3:18one. So I just decided to try.
91. 3:20>> I love the app that Ryan built. I think
92. 3:22this is super cool. Why? Because it's
93. 3:24proof that you do not need a complicated
94. 3:26app to make [music] real money. All you
95. 3:28need is an idea and the right tools to
96. 3:30ship it. And this is why we launched the
97. 3:32iOS bootcamp, which is our free program
98. 3:34where we will help you come up with an
99. 3:35idea, build it with AI, and get it ready
100. 3:38to ship to the App Store. If you join
101. 3:39this bootcamp, within a few days, your
102. 3:41app idea could be live and ready to make
103. 3:44money. So if you are finally ready to
104. 3:46start building, just head to the first
105. 3:48link in the description, click that, and
106. 3:49you You started on your app for free.
107. 3:52All right, let's get back to the
108. 3:53episode. That's super cool because
109. 3:55hopefully there's a lot of product
110. 3:57designers on here watching this right
111. 3:58now that maybe two, three, five years
112. 4:00ago weren't able to build things cuz
113. 4:02they weren't technical. But you, because
114. 4:04of AI coding, you were able to take your
115. 4:06really great design skills and now
116. 4:08actually build stuff. So, let's talk
117. 4:10about this. Can you give me the timeline
118. 4:11of how long it took to build this and
119. 4:13exactly how you built it, what tools you
120. 4:15used?
121. 4:16>> I started around May 2025. It actually
122. 4:19took a while for us to get the first
123. 4:21version up and running. So, after a few
124. 4:23weeks, we finally got a simple Pomodoro
125. 4:26timer done. Then we started fleshing out
126. 4:28the concept and the mechanics, like how
127. 4:31to show the cat animations. By August,
128. 4:34we finally had the first version ready.
129. 4:36We invited dozens of people on RedNotes
130. 4:39to beta test it. We spent about a month
131. 4:42gathering feedback, fixing bug,
132. 4:44iterating on it. The app launched August
133. 4:4627th. We had about 3,000 downloads in
134. 4:49the first week, but wasn't really a
135. 4:51smooth sailing. There were so many bugs
136. 4:54[music] even after a month of testing.
137. 4:56Some of the bugs were pretty serious,
138. 4:58like data not syncing between devices.
139. 5:00It wasn't until around December or
140. 5:03January that we had a relatively stable
141. 5:06version. During that time, we had a few
142. 5:08small viral moments on RedNotes, but the
143. 5:11app truly took off when some Instagram
144. 5:14influencers started sharing app
145. 5:16collection posts featuring us. And one
146. 5:18of them exploded and hitting over 2
147. 5:21million views. From there, someone in
148. 5:23Taiwan saw it, shared our app on Threads
149. 5:26where it went viral all over again. That
150. 5:29chain of events essentially doubled our
151. 5:31downloads and revenue overnight.
152. 5:33>> That's super cool. And as I understand
153. 5:35it, this is mainly for Chinese and
154. 5:38Taiwanese markets. Is that where most of
155. 5:39your users come from?
156. 5:40>> That's correct as for now. It was mainly
157. 5:43because my girlfriend had a RedNotes of
158. 5:46before sharing her illustrations and so
159. 5:49she had some followers there already.
160. 5:51So, that's where we started in the
161. 5:53beginning, but now we are definitely
162. 5:56targeting more to the English audience
163. 5:58or pretty much worldwide.
164. 6:00>> That's super cool. You know, we talked
165. 6:01to a lot of founders who build apps for
166. 6:03US market or even just English market.
167. 6:04That shows just how big the world is in
168. 6:06building apps. We're going to get to
169. 6:08that, but before we do, I'm just curious
170. 6:09what tools you used to build this cuz
171. 6:11you were a designer. You didn't know all
172. 6:13the lay of the land in terms of
173. 6:15developer tools. What were the actual
174. 6:17tools that you used to build this and
175. 6:19turn it into something that's used by
176. 6:20hundreds of thousands of people?
177. 6:22>> Yeah, right now I'm mainly use ChatGPT
178. 6:25Pro plan for the coding part. I'm also
179. 6:28using other tools like RevenueCat which
180. 6:30is super popular paywall and
181. 6:32subscription management tool. It costs
182. 6:34around 200 to 300 depends on our revenue
183. 6:38of the month.
184. 6:39is an ASO optimization tool. It costs
185. 6:43uh, $10 a month. There's Droids, just a
186. 6:45user feedback board. It's free.
187. 6:47>> Okay, cool. One reason why seems like
188. 6:50your app blew up, you just built
189. 6:51something really cool. People loved it.
190. 6:53They shared it organically. They shared
191. 6:55it through word of mouth. You don't hear
192. 6:57about that as much anymore. So, I'd love
193. 6:59to talk about how did you actually come
194. 7:01up with the idea for this and how did
195. 7:03you know it could be something that
196. 7:05hundreds of thousands of people would
197. 7:06potentially use it. How did you have the
198. 7:07conviction to go all in on this cool cat
199. 7:10on chair Pomodoro timer idea?
200. 7:13>> The idea actually came from a necklace
201. 7:15my girlfriend made. It's a a little cat
202. 7:18sitting on a chair. I named it cat on
203. 7:20chair and I really loved the name. So, I
204. 7:22knew I had to use it to build something
205. 7:24around it and everyone knows cats love
206. 7:27curling up beside you while you work. As
207. 7:29cat owners, we especially know there are
208. 7:31something so calming, healing about
209. 7:34those moments. So, having a cat sit on
210. 7:36your chair while you focus just [music]
211. 7:38made the perfect sense. I girlfriend is
212. 7:40a big Animal Crossing fan. So, she
213. 7:43suggest we should add some customization
214. 7:45to the app like [music] different
215. 7:46furnitures, different cats, backgrounds.
216. 7:49So, the whole experience feels more
217. 7:51personal and it gave people more reasons
218. 7:54to keep coming back.
219. 7:55>> Okay, I think that's super cool cuz it's
220. 7:57just different. I mean, I'm a huge fan
221. 7:59of Animal Crossing as well. It's one of
222. 8:00my favorite games, played it as a kid.
223. 8:02And I can see why this is popular for a
224. 8:05certain sort of niche audience, right?
225. 8:07That kind of likes cats, they like cute
226. 8:09things, they
227. 8:10want to collect different furniture like
228. 8:12you do in Animal Crossing. So, it kind
229. 8:13of makes sense to me, but I'm still
230. 8:15trying to understand how this thing
231. 8:16actually makes almost $20,000 a month
232. 8:18when it's really just a Pomodoro Timer.
233. 8:21I'm curious why this does so well when
234. 8:23there are thousands of Pomodoro Timers
235. 8:25out there.
236. 8:25>> It's really hard to innovate on the
237. 8:27feature set of Pomodoro Timers. There
238. 8:30are already tons out there, but combined
239. 8:33with a cat theme and the customization
240. 8:35mechanics, we are able to add unique
241. 8:37features that motivate people to keep
242. 8:39using it. So, all our best features
243. 8:41coming from asking how do we replicate
244. 8:44the physical experience of having a cat
245. 8:47in a digital app. And the gift
246. 8:48collection system was just inspired by
247. 8:51the memes of cats bringing dead mice to
248. 8:54their owners. So, we thought why not
249. 8:56have the cat leave a gift after a
250. 8:58successful session and leave a trash if
251. 9:01the session fails. We have codes for
252. 9:03each cat based on their backstory and
253. 9:05personality. Our users push us even
254. 9:08further. So, they wanted to actually
255. 9:10interact with a cat. They pat the cat.
256. 9:13So, we added a meow animation that
257. 9:15triggers when you tap on the cat or just
258. 9:18say its name out loud. And Stephanie, my
259. 9:21girlfriend illustrations play a huge
260. 9:23role in this. Her style is truly unique
261. 9:25and there's nothing quite like it in the
262. 9:27market. So, when we put everything
263. 9:29together, Cat N App it has playfulness,
264. 9:32personality that the competition [music]
265. 9:34doesn't have. Some of users shared great
266. 9:37feedback with us. One user told us after
267. 9:39her cat passed away, she found a similar
268. 9:42looking cat in our app and it feel like
269. 9:44she could see her cat again. Wow.
270. 9:47>> There's something about this that I just
271. 9:49love it. Is this app, it feels like
272. 9:51handcrafted. It feels like a piece of
273. 9:53art. It feels unique, like no one else
274. 9:56could build this app other than you and
275. 9:58your girlfriend because of this idea
276. 10:00that you have. I just think this is so
277. 10:02cool. This feels like the future of
278. 10:03software. Yes, I can use my Pomodoro
279. 10:05timer and it gives me utility and I
280. 10:07could build that in, you know, two hours
281. 10:10with AI coding. But what AI can't do is
282. 10:13build this like handcrafted, this
283. 10:15experience. I don't know if you have any
284. 10:17thoughts on that, on other app ideas
285. 10:20that you want to build or for anyone
286. 10:21watching this that wants to build cool,
287. 10:23unique and simple apps and clearly it's
288. 10:25working for you. So, I don't know if you
289. 10:27have any advice or ideas on that.
290. 10:29>> I would say just start from finding a
291. 10:30app you already using or you are
292. 10:33generally interested in and then go
293. 10:35deeper on your competitions, like study
294. 10:37all the App Store reviews, social media,
295. 10:40everything and then think about how you
296. 10:42can remix features or mechanics from
297. 10:45other industries. The games are
298. 10:47definitely a good place to start because
299. 10:49they are full of elements designed to
300. 10:52motivate and retain users and of course
301. 10:55if you can't find a an illustrator to
302. 10:57collaborate or use AI to develop a
303. 11:00distinctive visual style, that
304. 11:03definitely would help to set your app
305. 11:04apart.
306. 11:05>> Okay, cool. Well, thanks for sharing
307. 11:06that. I think there's huge opportunities
308. 11:08in this space to build playful software.
309. 11:10I think it's super cool. So, on that
310. 11:12note, I'd love to see it. Could you give
311. 11:14us a demo of this cat on chair
312. 11:17productivity app that makes almost
313. 11:19$20,000 a month?
314. 11:20>> Yeah. So, here's the app. Once you open
315. 11:23the app, you will see the timer,
316. 11:25obviously, and like different background
317. 11:28furnitures. The gifts down there are the
318. 11:30ones you collect from doing the session
319. 11:33and you can play around with it. So,
320. 11:35once you start, the cat will show up and
321. 11:38jump on the chair. So, when you are
322. 11:40done, the cat will leave you a gift. You
323. 11:42can take a break like follow the
324. 11:44traditional Pomodoro Timer format, but
325. 11:46you can also like focus 10 more minutes
326. 11:49and then you can sell your gift. Again,
327. 11:51there's some cute animation here which
328. 11:53will give you a fish. You can go on shop
329. 11:56and switch to different cat. [music] We
330. 11:59also have different furnitures and
331. 12:01different backgrounds. We have animated
332. 12:04background as well. We have different
333. 12:06features like the timeline where you can
334. 12:08see where you focused history and you
335. 12:11can add a sticker here as well. We have
336. 12:14to-do list as well and a whole lot of
337. 12:17other features.
338. 12:18>> Okay, well, thanks for sharing that.
339. 12:19Super cool, super unique. I've never
340. 12:21seen anything like it. Hopefully, people
341. 12:23watching get some inspiration on what
342. 12:25you can do with software now and how
343. 12:27software is going to change, be more
344. 12:28playful, be more fun. Maybe that is the
345. 12:30future of apps. But anyways, the last
346. 12:33question that we have, ask everyone who
347. 12:34comes on to Starter Story is if you
348. 12:36could go back in time, you know, when
349. 12:37you were a product designer and you were
350. 12:39maybe thinking, could I build an app?
351. 12:40Could I not build an app? What would be
352. 12:42your advice you'd give to your younger
353. 12:44self or for anyone watching this that
354. 12:45maybe is a designer and wants to build
355. 12:47stuff like you?
356. 12:48>> Yeah, I would say just keep trying, be
357. 12:50consistent. It took me a few years to
358. 12:53really find what I love to do and what
359. 12:56I'm good at [music] and it took me a
360. 12:57couple tries to build this app. Like it
361. 13:00was not easy smooth sailing thing to
362. 13:03build app with AI. Yeah, so I would say
363. 13:05just keep trying and eventually you will
364. 13:08find something you love, you enjoy
365. 13:10doing.
366. 13:11>> All that's great advice. Thanks for Ryan
367. 13:13for coming on it and sharing. It's super
368. 13:15cool. It's going to inspire a lot of
369. 13:16people. Thanks for coming on.
370. 13:18>> Yeah, thank you for having me.
371. 13:19>> Gus from Starter Story, what do you
372. 13:21think of [music] this one?
373. 13:22>> Well, that was awesome. One of the
374. 13:24reasons I wanted to bring him on was
375. 13:25like, man, this is such a unique and
376. 13:28cool and sort of chill idea that's
377. 13:30making 10,000 20,000 a month.
378. 13:32>> [music]
379. 13:33>> Too cool of a story in my opinion."
380. 13:34>> Yeah. So, that's my first thought.
381. 13:35>> Yeah. If I could take anything away from
382. 13:37this, and it may not be what people are
383. 13:38expecting me to say, but is that if you
384. 13:41have some sort of skill, lean into that
385. 13:43skill for the business that you decide
386. 13:44to build or the app you decide to build.
387. 13:46So, for him, he was a designer. He was
388. 13:48able to make this app really cool and
389. 13:50unique from a design perspective, right?
390. 13:53>> Yeah.
391. 13:53>> But, let's say that you are maybe more
392. 13:55of a I don't know, data analyst, [music]
393. 13:56right? How can you make an app better
394. 13:58because of your skills that you already
395. 14:00have? Something unique that only you
396. 14:02could do. So, I think that's one thing.
397. 14:04And then, the other question I had for
398. 14:05you is
399. 14:06>> [music]
400. 14:06>> we didn't talk about the growth of his
401. 14:08business at all because it did seem like
402. 14:10it was almost random. What did you think
403. 14:12about that?
404. 14:13>> Yeah, I think this would be kind of a
405. 14:14guess, but I feel like what made it grow
406. 14:17was that handcrafted [music] custom,
407. 14:19doesn't look vibe coded, doesn't look
408. 14:21basic kind of app design. And I bet
409. 14:24that's what sort of went viral on Reddit
410. 14:27notes because I would imagine people saw
411. 14:28this and thought, "Wow, this is really
412. 14:30unique. This is different. [music]
413. 14:31I want to use it." And I imagine that's
414. 14:34what made a difference.
415. 14:35>> Yeah, no, I think a lot of people go,
416. 14:36"Hey, I want to build an app." And then,
417. 14:38they expect that it's going to blow up
418. 14:40like the people they watch on here,
419. 14:42right? But, what I like about Ryan and
420. 14:44>> [music]
421. 14:44>> the vibe that I got was like he wanted
422. 14:46to build this because he wanted to exist
423. 14:48in the world. He didn't have probably
424. 14:50any expectations of how much money it
425. 14:53would make. And because of that, because
426. 14:55it was cool, it was unique, and he put
427. 14:56care and love into the product, then it
428. 14:59did the exact opposite, which is that it
429. 15:01went viral. People were sharing it
430. 15:03organically. So, that's why I think this
431. 15:04is one of the most important interviews
432. 15:06[music] that we've ever done. So, on
433. 15:08that note, if you have an idea, if you
434. 15:10want to put care into something that you
435. 15:12build, or use your skills to build your
436. 15:15first iOS app, well, I'll put a link in
437. 15:17the description for you to access our
438. 15:19iOS bootcamp, which will take you from
439. 15:21idea to actually shipping a real iOS app
440. 15:24into the world. [music] It doesn't need
441. 15:25to be the perfect app, but if it's
442. 15:26something you can build, you should do
443. 15:28it. All right. Hope you guys enjoyed
444. 15:29this episode. Let us know what you
445. 15:30thought in the comments. We'll see you
446. 15:32in the next one. Peace.