How I Built It: $40K/Month iPhone App

so my mobile app puff count is currently

doing $40,000 per month in recurring

Revenue I honestly don't think you need

any experience to build mobile apps

because to be H like I didn't have any

how did this guy build a $40,000 per

month mobile app with no coding

experience well it's all because of his

unconventional approach to shipping

marketing really is 95% of the success

of a mobile app Steven creada started

his journey as a typical online

entrepreneur jumping from one business

model to another while not seeing really

any success with anything but one day he

stumbled upon mobile apps and

immediately recognized the opportunity

not a lot of people are doing mobile

apps right now but it's a lot easier

than a lot of people think to get into

it's UNT so I gave Stephen a call and

asked him about his business and how

anyone can start building similar

profitable mobile apps from scratch

luckily he shared his entire process how

to find and validate your idea how to

build an app with no experience and how

to Market and monetize it all right

let's get into it I'm Pat walls and this

is starter

story what's up Stephen it's exciting to

have you thanks for joining the show can

you tell me a little bit more about

yourself and the business that you built

yeah sure I'm Steven kada I build Viral

mobile apps I've amassed over 12 million

downloads on my apps in total I'm

working on an app right now called Puff

count that is currently doing $40,000 in

monthly recurring Revenue so this is the

last 30 days of sales for puff count as

you can see we did $43,000 in sales if

we look at the last 90 we have done just

over

$112,000 in sales so before we get into

how people can actually start building

these apps can you tell us what you

really like about this business model

with apps there's unlimited scale you

can reach anyone on the planet and all

you have to do is build it once and you

can sell it a million times so it's

unlike any other business in that way

but also it's a lot easier than a lot of

people think to get into with no code

tools and with upw work you can build

these apps in less than a month and

there's templates online so you can

start you don't have to start from

scratch anymore the biggest

misconception people have is that like

it's hard to get into so like not a lot

of people are doing mobile apps right

now it's untapped but I honestly don't

think you need any experience to build

mobile apps because to be H like I

didn't have any I don't design anything

I don't develop anything I just have the

idea and I know how to put a team

together like you just need to be driven

and not not give up on your idea got it

okay let's talk about how you can

actually build something like this step

by step everything starts with an idea

right can you share your ideation

process I take mental notes of problems

that I experience in my day-to-day life

if you're building an app from the

position of solving a problem for

yourself you become the ideal user and

that makes you so much better at

creating the product and making it

useful for the people you're trying to

reach if you can solve a problem for

someone and you can kind of take them

through this transformation whether it

be weight loss dieting quitting vaping

if you can improve someone's life they

are going to love your product and the

marketing becomes much easier as well

right because you can be like hey you

have XYZ problem here's the solution so

everything becomes easy if you're

solving a problem for someone Steven is

the perfect example of how someone with

zero experience turned a simple idea

into thousands of dollars but that came

with knowing the right information and

having the right problem to solve now

imagine there was a place that gave you

all this the problems to solve the

blueprints to solve them and the

strategies that turn simple ideas into

million-dollar online businesses well

that's what you're going to get at

starter story it's a library of over

4,000 case studies and business idea

breakdowns where you can access this all

backed by data from real entrepreneurs

so if you're serious about building a

profitable side project head to the

first link in the description and we're

going to give you 52 micro SAS ideas

just like Stevens so you can get started

on your journey right now okay so

scratching your own itch is definitely

the way to go if you want to find a

painful problem but what do you do after

you get the idea for your app how do you

actually validate it's an idea worth

building I did market research I looked

at sensor Tower looked at other you know

quit drinking or quit smoking cigarettes

apps and I saw that they were crushing

it looked at Google Trends saw that

vaping was on the rise and then probably

the most important part was I looked on

Tik Tok I saw that Vape videos were

going super viral on Tik Tok but I think

where a lot of young entrepreneurs

especially fall short is they they give

up on the idea too quickly if you have a

good idea and it solves a problem for

people like commit to it just like me

for puff count the first four to 6

months I didn't make any money it was

only after I locked in the marketing

like marketing is 90% of being

successful and validating an idea all

right we'll definitely touch on the

marketing later but for now let's focus

on building the app what do you do after

the idea is locked in what I do is I

brain dump everything so I get on Google

Docs and I brain dump all the ideas all

the features that I want in the app I

put all the competitors there and I kind

of write out you know what I think the

app should do and then from there I

literally take a piece of paper and a

pencil and I start to sketch out the app

when you're looking at these competitors

and you're seeing who's making money in

your niche in the Market On the App

Store you should be taking note of

everything their features their

onboarding their UI that will give you a

good guide into what a get app looks

like and then you take those sketches

and you upload them to a site called 99

designs you upload sketches and you say

here's the app here's the premise of it

here are the features make my app come

to life and you'll have 50 60 sometimes

70 plus professional UI designers all

submit their idea of what your app

should look like this is how I develop

the UI for literally all of my apps okay

and what about turning that design into

an actual working app how do you build

it with no coding experience you go on

to upwork and you look for a developer

you can price it based on like the

complexity of your app for an app like

puff counts fairly straightforward

couple main features you get that done

for less than 5 grand right you can get

the MVP out there I recommend only

hiring developers from Eastern Europe

they're going to give you the best

quality code for a cheaper price once

you have your developer that you'd like

to go with you do it on a per project

completion basis so I don't pay anyone

per hour I pay them when the app is

complete it's on the store there's no

bugs but 100% you can build an app for

less than $1,000 you can go to a website

called theme forest and you can download

pretty decent starter template for any

app out there and again you know just

launching an MVP like keep it simple and

if your budget is tighter like the

simpler your app the better and how do

we trust the developer what if they

steal the idea for our app it's never

been a problem for me and also your

ideas are worth absolutely nothing and

more likely than not the idea that you

have for this app already exists so like

the idea is out there you just have to

trust someone I always take like a

15-minute interview call with with the

people that I like from the applicants

on upwork I get their Vibe I see are

they coming to the table with more ideas

for my app do they seem excited about it

how they present but you have to get

past that fear of hiring someone online

that you don't really know like that's

part of being a Founder is finding great

talent trusting them and iterating as

you go okay now let's talk about the

elephant in the room marketing share

your strategy marketing really is 95% of

the success of a mobile app and Tik Tok

is the best way to Market any app the

only thing you need to be successful on

Tik Tok is you need to know how to do

market research so that's exactly what I

did I went on Tik Tok I typed in vaping

and I saved all of the most viral videos

there and I put them into a spreadsheet

so I could really understand what the

hook was what the value was how they

were shooting the content for example

this one that got 8.3 million views

drove tens of thousands of downloads for

puff count I saw a viral video this guy

had like 20 million plus views taking

apart a vape so I was like okay cool I'm

going to use the same concept and I'm

going to show people exactly what are in

a vape and then at the end conveniently

call to action baby nothing crazy I

think we're lot of people go wrong is

like they'll make the entire video about

their product and they'll talk about the

features and all this other stuff and

then it becomes a clear sales video like

that sucks no one wants to watch a sales

video on Tik Tok my Tik toks are

entertainment first call to action at

the end a quick two second call to

action okay so right now Tik Tock

organic is the bread and butter of

marketing mobile apps but are there any

other marketing channels that have

worked well for you the beautiful thing

about organic Tik Tok is if the video

does well organically it's a great

indicator that it's a great creative in

general you put them on paid ads and

click the spend my money button that's

literally all you have to do because as

long as the creative is good the

algorithms on Facebook ads or Tik Tok

ads or whatever they will optimize

around that solid creative and they will

find you customers what you can also do

is you can find influencers on these

platforms and you can pay them to make

content for you in my experience it's

tough to you know work with influencers

they always want a ton of cash and they

don't really care you know how the

videos perform for you but you can find

those diamond in the rough creators and

you can reach out to them and get pretty

cheap content and you can use that in

scale that way uh as well okay cool now

let's talk about the next step of the

process of building a mobile app

monetization what's the best strategy to

turn these users or turn these eyeballs

into paying customers yeah so there's

there's many different ways to monetize

apps and in my first games I monetized

through ads because people were on the

app all the time they were playing the

game a lot so the ads worked well for or

grid and whle but for these tool focused

apps like puff count ads don't really

work because you're not expecting the

user to be on your app for a super long

period of time so the way you monetize

that is through inapp purchases you need

the user to either buy your app or

commit to monthly yearly Weekly

subscription the kind of strategy that

everyone is using now is the app is free

you go through the onboarding and then

you hit what is called a hard pay wall

this is essentially a screen that asks

you to pay and if you don't pay you can

access the features in the app a hard

pay wall is unskippable when I changed

puff count to a hard pay wall and I made

users commit to a free trial before they

could use any features in the app it

changed my business overnight my

conversion rate shot through the roof

upwards of 20 25% nice and what about

pricing how can someone find the best

price point for their app I AB tested

different pricings I started at $4 went

up to $12 right with a lot of users

coming to your app you're getting a lot

of data and you're understanding which

price point gives you the highest LTV

the highest lifetime value I use super

wall to do this you can remotely

configure your pay walls and you can

change the price without sending App

Store updates so you can do it much

quicker and super wall will actually

tell you which price point will give you

the best LTV so I just optimize for that

the highest LTV price point you

mentioned earlier that before getting

hit with the pay wall the user is being

walked through the onboarding process

what's your experience with that the

onboarding is super important because

this is an opportunity for you to walk

the user through their own problem so

for example on puff count my onboarding

is extensive and I ask the users a lot

of questions and some people say that's

annoying I don't want to do that I just

want to get into the app but the data

has told me that if I walk the users

through the onboarding they commit time

and I'm able to walk them through their

problem that puff count is solving so

when they hit the pay wall they've

thought about their problem a lot and

they're like wow I actually really do

need to quit or I really do need this

product and they're much more likely to

convert all right now let's get

technical what tools in software do you

use to build all of these apps the Tex

stack I use to build apps is pretty

short I use upwork to find and hire

developers I use 99 designs to get the

UI built I use super wall to AB test my

pay walls optimizing your pay wall is

how you're going to make money with your

app like you need to optimize your pay

wall and find the highest LTV so that is

100% essential everyone who has a mobile

app should be using super wall I use

Revenue cat for analytics data Revenue

cat is good too because that will give

you more data on your user lifetime

value and again your user lifetime value

is like the most important metric in

your app you need to understand how much

paying users are generating you over

their lifetime so that you know how much

you can spend on paid ads or on

influencers or on installs and as long

as your customer acquisition cost is

lower than your LTV you're you're making

money I use apps flyer as my MMP it

connects with my my mobile app and

Facebook or Tik Tok ads and sends data

back to those platforms I use Tik Tok

and Facebook ads to send traffic I also

use mix panel amplitude to get kind of

more in-depth analytics in my products

and see what people are doing in the app

once they do download it once they do

pay and Gat code is like you should stay

on the free plans I don't think you

should ever really upgrade mix panel or

amplitude like you should get your data

understand what you need to change and

then get out all right for anyone

looking for ideas I want to ask what do

you think is the most lucrative Niche to

build an app in right now when I look at

like the most profitable niches in

mobile apps I think a lot of them do

have to do with help helping people be

better lose weight quit vaping quit

drinking anything in the health space I

think will absolutely crush and of

course like there are already apps that

are doing really well like in Fitness

you have like my fitness pal you have

all these weight training apps but it

comes down to the marketing can you get

in front of people at a cheaper cost

than these mobile apps right being a

young founder you truly do have an

advantage because all these old heads in

the industry these big slow moving

companies that never iterate on their

idea a small Nimble entrepreneur rur can

take them out all it takes is one viral

Tik Tok all right another question for

you some people watching this right now

may have started a couple other things

before but didn't see immediate results

and eventually gave up or quit what

advice would you give to those people

the struggle of building something new

is it's never going to be perfect on the

first try but I've done this enough

times now to know it's a process and you

have to keep iterating I know it's a

good idea I know it can make money

that's all I need I don't need it to

work super quick right like I just need

that Val validation um and then I can go

out into the market and talk to talk to

customers and make it better over time

everything is built over time puff

Count's been live for 4 years but only

the last 6 or seven months have I really

made decent Revenue per month it takes

time it takes commitment and you have to

be willing to learn all right next

question how does a day in the life look

like for a mobile app builder like you

I'm actually nomading I've been

traveling for about 6 months now I'm in

Europe time so my day doesn't start till

later in the afternoon like 1:00 p.m. is

when I start hopping on the phone and

talking to people so I have my morning

to myself make a coffee go to the gym

get a workout in and then I'm in the

zone to start you know building start

talking to my team start taking sales

calls whatever it is and I work till 700

8 900 p.m. sometimes much later

depending on what's getting done and

then you know on the weekends I have a

chance to explore an entirely new city

and new culture and meet new people and

try new things so inspiration is a

fleeting feeling and when you do feel

inspired to build an app or build a new

project or work super hard like you have

to take advantage of it going back to

why I kind of like decided to be a nomad

and travel like it's so I can do more of

that so when I had these moments of

inspiration I wasn't distracted by

anything I can lock in all right last

question that we always ask if you could

stand on young Steven's shoulders and

give him some advice or advice for

anyone who wants to make it in this

online business world what advice would

you give first of all it's not as hard

as you think like you just have to be

driven and you have to you know be

willing to to work with people who have

skill sets that you don't Outsource what

you're bad at and build a team around

you build a team that you trust treat

your team well and again don't give up

super early on the idea it takes months

sometimes years for a project to take

off relentlessly talk to users get

feedback and iterate Based on data a

huge mistake that I see first time

mobile app Founders doing is like

they're like hey I have this random idea

for a feature in my app that I think I'm

going to spend two months developing

right before launching my MVP don't do

that like go to market with something

simple that you can afford get feedback

from users and then build on top of it

with your team all right stepen thank

you so much for your time the businesses

that you've built are amazing and thank

you for coming on here and sharing it

with everyone peace Brother yo guys I

really hope you enjoyed the rest of the

video and got some good takeaways from

Stephen but I want to say something

quick at the end of the day the point of

these videos is to inspire you and show

you that this is possible so that you

can go start your own thing on your own

while learning is important and will

give you new ideas action is the thing

that's actually going to move the needle

forward and take you where you want to

go so research learn find an idea and

then go build that as fast as you

can if you're still feeling a little

loss right now click that first link in

the description and you're going to get

a free list of micro SAS business ideas

so you can get going on your side

project much love and I'll see you guys

in the next one peace

[Music]