How I Find App Ideas That Print ($90k/month Micro SaaS)

If you've clicked on this video, chances

are you're eager to dive into the world

of mobile apps, but you're unsure of

where to start. And this is where most

founders get stuck. The idea, maybe you

don't even have an idea yet, or maybe

you have millions of ideas, but you have

no idea which one is worth building. And

here's the harsh truth. Most apps fail

not because they're poorly built. They

fail because the idea was never

validated in the first place. So, in

this video, I'm going to break down my

exact framework that I use to find and

validate mobile app ideas that print. I

have built and scaled apps to millions

of downloads. My previous app,

PuffCount, scaled to $44,000 per month

in monthly recurring revenue before I

sold the business. My new mobile app,

Posted, is crossing $90,000 per month. I

have successfully exited two companies,

and I've worked with and alongside other

founders doing the exact same. I have

been able to consistently build

successful mobile apps, not because I'm

lucky, but because I chose the correct

ideas to invest my time and money into.

And I have developed a simple four-step

framework that you can follow to do the

same. Stop guessing. Build what people

will actually pay for. Let's get into

it. Boom. Here it is. The blueprint for

finding and validating mobile app ideas

broken down into a simple four-step

process. Step number one is figuring out

the idea itself. Step number two is

validating this idea. Step number three

is taking a marketing mindset when

picking our idea. And step number four,

probably the most important, is making

sure this idea is actually feasible to

get done and build. We want to build

quickly so we can get it to market and

start making cash. So step number one,

we want to look for and solve real

problems, not just some crazy weird idea

that's never been built before. If your

idea solves a painful problem, your life

in the mobile app game will be so much

easier. People are more willing to pay

for an app that solves their problems.

And marketing it is easy. Hey, here's a

problem, a popular problem. Our app

solves that problem. Boom. You got them.

So, let's start with a problem. We want

to find a very painful problem or

desire. Generally speaking, those can be

related to health, wealth, relationship,

status, or convenience and freedom. And

look, if we look in the top charts at

the top grossing apps, we can ignore

YouTube and all the massive companies

out there, but boom, we have Tinder.

What's that? relationships. One of the

top trending apps, X status, one of the

top trending apps, Instagram status,

Hinge, dating, LinkedIn status. And we

can even go on Sensor Tower and we can

break down different niches if we want

to. We can see the top grossing apps in

the health and wellness niche. My

fitness pal, health, fitness. You can

browse through the top apps and you can

see which ideas are making the most

money. We want to keep our problem

simple, especially for the MVP. In the

very beginning stages, we want to solve

one painful problem with one solution.

That's how Puff Count started. My app

that I scaled to $44,000 per month and

monthly recurring revenue. I had one

feature that solved one problem.

Quitting vaping. You track your puffs in

the app. It was that simple. And up

until the very end before I sold the

company, that was the main selling

feature. That's what I marketed. That's

why people came to my app. Controversy.

Also very important to keep in mind.

Puff count was a very controversial app.

Vaping is a controversial topic. If your

app has some sort of controversy

involved, it will make the marketing go

crazy. And trust me on that, I grew my

Puff page to 120,000 followers and our

content was getting millions and

millions of views. Not because I'm some

wizard at content, but because it was

controversial. Look at all the top

comments. 15,000 likes on this comment.

Giving people money to buy new vapes.

So, I wonder how many people took that

money and then they buy another one. No

one quit. People love to hate. They love

to comment on stuff. We're going to use

that to our advantage. So, again, you

can look at what is trending right now.

You can go to Sensor Tower. You can look

at the top app app store charts. You can

look at what is trending on social

media. I knew Puff Count would be a

killer idea because vaping was going

mega viral across social media. I kept

seeing Tik Toks about vaping, how

unhealthy it was, how hard it was to

quit. And on top of that, we can also

look at Google Trends. Here's the Google

trend for the keywords quit vaping. If

you notice, it's up and to the right,

almost at an all-time high in terms of

interest over time. This is in the

United States. If we go to worldwide,

same story. This is a global problem

that people are actively looking for.

What's your idea? Type it into Google

search. Is it going up into the right?

If it is, that's a great sign. We can

also look at app marketplaces. We can

look at flippa. We can look at acquire.

We can sort the flipp of listings by

most profitable and we can see what apps

are the most profitable. This meditation

and yoga app selling for $800,000. They

make $20,000 every single month. It's

live here for you to see. Go on to

Flippa. You can see exactly what apps

are crushing it and how much money

they're making. This is an absolute

cheat code. Here's a VPN app making

$17,000 a month. Here's a chat, flirt,

and dating app making 15K a month. We

can do the same thing on acquire. We can

go to acquire and we can filter by

mobile app and we can filter by annual

revenue high to low. We're going to do

mobile app. Apply. Annual revenue high

to low. This company is making $10

million. It is a QR code reader. Simple

idea. Painful problem. $10 million a

month. Let's look at the next one.

Teaches you how to do math homework.

$6.4 $4 million a month. High growth app

portfolio. Blueco collar job and

recruitment services. AI powered video

editing. AI makeup app. This is a cheat

code. If you are interested in or

already building an app of your own and

you want to connect with other founders

in the space who are already doing 10,

50, upwards of $100,000 per month, you

should join our app founder group call.

The link to join the group call is in

the description. Step number two, let's

make sure that this problem is actually

trending. We need to validate this idea.

Once we've found our idea, let's

validate it. Let's do market research.

My favorite market research tool in

terms of finding viral social media

content is going on to viral ad

library.com. We can see all of the most

viral videos. We can see how many views

these videos have and we can see what

app they're for. This tool is an

absolute cheat code. You can see all of

these other apps videos. You can do

competitor research here and you can see

who is crushing it and how. They have

Tik Tok, they have Instagram, you can

sort by paid ads, you can sort by

organic content, you can sort by most

views and you can search here. Viral ad

library is the market research tool for

figuring out what's going viral on

social media. And again, we can also use

sensor tower. We can go to the top app

charts. We can see how much revenue

they're making. Calorie counter My

Fitness Pal making a boatload of money.

Flow period cycle tracker making a

boatload of money. Let's go to the

lifestyle. Tinder making a boatload of

money obviously. T dating advice

$600,000 a month. Go on to sensor tower

and again competition is good. Make sure

that other apps in your space are making

money. That is a good sign competition

is healthy in the app game. Do not be

afraid of the competition. And again, if

the Google trend search volume is going

up, the iOS app store search volume is

going up. I can promise you that. Now,

we need to approach the idea with a

marketing mindset. This is the most

important part. Marketing is 95% of the

success of a mobile app. Let's pretend

for a second your app is the worst app

on the planet. If you can market that

app and you can get a million people to

look at your app, it will succeed. A

certain percentage will purchase their

product. And on the flip side, let's

pretend you have a really cool looking

app and it's great and it's fully

polished and you spent 2 years building

it, but it's not marketable and you

can't get people to the front door.

Which business succeeds? The bad app

with great marketing. Marketing is the

most important part in mobile apps.

Especially in today's day and age where

anyone can build a mobile app with AI

tools, freelancers, whatever it is, the

barrier to entry is lowering. However,

with that, the barrier to entry to

marketing is getting higher and higher

and higher. That is your moat. The one

thing that separates the winners from

the losers is a distribution strategy.

So, make sure your app and your idea are

marketable. So, how do we make sure it's

marketable? Again, the validation stage

up here will help a lot, but are people

talking about it on social media? Are

there Tik Tok videos about this? Are

there Reddit threads about this? Are

there Twitter posts about your idea,

your problem, your niche in general?

Take out your phone, go on to Tik Tok,

type in your keywords, sort by most

liked videos of all time, and if there

are viral videos there, that is your

market research. That is how you know if

your idea is going to be marketable. Use

those ideas to build content for your

product. Social media is the instant

demand check on whether your product is

marketable or not. The more viral videos

you have in that specific niche, the

easier it will be for you. Step number

four, the most important part,

feasibility. Can you actually build this

app? Simplicity wins. I'll remind you

the QR code reader that's making $10

million. Simplicity wins. Keep the app

simple, especially for your MVP. You

want to build, launch, and validate your

app as fast as possible without wasting

a ton of time and without wasting a ton

of money. Don't worry about your app

being simple or not polished or it has

bugs or whatever. That's okay. News

flash, there will always be new stuff

for you to build. There will always be

that one small bug. There's always going

to be something for you to update. But

that's okay because part of being a

founder and part of being in the mobile

app game is adapting. Adapting to

change, getting feedback from your

users, from your customers, and adapting

to that change. Do not get stuck in this

endless loop of building the perfect

product. you will fail. Launch quickly,

get feedback from real people using your

product, and adapt. And lastly, don't be

afraid to move fast, break things, and

learn as you go. Because at the end of

the day, yes, we're here to make amazing

products. We're here to make some cash,

but building mobile apps is fun, baby.

Being an app founder is one of the most

rewarding jobs in the world. And it will

give you time freedom, location freedom,

and financial freedom. And I can say

that because I've done it myself. So, go

validate that idea. Protect your time.

Protect your money. Make sure that your

product is marketable and you'll crush

it. If you want to get in touch with me,

if you want my opinion on your app idea

or you want to work with me or you want

to ask me a question or whatever, shoot

me a DM on Instagram, Stephven Builds,

and subscribe to the channel. I'm

dropping sauce all the time. Hope you

enjoyed. See you on the next one.