# This Simple App Makes $18K/Month

Channel: Starter Story
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_4kiR3R4QU
Duration: 16 min
Language: English
Words: 3134
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/V_4kiR3R4QU

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[0:00] I am obsessed with finding niche apps that make money, and today I have one to show you that will blow your mind. With the help of AI, we built an app that makes over 18K a month now. Meet Ryan. He's a normal guy who quit his designer job and decided to start building apps. I left my 200K job to build my own

[0:19] business. And the first one that he built already crossed $18,000 a month. And when he showed me what this app does, I knew I had to bring him on to the channel. In this episode, we're going to dive into the ridiculously simple app idea that's making him $18,000 [music] a month, exactly how he found this idea and built it 100% with AI, and his advice for building apps that stand out from the rest. All right, this is one that you cannot miss. Let's dive in. I'm

[0:46] Pat Walls, and this is Starter Story. Ryan, welcome to the channel. I'm pumped to have you on here and talk about this super cool app that you built. So, tell me who you are, what you built, and what's your story. Hi, I'm Ryan, a product designer turned to indie developer. I left my 200K job to build my own business. It took a few years, but with the help of AI and my girlfriend, we built an app that makes

[1:11] over 18K a month now. Okay, cool. You're a solopreneur with the help of your girlfriend, you were able to build an app that makes $18,000 a month. Let's see it. What is the app that you built? And then also, if you could pull up some of your Stripe screenshots to show that this is legit.

[1:24] So, the app is called Cat on Chair. [music] It's a Pomodoro timer for cat lovers. Uh we didn't want to build another boring, cold productivity app. We want to have some fun. So, for this app, it's not just a regular timer, but when you are start focusing, the cat will jump on the chair and just be there with you. And once you are done, the cat will leave you a gift. Overall, we crossed 127K downloads. And for our sales, we made close to 80K for span of 8-9 months. In the last 30 days from April 13, we made over 18K. That's our sale. And in terms

[2:04] of first time downloads, it's around [music] 24K downloads. It is a free app. Everyone can download it, use it. And but we have many pro features. And our lifetime plan is $29.99. And our annual is $19.99. We also have a family share, which people can buy it and there is up to six people. Most of sales come from the lifetime. So at the peak, we hit rank three for free productivity apps

[2:32] and rank 11 for all free apps in Taiwan. All right, cool. So one thing I love about your app is it's super fun. It's like designed really well. I can see why it potentially went viral and you had all this word of mouth. So we're going to talk more about that. But before we

[2:46] do, let's talk about your background. Have you always been building apps? Were you working a job before? How did you get to this point where you have an app that's doing almost $20,000 a month? Yeah. So this is actually the first app we released. So I was a product designer at various tech startups. [music] But I always felt like I'm wasting my potential because I was only doing design works. So I quit my job and tried to build something on my own. And so about a year ago, AI coding became a viable option for building iOS apps. And it [music] was always my dream to ship

[3:18] one. So I just decided to try. I love the app that Ryan built. I think this is super cool. Why? Because it's proof that you do not need a complicated app to make [music] real money. All you need is an idea and the right tools to ship it. And this is why we launched the iOS bootcamp, which is our free program where we will help you come up with an idea, build it with AI, and get it ready to ship to the App Store. If you join this bootcamp, within a few days, your app idea could be live and ready to make money. So if you are finally ready to

[3:46] start building, just head to the first link in the description, click that, and you You started on your app for free. All right, let's get back to the episode. That's super cool because hopefully there's a lot of product designers on here watching this right now that maybe two, three, five years ago weren't able to build things cuz they weren't technical. But you, because of AI coding, you were able to take your really great design skills and now actually build stuff. So, let's talk about this. Can you give me the timeline of how long it took to build this and exactly how you built it, what tools you

[4:15] used? I started around May 2025. It actually took a while for us to get the first version up and running. So, after a few weeks, we finally got a simple Pomodoro timer done. Then we started fleshing out the concept and the mechanics, like how to show the cat animations. By August, we finally had the first version ready. We invited dozens of people on RedNotes to beta test it. We spent about a month gathering feedback, fixing bug, iterating on it. The app launched August 27th. We had about 3,000 downloads in the first week, but wasn't really a smooth sailing. There were so many bugs

[4:54] [music] even after a month of testing. Some of the bugs were pretty serious, like data not syncing between devices. It wasn't until around December or January that we had a relatively stable version. During that time, we had a few small viral moments on RedNotes, but the app truly took off when some Instagram influencers started sharing app collection posts featuring us. And one of them exploded and hitting over 2 million views. From there, someone in Taiwan saw it, shared our app on Threads where it went viral all over again. That chain of events essentially doubled our

[5:31] downloads and revenue overnight. That's super cool. And as I understand it, this is mainly for Chinese and Taiwanese markets. Is that where most of your users come from? That's correct as for now. It was mainly because my girlfriend had a RedNotes of before sharing her illustrations and so she had some followers there already. So, that's where we started in the beginning, but now we are definitely targeting more to the English audience

[5:58] or pretty much worldwide. That's super cool. You know, we talked to a lot of founders who build apps for US market or even just English market. That shows just how big the world is in building apps. We're going to get to that, but before we do, I'm just curious what tools you used to build this cuz you were a designer. You didn't know all the lay of the land in terms of developer tools. What were the actual tools that you used to build this and turn it into something that's used by

[6:20] hundreds of thousands of people? Yeah, right now I'm mainly use ChatGPT Pro plan for the coding part. I'm also using other tools like RevenueCat which is super popular paywall and subscription management tool. It costs around 200 to 300 depends on our revenue of the month. is an ASO optimization tool. It costs uh, $10 a month. There's Droids, just a

[6:45] user feedback board. It's free. Okay, cool. One reason why seems like your app blew up, you just built something really cool. People loved it. They shared it organically. They shared it through word of mouth. You don't hear about that as much anymore. So, I'd love to talk about how did you actually come up with the idea for this and how did you know it could be something that hundreds of thousands of people would potentially use it. How did you have the conviction to go all in on this cool cat

[7:10] on chair Pomodoro timer idea? The idea actually came from a necklace my girlfriend made. It's a a little cat sitting on a chair. I named it cat on chair and I really loved the name. So, I knew I had to use it to build something around it and everyone knows cats love curling up beside you while you work. As cat owners, we especially know there are something so calming, healing about those moments. So, having a cat sit on your chair while you focus just [music] made the perfect sense. I girlfriend is a big Animal Crossing fan. So, she suggest we should add some customization to the app like [music] different

[7:46] furnitures, different cats, backgrounds. So, the whole experience feels more personal and it gave people more reasons to keep coming back. Okay, I think that's super cool cuz it's just different. I mean, I'm a huge fan of Animal Crossing as well. It's one of my favorite games, played it as a kid. And I can see why this is popular for a

[8:05] certain sort of niche audience, right? That kind of likes cats, they like cute things, they want to collect different furniture like you do in Animal Crossing. So, it kind of makes sense to me, but I'm still trying to understand how this thing actually makes almost $20,000 a month when it's really just a Pomodoro Timer. I'm curious why this does so well when there are thousands of Pomodoro Timers

[8:25] out there. It's really hard to innovate on the feature set of Pomodoro Timers. There are already tons out there, but combined with a cat theme and the customization mechanics, we are able to add unique features that motivate people to keep using it. So, all our best features coming from asking how do we replicate the physical experience of having a cat in a digital app. And the gift collection system was just inspired by the memes of cats bringing dead mice to their owners. So, we thought why not have the cat leave a gift after a successful session and leave a trash if the session fails. We have codes for

[9:03] each cat based on their backstory and personality. Our users push us even further. So, they wanted to actually interact with a cat. They pat the cat. So, we added a meow animation that triggers when you tap on the cat or just say its name out loud. And Stephanie, my girlfriend illustrations play a huge role in this. Her style is truly unique and there's nothing quite like it in the market. So, when we put everything together, Cat N App it has playfulness, personality that the competition [music] doesn't have. Some of users shared great feedback with us. One user told us after her cat passed away, she found a similar

[9:42] looking cat in our app and it feel like she could see her cat again. Wow. There's something about this that I just love it. Is this app, it feels like handcrafted. It feels like a piece of art. It feels unique, like no one else could build this app other than you and your girlfriend because of this idea that you have. I just think this is so cool. This feels like the future of software. Yes, I can use my Pomodoro timer and it gives me utility and I could build that in, you know, two hours with AI coding. But what AI can't do is build this like handcrafted, this

[10:15] experience. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, on other app ideas that you want to build or for anyone watching this that wants to build cool, unique and simple apps and clearly it's working for you. So, I don't know if you have any advice or ideas on that. I would say just start from finding a app you already using or you are generally interested in and then go deeper on your competitions, like study all the App Store reviews, social media, everything and then think about how you can remix features or mechanics from other industries. The games are definitely a good place to start because

[10:49] they are full of elements designed to motivate and retain users and of course if you can't find a an illustrator to collaborate or use AI to develop a distinctive visual style, that definitely would help to set your app apart. Okay, cool. Well, thanks for sharing that. I think there's huge opportunities in this space to build playful software. I think it's super cool. So, on that note, I'd love to see it. Could you give us a demo of this cat on chair productivity app that makes almost

[11:19] $20,000 a month? Yeah. So, here's the app. Once you open the app, you will see the timer, obviously, and like different background furnitures. The gifts down there are the ones you collect from doing the session and you can play around with it. So, once you start, the cat will show up and jump on the chair. So, when you are done, the cat will leave you a gift. You can take a break like follow the traditional Pomodoro Timer format, but you can also like focus 10 more minutes and then you can sell your gift. Again, there's some cute animation here which will give you a fish. You can go on shop

[11:56] and switch to different cat. [music] We also have different furnitures and different backgrounds. We have animated background as well. We have different features like the timeline where you can see where you focused history and you can add a sticker here as well. We have to-do list as well and a whole lot of other features.

[12:18] Okay, well, thanks for sharing that. Super cool, super unique. I've never seen anything like it. Hopefully, people watching get some inspiration on what you can do with software now and how software is going to change, be more playful, be more fun. Maybe that is the future of apps. But anyways, the last question that we have, ask everyone who comes on to Starter Story is if you could go back in time, you know, when you were a product designer and you were

[12:39] maybe thinking, could I build an app? Could I not build an app? What would be your advice you'd give to your younger self or for anyone watching this that maybe is a designer and wants to build stuff like you? Yeah, I would say just keep trying, be consistent. It took me a few years to really find what I love to do and what I'm good at [music] and it took me a couple tries to build this app. Like it was not easy smooth sailing thing to build app with AI. Yeah, so I would say just keep trying and eventually you will find something you love, you enjoy

[13:10] doing. All that's great advice. Thanks for Ryan for coming on it and sharing. It's super cool. It's going to inspire a lot of people. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, thank you for having me. Gus from Starter Story, what do you think of [music] this one? Well, that was awesome. One of the reasons I wanted to bring him on was like, man, this is such a unique and cool and sort of chill idea that's

[13:30] making 10,000 20,000 a month. [music] Too cool of a story in my opinion." Yeah. So, that's my first thought. Yeah. If I could take anything away from this, and it may not be what people are expecting me to say, but is that if you have some sort of skill, lean into that skill for the business that you decide

[13:44] to build or the app you decide to build. So, for him, he was a designer. He was able to make this app really cool and unique from a design perspective, right? Yeah. But, let's say that you are maybe more of a I don't know, data analyst, [music] right? How can you make an app better because of your skills that you already have? Something unique that only you

[14:02] could do. So, I think that's one thing. And then, the other question I had for you is [music] we didn't talk about the growth of his business at all because it did seem like it was almost random. What did you think about that? Yeah, I think this would be kind of a guess, but I feel like what made it grow was that handcrafted [music] custom, doesn't look vibe coded, doesn't look basic kind of app design. And I bet that's what sort of went viral on Reddit notes because I would imagine people saw this and thought, "Wow, this is really unique. This is different. [music] I want to use it." And I imagine that's

[14:34] what made a difference. Yeah, no, I think a lot of people go, "Hey, I want to build an app." And then, they expect that it's going to blow up like the people they watch on here, right? But, what I like about Ryan and [music] the vibe that I got was like he wanted to build this because he wanted to exist in the world. He didn't have probably any expectations of how much money it would make. And because of that, because it was cool, it was unique, and he put care and love into the product, then it did the exact opposite, which is that it went viral. People were sharing it

[15:03] organically. So, that's why I think this is one of the most important interviews [music] that we've ever done. So, on that note, if you have an idea, if you want to put care into something that you build, or use your skills to build your first iOS app, well, I'll put a link in the description for you to access our iOS bootcamp, which will take you from idea to actually shipping a real iOS app into the world. [music] It doesn't need to be the perfect app, but if it's something you can build, you should do it. All right. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Let us know what you

[15:30] thought in the comments. We'll see you in the next one. Peace.

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