My App Makes $20K/Month: How I Found A Simple Idea And Turned It Into A Profitable Business

0:00 I built a mobile app that makes me

0:02 $20,000 per month.

0:04 This is Ethan.

0:05 He's 19 years old and a

0:06 year ago he dropped out of college.

0:08 It started building apps

0:09 because my product solved a very

0:11 specific pain point that no other app

0:14 solved.

0:14 It converted very well.

0:16 But here's what's awesome.

0:18 The app he built is not designed for everyone.

0:21 In fact, it solves a very tiny problem for

0:24 a very niche community.

0:26 And that might be the secret hiding in plain sight.

0:30 In the middle of wrestling season, there

0:32 was a big demand for our app.

0:34 And now, less than a year later, this

0:36 niche app has been downloaded thousands

0:39 of times and made over $20,000 in a

0:41 single month.

0:42 So, I asked Ethan to come

0:43 on to the channel to break down exactly

0:45 how he did it.

0:46 And in this episode,

0:47 we'll dive into the crazy simple niche

0:50 app that he built, why he didn't go

0:52 viral and still got thousands of users,

0:55 and why everyone should be building apps

0:57 that solve niche tiny problems.

1:00 This one you cannot miss.

1:02 Let's dive in.

1:03 I'm Pat Walls.

1:04 This is Starter Story.

1:07 All right, Ethan, welcome to the

1:08 channel.

1:08 Tell me about who you are, what

1:10 you built, and what's your story.

1:11 Yeah, my name is Ethan and I built a mobile

1:13 app that makes me $20,000 per month.

1:16 I launched it in September and over the

1:18 last 6 months, we've gone from $0 to

1:21 over $60,000 in total revenue and around

1:24 $38,000 downloads.

1:26 Today, I'm excited to

1:27 share more about the story of how I

1:28 dropped out of college, discovered

1:30 Cursor, and scaled my mobile app to over

1:33 5 figures.

1:34 Okay, amazing.

1:34 Dropped out of college to build an app.

1:36 This is the future.

1:37 Before we jump all into it, can

1:39 you show me what you built?

1:40 Let's pull up some of your revenue dashboards.

1:42 This is my app, Cut Coach.

1:43 It helps combat sport athletes cut weight for

1:46 their competition or fight coming up.

1:49 And the way it does it is by creating a

1:51 sciencebased protocol.

1:53 Here's our revenue for when we launched the app

1:56 until the end of January.

1:57 Right when we launched the app, wrestling season just

2:00 started.

2:00 Our revenue, you know, was

2:01 climbing up as we started to figure out

2:03 marketing.

2:04 By that time, we were in the

2:05 middle of wrestling season.

2:06 There was a big demand for our app since a lot of

2:09 the combat sport athletes needed to cut

2:12 weights in our app's lifetime.

2:14 We have actually around 39,000 downloads now.

2:17 It's just crazy how you can build like a

2:19 pretty amazing business off such a niche

2:21 idea.

2:21 Like I think about these bigger

2:22 apps like Cal AI.

2:24 This is like a very

2:25 very tiny version of this for this

2:26 specific combat sport wrestling.

2:29 Super cool.

2:29 We're going to talk all about

2:30 niche app.

2:31 But before we do, let's go

2:32 into your background.

2:33 How do you even

2:33 get into building apps?

2:34 Yeah.

2:35 So, I started building my first app in the

2:37 summer of 2024, right before going to

2:40 university to study computer

2:42 engineering.

2:42 My first app took about 6

2:44 months to build and was designed to

2:46 automate parts of my mom's workflow at

2:49 her job.

2:49 While I was there, I built

2:50 another app using only AI tools.

2:53 That experience made me realize how quickly

2:55 AI was changing software development.

2:57 So, I decided to leave university and

2:59 learn development my own.

3:01 first few months of 2025, I built several apps but

3:04 didn't market any of them and realized

3:06 that this was a mistake.

3:07 Around that time, I discovered cursor which made it

3:10 much easier and faster to build apps and

3:12 this allowed me to shift my focus toward

3:14 learning sales and marketing instead of

3:16 only development.

3:18 Okay, cool.

3:18 So, this is pretty crazy.

3:19 I mean, even at 19

3:20 years old, you've already covered a lot

3:22 of the board of what it takes to build

3:23 successful apps, which is super cool.

3:25 Obviously, you had some previous apps

3:26 that you built before.

3:27 Those didn't work out.

3:28 How did you find the idea for this

3:29 app that eventually made $20,000 a

3:31 month?

3:32 Ever since I was growing up, I've always

3:33 competed at a high level in combat

3:35 sports.

3:36 I was a provincial judo champion

3:37 and also a national wrestling champion.

3:39 And whenever I had to compete in combat

3:42 sports, I would always have to cut a

3:44 significant amount of weight in a short

3:46 period of time.

3:47 I never knew how to do

3:48 this properly until one of my coaches

3:50 gave me a proper combat sport weight

3:52 cutting plan.

3:53 Fast forward two years

3:54 after my short time at college, I was

3:55 sitting in my room thinking of an app

3:57 idea that I could relate my passion of

3:59 wrestling with my hobby of creating

4:01 apps.

4:02 And eventually I came up with the

4:04 idea for Cut Coach.

4:05 So the reason my

4:06 other apps didn't make any money was

4:09 just because I didn't market them.

4:10 For this app, I just decided to learn

4:12 marketing right after I finished it and

4:14 ship this one out as fast as possible so

4:17 that I can iterate on what users

4:19 actually wanted.

4:20 Okay, so you dropped

4:20 out of school and you kind of had your

4:22 back against the wall a little bit

4:24 saying like, okay, everyone can build

4:25 apps.

4:25 I can build this stuff with cursor

4:26 in like 10 minutes.

4:27 So that's the thing

4:28 I got to learn is marketing.

4:29 We're going to talk all about marketing.

4:31 But before we do, let's talk about the build.

4:32 You were working on a computer science

4:34 degree that doesn't teach you how to

4:35 build good apps that you've built.

4:36 So how'd you learn?

4:37 How'd you build it?

4:37 Yeah, I started building the Cut Coach

4:40 app in June of last year using Cursor

4:42 and Chad GBT.

4:44 It took me around a month

4:45 to build the MVP and I gave it to my

4:47 wrestling club to beta test after I

4:49 finished building it.

4:50 The first version of the app was basically an app where

4:52 the coach was supposed to give the wake

4:54 up plans to the athletes.

4:56 However, I realized that there was a lot of

4:58 friction using this concept and my

5:00 wrestling club didn't use the app.

5:01 So during July and August, I changed the

5:03 whole concept of the app to make it so

5:05 that the app would give the weight cut

5:06 plans to the athletes instead of the

5:09 coach.

5:09 I tested the app's weight cuts on

5:11 myself and did a whole redesign, which I

5:13 eventually released in September.

5:15 Here's what's awesome about Ethan's story.

5:17 He did not spend years learning how to

5:19 code.

5:20 He picked up Cursor, found a very

5:22 niche problem, and then built an app

5:24 that made $20,000 in a single month.

5:26 Ethan is proof that anyone can learn how

5:28 to do this, and I want to help you do

5:30 the same.

5:31 To do this, we just launched

5:32 the iOS boot camp for free.

5:34 Inside, we will walk you step by step through how

5:37 to come up with an idea and turn it into

5:39 a real app ready to ship to the world.

5:42 The best part is you don't need any

5:44 experience to get started because

5:45 Ethan's journey all started with one

5:48 decision.

5:48 Stop thinking and just start

5:51 building.

5:51 This iOS boot camp will help

5:53 you get started right now.

5:54 And if you're interested, just head to the link in the

5:57 description to start building your first

5:59 app for free.

6:00 All right, let's get back

6:01 to the episode.

6:01 Okay, I think this is

6:02 super cool.

6:03 A lot of people watching

6:03 this are probably wondering, I have a

6:05 niche problem in my life.

6:06 How do I actually go about building an app and

6:08 actually getting paid users?

6:10 So, what would be like your step-by-step process

6:11 if you had to start over today?

6:13 Yeah.

6:13 Step one would be to solve a problem

6:15 within your hobby.

6:16 So, solving a problem

6:17 within your hobby is a very effective

6:20 strategy because you already understand

6:22 and enjoy the activity.

6:23 And this makes it much easier to solve problems other

6:26 people will most likely experience too.

6:29 And I basically just asked Chat GPT, you

6:31 know, what are some good app ideas that

6:33 I can build within, you know, a specific

6:35 niche that I choose.

6:36 This is a very

6:37 straightforward method.

6:38 And this AI brainstorm can help you come up with

6:41 ideas you never even thought.

6:42 And once you have the app idea, I usually just

6:45 open Figma and start designing the app

6:47 right away.

6:48 And once I figure out the

6:49 wireframes for the app, I usually go to

6:52 a popular app and a similar app within

6:55 the same niche and I look at the layout

6:58 of their app and I take the elements

7:00 from it and adapt it to my app.

7:02 So I don't copy it the exact same because,

7:05 you know, I'd like to be creative.

7:06 Try not to reinvent the wheel.

7:09 Just take what's working from their app, adapt it

7:11 a little, and change it up.

7:12 I think that's a great strategy,

7:13 especially if it's a bigger app.

7:14 Let's say you are building a language app and

7:17 you're copying something that Dolingo

7:18 did.

7:19 You know that they've run tons and

7:20 tons of tests.

7:21 They have a huge team and

7:23 the reason that they have the onboarding

7:24 this way or the logo this way is

7:27 probably something that they've tested

7:28 over many years.

7:29 You get to stand on the

7:30 shoulders of giants and just essentially

7:32 copy that and then put your later twist

7:34 on it.

7:35 So that's great advice.

7:36 What's the next step?

7:37 After I create the design in Figma, I

7:40 code the app straight away.

7:41 So since cursor can code your app very fast, I

7:45 usually just tell cursor to create the

7:47 front end first and make sure the code

7:50 that I created matches the front end

7:53 design that I created in Figma and then

7:55 I start creating the back end.

7:57 So I use cursor and chat GBT for the development

8:01 and then I integrate superbase for the

8:03 database to store all the data and I use

8:06 Verscell to host the landing page and

8:08 JavaScript files.

8:09 I use open AI API for

8:11 the AI functionality within my app.

8:13 I integrate revenue cap mix panel

8:16 superwall for payw walls and analytics.

8:18 And then if I need to, I'll use cron job

8:21 for scheduled automations.

8:23 So you built the app.

8:24 What about the marketing?

8:25 What's the next step to

8:26 building a niche app in 2026?

8:28 Yeah.

8:28 So for marketing, I would say to

8:30 start off with organic posts.

8:31 I got the ideas from social media pages that were

8:35 in the same niche as mine, which I then

8:37 adapted to my app.

8:38 An example of the

8:39 first video that I posted organically

8:42 was a video where I showed what a UFC

8:44 fighter looked like on a weight cut and

8:46 what they look like after their wake up.

8:48 I also added a call to action at the end

8:50 of the video to give users an incentive

8:52 to download my app.

8:54 I noticed that the

8:55 videos didn't get that many views, but I

8:57 also noticed that the people that were

8:59 viewing my posts were very high intent

9:01 viewers as I noticed around 10 to 15

9:03 downloads per day from posts that got

9:06 anywhere from 200 to 500 views.

9:08 And I think the reason was because my product

9:11 was so unique and it solved a very

9:14 specific pain point that no other app

9:17 solved.

9:17 It converted very well on my

9:19 organic post even though they didn't get

9:22 that many views.

9:22 And I think there's a

9:23 huge opportunity in niche apps like

9:26 this.

9:26 You don't need to get millions of

9:28 views like you think you might need to

9:30 do if you can get 5 to 10% conversion

9:33 ratio on views, which is really, really

9:35 high.

9:35 Let's dive a little bit more into

9:36 that because yeah, you can get 10 to 15

9:38 installs, but that's not thousands of

9:40 paying customers.

9:40 Once you sort of

9:41 figured out what videos were, what was

9:43 like the more scalable growth strategy.

9:45 Yeah, after posting organically, I

9:47 switched over to influencer marketing.

9:49 Since my app was in a very niche

9:51 category, there were not a lot of big

9:53 influencers to partner with.

9:55 So, I decided that I would ask small creators

9:57 to partner with me instead to start off.

10:00 So, to find influencers, I would

10:01 basically just scroll on my for you page

10:04 on Tik Tok or reals on Instagram and I

10:06 would DM creators asking them to

10:08 partner.

10:09 I found that most of the

10:10 creators that I DM'd said yes to the

10:12 partnerships.

10:13 You know, I started off

10:14 with influencers that got around a,000

10:17 to 10,000 views per video.

10:18 then switched later to influencers that got 20,000

10:22 plus views per video.

10:23 I saw that the

10:24 influencer marketing strategy was

10:25 working not only because I had a very

10:28 high intent audience but also because I

10:30 had a very unique product.

10:32 Later I decided to put those influencer videos

10:34 into paid ads just to see what would

10:37 happen.

10:37 And to my surprise, it added a

10:39 lot of extra revenue and helped us scale

10:41 much faster and much more efficiently.

10:44 Okay.

10:44 Well, thanks for sharing that.

10:45 want to change the topic a little bit

10:46 and I want to actually see this app that

10:48 you built.

10:49 Could you actually give me a

10:50 quick demo of what is the niche app that

10:52 you built that made over $20,000 in a

10:54 single month?

10:55 Yeah.

10:55 So, here's the app and when you

10:56 open it, it just has the nutrition

10:59 values that you have to stay within.

11:02 And each day you can just log your meals

11:05 here.

11:06 So, here I'm going to put that I

11:08 ate some chicken.

11:09 And as you can see,

11:10 the app is extracting nutritional values

11:13 from the chicken and putting it in your

11:15 daily nutrition goal.

11:16 And all you have

11:17 to do to cut the weights for your

11:19 competition is to simply stay within the

11:21 limits in the app and make sure you

11:23 don't go over.

11:24 And each day, you can

11:25 also put in your weight so you can

11:28 track, you know, your progress of your

11:30 weight going down.

11:31 And in this screen,

11:32 you can see the recommended meals for

11:35 each day.

11:36 These meals help you stay

11:38 within your limits.

11:39 So, you know, you

11:40 don't go over and miss weights on

11:42 competition day.

11:43 Okay.

11:43 Last question that we ask all

11:44 founders who come on Starter Story is if

11:46 you could go back in time to young Ethan

11:48 before you were building apps as hobbies

11:50 or you're in college, what would be that

11:52 one piece of advice that you give

11:53 yourself or anyone watching this who

11:55 wants to build a niche mobile app like

11:57 you?

11:57 Yeah.

11:58 One piece of advice I'd give

11:59 myself would be to follow my own advice.

12:02 You know, when I was still in high

12:03 school, I noticed how I would make

12:04 decisions based on other people's

12:06 opinions or advice.

12:08 even though I already knew deep down what the right

12:10 decision was to make.

12:11 Because of this, I

12:12 found myself living the lives that other

12:14 people wanted rather than living my own

12:16 life.

12:16 Now, while I still seek advice

12:18 from others, I make sure to adapt it to

12:20 my life rather than letting it control

12:22 my life.

12:23 And doing this has helped me

12:24 feel much more fulfilled and also given

12:26 me a much stronger sense of purpose in

12:28 my life.

12:29 That's awesome, man.

12:29 Thank you, Ethan, for coming on, dude.

12:31 Super cool app, over $20,000 a month with a niche

12:34 wrestling app.

12:35 I'm excited to see what

12:36 you build in the future, too.

12:37 Thanks for coming on and sharing all this so

12:39 openly.

12:40 Yeah, thanks for having me.

12:41 I wonder how many apps there are.

12:42 Like the fact that there's two in wrestling.

12:45 Everyone I know who are wrestlers like

12:46 are super passionate about wrestling,

12:49 right?

12:49 And so I wonder if that mean maybe

12:50 there's something there, you know?

12:52 100%.

12:52 That's why it wouldn't make money

12:54 if it was pickle ball.

12:55 For example, pickle ball.

12:56 It could be old, it could be young.

12:57 I feel like wrestlers is like really just like high

13:00 school college.

13:00 I would say there's

13:01 definitely an opportunity in high school

13:04 and college sports where it's like a

13:06 small community, but everyone's sort of

13:09 like competing.

13:10 You know, your parents

13:10 are probably going to pay for that app

13:12 or you going to pay for that app so you

13:13 can make weight for your wrestling

13:15 competition.

13:16 You're willing to pay $30

13:17 to make weight because if you don't make

13:18 weight, the cost is way higher.

13:20 People would be very disappointed in you or

13:22 whatever it is.

13:23 So, it's actually a

13:23 really painful problem for a really

13:25 niche community and I think that's one

13:26 of the reasons why it's successful.

13:28 Yeah, that was cool.

13:28 But I just think he

13:29 said this like if you're just kind of

13:31 excited about this hobby or something,

13:34 there's probably a lot of people also

13:35 excited about that and you can go kind

13:36 of build this niche up.

13:37 And I don't know

13:38 if this is right, but like no niche is

13:39 like too small, you know, like weight

13:42 cutting for wrestlers.

13:43 Like that feels like so narrow, but yeah, that's kind of

13:46 my last takeaway, I think.

13:48 Yeah.

13:48 So, if you're watching this and

13:49 you thought this was cool, check the

13:51 link in the description.

13:52 We have a link

13:53 for our iOS playbook where you'll come

13:55 up with an idea, build it, and ship it

13:57 within a couple days.

13:57 We'll walk you through how to do that with AI tools.

13:59 I put that link down there.

14:01 You can click it and get started today.

14:02 All right.

14:03 Thanks for watching.

14:03 We'll see you in

14:04 the next one.

14:04 Peace.