The App I Built In 12 Hours Makes $15K/month
Starter Story
Dec 11, 2025
Louis Pereira shipped the MVP of his app in just 12 hours. He got traction and customers on the first day. And today, he’s making over $15K/month from that same app. This is the story of how a regular dude from India changed his life by building and shipping fast.
Get 90% off Xero for 6 months using this link. Terms & Conditions apply → https://xero5440.partnerlinks.io/StarterStory_theappIbuilt
Find an idea to build this weekend → https://www.starterstory.com/weekend?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=audiopen
Ship your next app fast → https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=audiopen
Follow Louis: https://x.com/louispereira
Check out Audiopen: https://audiopen.ai/
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:40 - What is Audiopen?
2:45 - Louis background
3:25 - How he built this in 12 hours
4:55 - Figure out the business side of things (Xero Sponsor)
6:04 - Launch and Growth
7:31 - Building Fast Playbook
9:15 - How Audiopen works
10:16 - Why Audiopen is successful
11:24 - Tech Stack and Costs
11:59 - Final advice
12:40 - READY2BUILD
This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.
Chapters
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
I'm
a
part
time
indie
hacker
and
I
built
the
MVP
of
my
app
in
just
12
hours
Meet
Louis
a
dude
from
India
who
spent
his
nights
and
weekends
building
projects
But
after
failing
with
15
of
them
he
decided
he
would
try
something
different
I
started
building
at
noon
and
I
wanted
to
know
if
I
could
take
an
idea
all
the
way
to
revenue
before
midnight
He
shipped
his
next
app
in
under
12
hours
posted
about
it
online
and
to
his
surprise
it
worked
All
I
did
was
just
build
and
That
app
now
makes
15
000
a
month
When
I
got
my
20th
paying
customer
I
knew
I
was
on
to
something
Most
people
waste
years
building
an
MVP
that
nobody
ever
sees
But
this
story
proves
that
you
can
build
something
successful
in
less
than
a
day
It's
never
been
easier
or
cheaper
to
build
a
product
online
So
I
asked
Louis
to
come
onto
the
channel
to
break
down
exactly
how
he
did
it
In
this
video
we'll
dive
into
exactly
how
he
shipped
his
app
in
12
hours
with
zero
coding
skills
why
failing
with
15
products
was
actually
a
secret
to
his
success
and
his
exact
playbook
for
designing
building
and
shipping
fast
if
he
had
to
start
over
today
All
right
let's
get
into
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
guys
real
quick
before
we
get
into
the
interview
I
think
this
story
because
he
built
this
whole
app
in
a
weekend
We're
going
to
get
into
all
that
but
I
do
want
to
show
you
100
more
ideas
that
you
yes
you
can
go
build
this
weekend
right
now
I
put
a
link
right
down
there
in
the
description
for
you
to
download
it
Okay
let's
jump
into
the
interview
All
right
Louis
welcome
to
Starter
Story
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
My
name
is
Louis
I'm
a
solo
part
time
indie
hacker
and
I
built
AudioPen
in
about
12
hours
It
currently
makes
about
15
000
a
month
month
Okay
you
built
it
in
12
hours
That's
crazy
We're
going
to
get
all
into
that
But
first
I
want
to
understand
what
is
AudioPen
Is
it
an
app
SaaS
What
is
it
AudioPen's
a
B2C
SaaS
product
It's
a
voice
to
text
AI
tool
that
lets
you
go
from
fuzzy
thought
to
clear
text
very
very
fast
It
listens
to
you
and
then
transcribes
what
you
say
It
then
takes
that
transcription
and
transforms
it
into
a
writing
style
of
your
choice
It
works
across
languages
It
works
on
mobile
It
works
on
desktop
as
well
Some
folks
use
it
just
to
capture
ideas
on
the
go
People
use
it
to
capture
meeting
notes
They
use
it
to
combat
writer's
block
And
AudioPen
currently
has
about
200
000
users
with
over
5
000
paying
customers
So
there's
a
free
version
that
gives
users
a
taste
of
the
product
And
then
there's
a
paid
version
I
currently
sell
the
paid
version
at
99
a
year
or
159
for
two
years
Both
are
non
recurring
subscriptions
that
users
have
full
control
over
and
can
choose
to
renew
at
the
end
of
their
term
Okay
before
we
get
into
how
you
built
this
in
12
hours
I
want
to
understand
a
little
bit
more
about
your
background
How
do
you
even
get
to
this
point
I
have
a
full
time
job
where
I
work
with
my
family
business
in
the
offline
world
so
a
completely
different
side
of
my
life
And
I
dabbled
in
the
no
code
space
back
in
2015
when
the
tools
were
very
early
and
not
as
powerful
as
they
are
today
But
in
2021
while
working
with
the
family
business
I
decided
to
get
back
into
the
internet
world
And
I
discovered
Bubble
I
built
a
bunch
of
tools
probably
15
to
20
tools
most
of
which
have
failed
And
AudioPen
was
the
first
one
that
succeeded
and
made
a
decent
amount
of
revenue
to
bring
me
to
a
place
where
I
can
rely
on
it
today
as
a
solid
source
of
secondary
income
Okay
so
let's
dive
into
that
for
a
second
You
built
this
product
in
half
a
day
No
it
didn't
make
15
000
a
month
overnight
but
the
core
product
the
core
MVP
was
built
in
about
12
hours
Can
you
break
down
for
me
how
that
was
even
possible
and
how
you
did
it
Back
in
2022
I
started
a
hackathon
online
called
Halfday
Build
in
the
build
in
public
space
on
Twitter
where
a
bunch
of
us
from
all
over
the
world
would
come
together
one
Sunday
join
a
Slack
channel
or
a
Discord
and
decide
to
build
products
independently
with
the
goal
of
going
from
idea
to
MVP
and
revenue
within
12
hours
So
we'd
all
start
at
noon
and
we
try
to
get
to
at
least
a
dollar
by
midnight
I
was
getting
frustrated
with
the
number
of
products
I
had
built
in
the
past
and
with
the
low
success
rate
that
I
had
So
I
decided
one
day
to
just
build
a
bunch
of
tiny
tools
on
my
own
personal
website
and
host
them
on
the
homepage
there
I
built
I
think
four
or
five
tools
that
week
While
I
was
building
it
I
just
kept
sharing
them
on
Twitter
And
AudioPens
MVP
was
one
of
those
five
tools
that
I
built
It
got
a
lot
more
love
than
I
expected
it
to
get
on
Twitter
So
I
figured
you
know
what
I'm
getting
some
signal
here
Some
people
seem
to
find
this
weird
product
that
I've
built
useful
So
I
said
what
the
hell
let
me
just
build
a
full
version
of
it
put
a
price
tag
on
it
and
see
what
happens
And
I
definitely
think
there
was
a
large
portion
of
luck
In
fact
one
of
the
principles
I
try
to
go
by
is
very
often
you
will
not
know
what
will
work
and
the
cost
of
experimentation
is
so
low
today
that
you
might
as
well
build
a
bunch
of
things
and
see
what
sticks
and
then
double
down
on
them
So
you
could
say
that
I
was
lucky
because
AudioPen
clicked
but
I
had
also
built
you
know
15
or
20
things
before
that
So
I
was
bound
to
get
lucky
at
some
point
Louie's
story
is
amazing
right
Shipped
in
12
hours
customers
on
day
one
and
now
he's
making
over
15
000
a
month
month
But
here's
something
you
had
to
figure
out
once
the
revenue
started
coming
in
the
actual
business
side
of
things
Invoicing
customers
tracking
expenses
managing
cashflow
all
the
stuff
that
has
nothing
to
do
with
building
your
product
but
is
very
important
Well
that's
exactly
why
we
are
excited
to
partner
with
Xero
on
this
video
Xero
is
a
cloud
based
accounting
platform
for
small
businesses
like
yours
It
handles
your
invoicing
bills
payments
all
in
one
place
so
you
can
get
paid
faster
and
stop
worrying
about
messy
spreadsheets
Millions
of
businesses
around
the
world
use
Xero
because
it
actually
automates
the
bookkeeping
side
of
things
So
you
can
focus
on
what
matters
most
building
and
shipping
And
right
now
you
can
get
90
off
Xero
for
six
months
by
using
the
link
right
down
there
in
the
description
So
if
you're
building
something
and
you
wanna
focus
on
shipping
instead
of
bookkeeping
check
out
Xero
at
the
link
in
the
description
Thank
you
to
Xero
for
partnering
with
us
on
this
video
All
right
let's
get
back
into
the
interview
Okay
so
you've
kind
of
post
a
bunch
of
different
tools
One
of
them
is
clearly
getting
validation
and
you
said
okay
I'm
gonna
take
it
to
the
next
level
How
do
you
actually
build
it
launch
it
monetize
it
and
then
grow
it
to
15K
per
month
The
first
thing
was
I
got
signal
from
people
I
DM
them
I
was
like
okay
why
do
you
like
this
thing
A
few
people
explained
to
me
what
their
use
cases
were
I
figured
out
okay
fine
I
can
design
something
for
these
use
cases
Step
number
two
was
just
sitting
down
in
Figma
and
designing
prior
to
the
12
hours
I
went
to
Pinterest
I
got
inspiration
I
figured
out
what
I
wanted
the
app
to
look
like
And
then
by
the
end
of
the
hackathon
maybe
about
10
hours
in
I
launched
a
wait
list
for
people
so
they
could
sign
up
in
advance
before
the
tool
was
ready
Got
a
bunch
of
people
to
sign
up
for
it
Before
the
12
hours
was
up
I
started
getting
a
bunch
of
strike
notifications
from
the
early
beta
testers
that
had
just
signed
up
for
the
product
And
that
was
pretty
wild
to
see
It
was
totally
unexpected
because
I
hadn't
asked
them
to
pay
for
it
I
had
just
asked
them
to
test
the
product
They
already
had
access
to
everything
that
was
on
offer
And
if
I
were
to
think
about
why
that
worked
at
that
point
I
think
there
were
a
few
things
that
came
together
well
for
me
One
was
of
course
the
product
was
hitting
a
need
that
I
didn't
know
people
had
Secondly
was
I
had
a
certain
level
of
credibility
on
Twitter
because
I
had
been
out
there
building
in
public
for
a
few
months
or
maybe
a
few
years
at
that
point
I
also
think
I
managed
to
build
enough
hype
prior
to
this
product
before
I
even
built
the
product
And
lastly
I
think
I
had
other
people
that
were
cheering
me
on
as
a
part
of
this
half
day
build
community
which
also
really
helps
because
people
like
to
see
other
people
that
trust
you
before
they
make
a
purchase
decision
Okay
I
mean
this
is
an
amazing
story
And
I
think
a
lot
of
people
watching
this
are
wondering
how
can
I
also
build
apps
fast
like
this
So
if
you
were
to
start
over
today
knowing
what
you
know
about
how
to
build
quickly
and
validate
ideas
quickly
what
would
be
your
playbook
or
framework
for
starting
over
I
think
step
one
for
me
would
still
be
what
I
did
back
then
which
is
just
build
a
bunch
of
stuff
Test
ideas
just
for
fun
So
build
small
things
that
you
can
shut
down
without
any
negative
consequences
to
the
users
Step
two
I
would
say
design
something
before
you
build
it
I
know
it's
very
easy
today
to
just
prompt
an
AI
tool
and
tell
them
to
just
build
a
product
but
it's
very
difficult
to
figure
out
what
design
will
work
and
design
today
differentiates
a
product
product
and
it
takes
way
longer
than
you
expect
So
figure
out
exactly
what
you
want
thing
to
look
like
why
you
want
it
to
look
like
that
and
then
share
those
designs
of
the
world
if
you
can
So
like
step
three
would
be
build
in
public
Tell
people
what
you're
building
tell
them
what
it'll
look
like
see
what
they
like
about
it
see
what
they
don't
like
about
it
Perhaps
if
you're
seeing
a
lot
of
people
resonate
with
what
you've
built
spin
up
a
quick
email
list
even
if
it's
just
a
simple
Google
form
And
then
step
four
for
me
would
be
just
launch
the
simplest
version
of
your
product
Try
your
best
to
launch
a
product
product
that
doesn't
look
amazing
if
at
all
but
does
the
job
that
it
is
expected
to
do
very
well
And
then
keep
raising
the
price
as
you
refine
the
product
but
just
launch
it
as
early
as
you
can
My
last
piece
of
advice
would
just
be
if
you're
an
indie
hacker
behave
like
one
Don't
try
to
sound
like
a
big
company
People
really
appreciate
seeing
another
human
that's
building
something
useful
They
appreciate
your
story
They
appreciate
the
effort
effort
that
you
put
into
crafting
a
product
And
I
get
complimented
regularly
by
users
that
one
of
the
reasons
why
they
like
AudioPen
is
because
they
like
that
they've
been
part
of
my
journey
as
a
builder
for
the
past
couple
of
years
So
leverage
that
as
an
indie
builder
don't
try
to
be
something
that
you're
not
All
right
well
thanks
for
sharing
that
playbook
We
haven't
really
talked
about
it
yet
but
I'd
love
to
actually
see
your
app
how
it
works
and
what
it
does
Would
you
be
able
to
show
it
off
Yep
I
mean
it's
a
pretty
simple
app
All
it
has
is
a
big
record
button
in
the
center
of
the
screen
and
a
bunch
of
notes
on
it
All
you
do
is
you
just
press
that
big
button
and
you
speak
for
as
long
as
you
want
And
the
app
for
prime
users
allows
you
about
15
minutes
of
recording
And
when
you're
done
recording
you
just
press
the
end
recording
button
A
bunch
of
styles
will
show
up
A
bunch
of
languages
will
show
up
A
rewriting
level
will
also
show
up
You
can
select
what
you
want
get
a
verbatim
transcript
if
you
wish
You
can
get
something
that's
more
concise
if
you
want
And
then
you
just
tap
on
what
you
want
and
wait
Give
it
a
couple
of
seconds
seconds
and
then
it'll
just
give
you
the
finished
product
There
you
can
see
it
A
simple
note
that
you
can
then
share
take
whatever
you
want
do
whatever
you
want
with
it
So
free
users
just
get
a
taste
of
the
product
product
They
have
a
shorter
amount
of
time
that
they
can
record
for
Premium
users
get
a
whole
lot
more
They
have
everything
from
writing
styles
to
longer
recordings
to
integrations
with
other
apps
and
a
bunch
of
other
features
Okay
cool
So
I'm
sort
of
wondering
right
now
what
a
lot
of
people
are
watching
this
wondering
is
why
is
your
app
making
15
000
a
month
month
when
there's
probably
a
bunch
of
other
tools
that
can
do
this
and
maybe
a
bunch
of
those
tools
maybe
don't
even
make
anything
What's
special
about
your
app
and
why
do
you
think
it
was
successful
I
think
one
thing
that
definitely
worked
for
me
was
that
I
was
very
early
When
I
started
the
app
there
weren't
these
many
products
of
this
type
But
AudioPen
focuses
on
doing
one
thing
very
well
A
lot
of
the
other
apps
try
to
do
too
many
things
at
the
same
time
and
end
up
getting
distracted
And
that's
a
problem
that
I've
faced
Like
I've
been
very
very
tempted
to
expand
into
adjacent
markets
just
because
apps
there
were
doing
very
well
But
I've
consciously
stuck
to
doing
the
simple
stuff
well
I
think
that
slow
consistency
is
what
has
worked
for
me
I
think
that's
so
true
Do
one
thing
and
do
it
really
really
well
I
like
this
idea
of
pointy
features
where
you
have
an
app
that
just
does
one
thing
and
it
does
it
really
really
well
If
you
can
just
focus
on
that
you
can
do
it
so
good
that
you
differentiate
yourself
from
other
apps
I'll
put
a
link
in
the
description
right
now
of
our
database
of
micro
SaaS
ideas
similar
to
AudioPen
You
guys
can
download
that
for
free
right
now
There's
a
bunch
of
ideas
in
there
including
AudioPen
which
is
one
of
our
case
studies
from
Starter
Stories
So
you
can
check
that
out
and
download
it
if
you
want
Okay
let's
switch
topics
a
little
bit
I
know
you
built
this
by
yourself
How
do
you
actually
build
apps
and
what
do
you
use
I
use
Bubble
for
my
web
app
It
costs
about
130
a
month
Xeno
for
the
backend
and
logic
costs
about
260
DraftBit
costs
about
300
a
year
That's
what
I
build
my
native
app
with
Loops
which
is
my
email
platform
costs
about
800
a
month
And
plausible
analytics
is
surprisingly
cheap
at
19
a
month
The
biggest
costs
are
of
course
API
costs
It
depends
on
what
sort
of
APIs
you
decide
to
use
but
that
differs
from
month
to
month
Okay
cool
Well
thanks
for
sharing
that
being
transparent
about
the
numbers
Last
question
that
we
ask
everyone
who
comes
on
Starter
Story
if
you
could
go
back
in
time
and
give
young
Louis
advice
on
what
not
to
do
or
what
to
do
what
would
be
your
number
one
piece
of
advice
Just
build
many
things
for
fun
because
you
will
have
fun
while
building
those
things
You
will
learn
a
lot
of
stuff
while
building
each
product
Most
of
them
will
fail
It
happens
to
all
of
us
The
moment
one
looks
like
it's
not
failing
and
it
seems
to
be
resonating
with
someone
double
down
on
it
Eventually
something
will
click
and
all
your
failures
will
be
forgotten
by
the
rest
of
the
world
All
right
Well
have
fun
That's
great
advice
Thanks
for
coming
on
Louis
and
sharing
everything
about
your
business
I
think
what
you
built
is
awesome
The
fact
you
did
it
in
12
hours
is
amazing
So
thank
you
for
sharing
Thanks
for
coming
on
Thanks
for
having
me
If
you
made
it
this
far
I'm
assuming
you
are
ready
to
build
So
I
want
to
give
you
a
special
gift
which
is
a
discount
to
our
next
Starter
Story
bootcamp
Just
use
the
code
READY2BUILD
That's
READY
the
number
two
and
BUILD
You
can
plug
that
into
Starter
Story
Build
and
get
your
special
offer
All
right
guys
I'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
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