My mobile app made $800K in 365 days
Starter Story
Dec 20, 2025
Louis built a mobile app that made $800K in 1 year. And he did it all by posting on TikTok for $0. This video breaks down how he did it and why this works.
Get 90% off Xero for 6 months using this link. Terms & Conditions apply → https://xero5440.partnerlinks.io/StarterStory_mobileapp
Get the TikTok Playbook → https://build.starterstory.com/build/playbook-organic-short-form?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=louis-david-short-form
Follow Louis: https://x.com/LouisDavidPH
Check out GlowUp: https://www.useglowup.app/
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:08 - Who is Louis?
1:26 - What is GlowUp?
2:10 - Background
2:55 - Idea for GlowUp
4:13 - TikTok Playbook pt. 1
5:53 - Think like a business owner (Xero Ad)
7:03 - TikTok Playbook pt.2
8:08 - Viral TikTok example
9:12 - How GlowUp works
10:08 - Tech stack
10:39 - Costs
11:10 - Final advice
12:10 - The Short Form Playbook
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
Stack
No tools listed for this business.
I
built
probably
10
apps
that
all
failed
Louis
is
a
guy
from
Canada
who
spent
years
building
apps
that
went
nowhere
until
one
day
he
decided
to
try
something
different
Instead
of
just
building
another
app
I
studied
TikTok
Before
writing
a
single
line
of
code
he
found
a
real
problem
thousands
of
people
were
talking
about
in
plain
sight
Then
he
simply
started
making
content
about
it
and
the
rest
is
history
Immediately
after
building
it
hit
the
top
of
the
app
store
and
in
just
one
year
it
made
over
800
000
From
this
video
alone
he
made
12
5K
in
sales
in
one
day
This
story
blew
my
mind
so
I
asked
Louis
to
come
onto
the
channel
and
break
down
exactly
how
he
did
it
In
this
video
we'll
dive
into
how
to
find
your
idea
by
studying
TikTok
comments
the
simple
video
he
created
that
generated
12
500
in
sales
and
his
step
by
step
playbook
on
how
to
build
apps
if
you
were
to
start
over
today
I
launched
this
app
one
year
ago
as
a
side
project
and
it
really
changed
my
life
This
one
is
a
good
one
you
cannot
miss
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
Alright
Louis
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
My
name
is
Louis
I
built
a
makeup
app
called
Glow
Up
I
launched
it
a
year
ago
as
a
side
project
It
makes
around
15K
per
month
right
now
and
it
grew
from
0
to
100K
user
in
around
three
days
and
generated
a
total
of
800K
in
revenue
Okay
before
we
get
into
how
you
came
up
with
the
idea
for
this
app
which
I
think
is
actually
really
really
interesting
I
do
understand
what
this
app
does
It's
a
makeup
app
Can
you
explain
it
Yeah
so
Glow
Up
is
an
app
that
lets
you
try
makeup
looks
with
AI
and
the
problem
we
solve
is
really
to
help
women
find
the
best
makeup
look
for
them
without
having
to
go
and
buy
and
write
on
their
set
themselves
It's
a
mobile
app
so
iOS
and
Google
Pay
We
do
subscription
model
so
we
do
9
99
per
week
and
then
you
get
access
to
unlimited
AI
makeup
looks
So
our
monthly
revenue
at
the
moment
is
15K
per
month
We've
got
our
total
number
of
users
around
2
million
people
We've
got
around
70
000
paying
customers
One
crazy
thing
is
that
we
got
number
one
in
lifestyle
in
the
app
store
and
number
four
in
the
free
mobile
apps
category
Okay
I
mean
that's
insane
You
had
an
app
that's
top
of
the
app
store
Before
we
get
into
how
you
grew
this
thing
and
the
idea
and
all
that
I
want
to
understand
a
little
bit
more
about
your
background
How
do
you
get
to
the
point
of
building
apps
and
having
a
top
app
in
the
app
store
I
did
software
engineering
for
around
two
years
and
just
dropped
out
because
to
me
they
were
not
teaching
the
right
stuff
And
then
when
I
dropped
out
I
really
just
worked
hard
and
focused
on
building
mobile
apps
My
first
one
did
no
revenue
at
all
but
I
just
continued
building
and
building
more
apps
With
that
I
created
like
a
portfolio
of
apps
and
then
started
working
for
startups
Kind
of
two
years
later
I
kind
of
came
back
to
building
my
own
apps
And
then
a
year
ago
I
started
working
on
Glow
Up
and
now
I'm
building
other
apps
and
writing
philosophy
books
on
the
side
as
well
Okay
so
one
of
the
reasons
why
I
want
to
bring
you
on
the
channel
is
how
you
found
the
idea
for
this
how
you
found
the
idea
for
an
app
that
went
almost
number
one
in
the
app
store
Before
this
you
had
built
a
bunch
of
apps
and
they
got
no
users
What
was
different
about
this
app
and
how
you
found
this
idea
So
my
apps
before
were
more
for
me
I
just
had
an
idea
and
was
building
them
And
then
once
it
was
finished
building
I
would
start
marketing
but
then
I
would
get
no
views
or
no
users
I
would
just
go
to
the
next
ideas
and
it
would
be
my
kind
of
cycle
But
for
this
one
me
and
my
co
founder
wanted
to
create
a
new
app
together
and
we
saw
that
the
makeup
niche
was
just
super
big
So
we
just
kind
of
started
looking
at
TikTok
makeup
videos
and
looking
at
the
comment
section
And
with
these
comments
we
kind
of
started
doing
content
around
this
idea
of
like
getting
your
makeup
look
and
the
products
that
you
need
So
we
did
content
first
because
for
most
of
my
other
apps
before
we
were
just
building
and
building
without
showing
the
user
what
we
had
And
it
always
failed
This
one
I
really
just
wanted
to
be
sure
that
we
could
market
it
And
it
kind
of
just
went
viral
So
we
kind
of
knew
that
we
had
an
idea
that
would
work
So
I
kind
of
just
built
the
app
super
quickly
super
MVP
style
And
then
it
took
like
three
days
to
get
100K
users
So
by
looking
at
the
comment
section
you
really
just
feel
what
people
are
wanting
and
you
just
try
to
come
in
and
solve
whatever
they're
asking
for
And
I
think
that
is
really
the
way
we
kind
of
got
our
success
OK
so
finding
ideas
through
TikTok
and
validating
your
idea
through
TikTok
then
creating
the
content
then
finally
launching
the
app
is
genius
I
also
want
to
dive
into
the
actual
creating
content
side
of
things
Once
you
do
sort
of
find
that
idea
after
doing
research
what
would
be
your
playbook
if
you
were
starting
over
from
scratch
to
start
a
TikTok
account
and
start
creating
content
that
gets
a
lot
of
views
So
step
one
is
we're
just
warming
up
a
TikTok
account
in
the
USA
with
a
new
iPhone
You
just
buy
a
USA
SIM
card
If
you're
in
the
US
you're
OK
But
if
you're
outside
the
US
you
just
put
it
in
and
then
you
buy
a
VPN
that
is
in
the
US
24
7
and
then
you
download
TikTok
you
create
your
account
and
you
start
watching
videos
in
your
niche
scroll
and
like
some
videos
comment
on
things
for
15
to
30
minutes
per
day
And
it's
set
up
your
algorithm
to
think
you're
not
a
bot
and
you're
just
someone
normal
You
do
that
for
around
three
days
When
you're
looking
for
a
niche
it's
really
good
to
look
at
hashtags
So
for
us
we
kind
of
just
look
at
the
biggest
hashtags
on
TikTok
and
makeup
was
one
of
the
biggest
ones
So
then
we
just
kind
of
started
looking
inside
that
niche
So
really
if
you're
thinking
of
a
niche
just
look
at
the
hashtags
of
that
niche
how
many
videos
are
posted
how
many
views
they're
getting
And
this
will
show
you
if
it's
a
door
that
is
open
for
you
to
start
posting
content
and
get
views
from
it
So
step
two
is
just
start
posting
because
you've
looked
at
a
lot
of
videos
by
warming
up
your
account
Try
and
replicate
a
trend
that
works
well
with
your
app
idea
on
it
And
you
do
that
at
first
just
once
a
day
and
you
just
wait
to
get
the
engagement
in
And
once
you
see
traction
after
a
couple
of
days
you
can
post
as
much
as
you
can
four
to
six
times
a
day
And
the
goal
is
really
to
find
a
trend
that
is
easy
to
reproduce
faceless
if
you
cannot
do
video
yourself
and
a
way
to
kind
of
replicate
it
lots
of
times
so
you
can
post
on
a
bunch
of
accounts
and
multiple
times
a
day
What
Louis
did
in
one
year
is
impressive
He
basically
went
from
simple
MVP
to
eight
hundred
thousand
dollars
in
revenue
But
when
that
revenue
started
coming
in
something
shifted
He
realized
that
he
had
a
real
business
on
his
hand
His
app
went
from
a
simple
side
project
to
a
real
actual
full
blown
business
I've
been
there
before
And
while
it's
fun
to
build
and
ship
but
once
you
start
actually
making
money
you
have
to
start
thinking
like
a
business
owner
And
that
means
tracking
expenses
managing
cash
flow
and
the
dreaded
taxes
This
is
all
the
stuff
that
goes
on
behind
the
scenes
that
builders
don't
think
about
until
it's
too
late
And
this
is
why
we
are
partnering
with
Xero
on
this
video
Xero
is
a
cloud
based
accounting
platform
that
works
for
every
type
of
small
business
It
handles
bills
and
payments
all
in
one
place
so
you
can
make
sure
your
business
runs
smoothly
Xero
automates
your
bookkeeping
so
you
can
spend
time
doing
what
you
love
love
building
shipping
and
of
course
marketing
And
right
now
you
can
get
90
off
Xero
for
six
months
using
the
first
link
in
the
description
description
But
if
you
want
to
get
that
you
got
to
click
that
and
check
it
out
Thank
you
to
Xero
for
partnering
with
Starter
Story
on
this
video
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
interview
So
step
three
is
adding
an
anchor
link
When
a
video
starts
getting
good
views
let's
say
a
couple
of
thousand
or
a
hundred
K
you
can
add
an
anchor
link
to
the
video
which
is
a
download
now
button
So
the
user
doesn't
have
to
go
to
your
bio
and
click
on
the
link
It
really
just
sees
the
video
and
see
the
link
clicks
on
it
and
it
opens
up
the
app
store
page
Most
of
our
downloads
came
from
our
anchor
link
and
it's
really
useful
But
mostly
when
the
video
is
going
viral
if
you
put
it
under
a
thousand
views
it
will
just
kill
the
video
Step
four
is
just
creating
other
accounts
So
you
do
the
same
steps
again
You
can
do
two
to
three
accounts
on
the
same
phone
If
you
want
more
you
just
buy
another
phone
and
use
the
same
steps
The
more
video
you
post
the
more
money
will
come
in
So
I
repeat
we
had
around
seven
accounts
posting
eight
to
12
times
a
day
So
that
would
be
my
playbook
if
I
was
to
start
again
I've
seen
that
now
UGC
and
Influencer
as
well
works
very
well
It's
just
it
costs
a
lot
If
you
have
a
bunch
of
money
I
would
say
try
UGC
try
Influencer
If
you
have
no
money
just
start
content
by
yourself
post
faceless
or
post
UGC
with
yourself
That
would
be
my
playbook
Thanks
for
sharing
that
playbook
That's
amazing
I'd
love
if
you
could
get
even
more
specific
and
actually
pull
up
one
of
your
TikTok
videos
that
went
viral
Show
me
some
of
the
numbers
behind
this
video
and
why
you
think
this
thing
worked
and
went
viral
For
this
example
we
have
this
video
that
got
us
close
to
48
million
views
with
two
million
likes
And
from
this
video
alone
we
made
around
12
5K
in
sales
in
like
one
day
with
60K
downloads
So
this
video
I
think
went
viral
because
we
tried
to
really
push
our
engagement
a
lot
lot
So
what
we
did
is
in
the
comment
section
you'll
see
a
bunch
of
people
sharing
their
code
or
asking
for
code
because
in
the
app
we
say
to
the
user
if
you
invite
three
friends
you'll
get
a
free
makeup
look
and
user
would
see
the
video
then
download
the
app
see
that
they
can
share
the
code
and
just
come
back
to
the
video
rewatch
it
and
share
the
code
in
the
comments
That
really
exploded
the
engagement
And
we
added
as
well
the
anchor
link
around
500K
views
which
made
the
downloading
the
app
super
easy
So
the
flow
was
just
perfect
for
user
to
download
the
app
try
it
out
pay
for
it
And
if
they
don't
pay
they
come
back
and
they
engage
again
with
the
post
which
boosted
OK
we
haven't
really
talked
much
about
the
actual
app
that
you
built
I'd
love
if
you
could
show
off
the
app
show
off
the
onboarding
show
what
the
app
does
and
just
give
us
a
quick
demo
Could
you
do
that
So
the
app
is
Glow
Up
It's
just
a
app
that
lets
you
try
makeup
on
So
the
onboarding
is
quite
long
The
goal
is
to
kind
of
make
the
user
feel
it's
personalized
So
a
couple
of
questions
about
sensitive
skin
wrinkles
what
makeup
look
you
like
what's
your
skin
tone
And
these
are
all
used
to
get
the
actual
results
And
then
we
do
ask
to
leave
a
rating
a
review
usually
leave
a
five
star
review
Then
the
reviews
gets
pretty
high
in
the
app
store
and
then
you
get
the
results
which
is
you
The
makeup
again
I'm
a
guy
so
the
result
is
not
the
best
But
then
you
get
all
the
products
that
you
can
just
buy
and
the
makeup
routine
how
to
put
it
on
That's
kind
of
the
app
So
the
app
is
subscription
based
So
we
do
9
99
per
week
or
39
99
per
year
for
unlimited
makeup
look
and
that's
our
only
way
of
making
money
Thanks
for
showing
that
Let's
change
topics
a
little
bit
You
built
this
app
What
tech
stack
did
you
use
to
build
it
and
what
tools
run
this
company
So
my
favorite
tech
stack
for
MVP
is
Flutter
Flow
It's
a
Flutter
based
local
software
that
makes
development
super
fast
It's
kind
of
like
Webflow
You
just
kind
of
drag
and
drop
It's
very
useful
and
makes
development
so
much
easier
for
back
end
I
use
Firebase
Google
Cloud
Functions
for
external
APIs
with
auth
and
database
as
payment
I
use
Superwall
and
for
event
tracking
I
use
Mixpanel
And
on
a
similar
note
what
are
the
costs
to
run
a
business
like
this
and
what
are
the
profit
margins
look
like
for
an
app
like
this
Our
profit
margin
are
around
90
percent
It
always
depends
on
user
usage
But
if
a
user
use
the
app
it
means
they
paid
So
it's
kind
of
good
in
a
way
if
you
pay
for
software
But
mostly
like
back
end
it's
like
a
thousand
a
month
AI
could
be
500
bucks
a
month
and
marketing
could
be
zero
if
you're
posting
or
more
you're
using
a
VA
or
using
a
UGCO
in
Princeton
OK
well
thanks
for
sharing
that
being
transparent
about
all
those
numbers
Last
question
that
I
have
for
you
that
we
ask
everyone
who
comes
on
to
the
channel
if
you
could
go
back
in
time
and
stand
on
young
Louis
shoulders
give
him
a
piece
of
advice
advice
or
for
anyone
who's
watching
right
now
that
wants
to
build
apps
like
you
and
hit
the
top
of
the
app
store
nearly
what
would
be
your
advice
It
would
be
to
move
first
and
adjust
later
Never
wait
for
the
perfect
time
because
there's
no
perfect
time
Three
just
take
action
before
you
feel
ready
to
learn
fast
from
your
mistake
but
from
your
success
as
well
And
to
just
keep
building
and
building
If
you
stay
focused
and
you
grind
a
lot
one
day
you'll
wake
up
living
the
life
you
once
dreamed
about
My
other
piece
of
advice
is
that
you
can
have
your
capitalistic
endeavor
in
whatever
niche
You
don't
have
to
be
an
expert
You
don't
have
to
know
everything
You
don't
have
to
love
the
idea
and
you
still
have
to
come
back
to
your
passion
Makeup
is
like
not
my
passion
I
don't
know
anything
about
it
but
it's
my
capitalistic
endeavor
And
it's
lovely
to
make
money
out
of
it
Great
advice
Thank
you
Louis
for
coming
on
and
sharing
all
this
being
super
transparent
open
about
everything
you
did
I
think
it's
amazing
Congrats
on
your
success
and
thanks
for
coming
on
Thank
you
I'm
going
to
let
you
in
on
a
little
secret
Building
a
successful
app
in
2025
is
not
about
your
tech
stack
or
what
tools
you
use
The
secret
as
you're
seeing
in
this
video
right
now
is
content
TikTok
content
specifically
And
I
can
prove
it
This
is
the
number
one
thing
I've
realized
after
interviewing
hundreds
of
founders
on
this
channel
If
you
can
get
this
part
right
everything
else
just
works
So
knowing
this
we
decided
to
put
together
something
special
for
you
A
free
course
that
goes
over
the
five
different
TikTok
playbooks
behind
five
successful
apps
from
founders
we've
interviewed
right
here
on
this
channel
In
each
playbook
we'll
go
over
how
to
find
ideas
how
to
create
content
and
how
to
blow
blow
up
anything
that
you
create
This
course
is
100
free
So
if
you
want
to
grab
it
and
check
it
out
this
is
one
that
you
cannot
miss
and
it
will
not
be
free
forever
So
if
you
are
ready
to
get
serious
about
content
TikTok
understand
how
this
thing
really
works
Just
click
the
link
in
the
description
to
check
it
out
All
right
guys
that's
it
for
this
episode
Thank
you
again
for
watching
and
showing
up
every
week
I'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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