I Built A $1M App In 5 Hours
Starter Story
Apr 6, 2024
This is the breakdown of how Dawson Botsford went from working a corporate 9-5 to building a $1M app in just 5 hours, all as a solo developer.
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This
is
Dawson
and
he
built
a
million
dollar
per
year
crypto
app
all
by
himself
And
the
crazy
part
is
he
built
it
in
less
than
a
day
I
basically
went
start
to
finish
I
think
four
or
five
hours
total
He
invited
us
into
his
van
home
in
Colorado
to
show
us
exactly
how
he
built
this
thing
and
the
viral
marketing
strategy
that
got
him
10
000
organic
signups
in
just
48
hours
What
I
really
leaned
into
was
But
there
was
a
problem
All
of
those
users
didn't
pay
him
a
single
dollar
Then
Dawson
came
up
with
a
genius
monetization
strategy
that
scaled
him
to
over
100
000
a
month
Yeah
so
I
came
up
with
this
idea
of
an
anti
email
strategy
In
this
video
Dawson
will
share
the
exact
ideation
marketing
and
monetization
blueprints
he
used
to
build
a
1
million
app
as
a
solo
developer
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
Dawson
thanks
for
having
me
We're
in
your
Sprinter
van
right
now
in
Boulder
Colorado
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
and
what
you
built
Yeah
of
course
Thanks
for
having
me
My
name
is
Dawson
I
am
a
solopreneur
software
engineer
I
made
a
company
called
Earnify
And
Earnify
helps
Ethereum
users
find
and
claim
money
they
didn't
know
they
had
I
grew
Earnify
to
over
250
000
free
users
5
000
paid
users
And
that
was
over
a
million
dollars
ARR
And
then
had
a
liquidity
event
took
my
exit
and
moved
into
this
van
Doing
a
little
exploring
doing
a
little
consulting
but
mostly
just
skiing
Nice
Tell
me
a
little
bit
more
about
Earnify
this
Web3
startup
that
you
built
If
you're
a
user
of
Ethereum
you're
going
all
over
the
place
investing
in
things
trading
swapping
voting
and
governance
governance
But
you
don't
know
about
these
things
called
airdrops
Now
airdrops
are
like
coupons
It's
like
hey
come
use
this
thing
We'll
give
you
an
airdrop
Free
money
honestly
So
Earnify
is
just
a
very
simple
website
If
you
put
in
your
Ethereum
address
on
the
homepage
you're
going
to
get
instant
results
of
what
are
your
unclaimed
airdrops
And
it's
very
common
to
get
hundreds
or
thousands
of
dollars
in
these
If
you're
even
moderately
active
in
Ethereum
the
average
user
over
the
course
of
the
entire
website
was
getting
750
by
being
a
customer
All
right
let's
talk
about
your
backstory
What
were
you
doing
that
led
you
to
starting
this
amazing
business
Really
when
I
was
a
kid
I
was
really
into
video
games
I
was
really
into
just
being
a
dork
honestly
with
math
and
science
And
that
really
paid
out
well
In
middle
school
I
had
a
friend
who
taught
me
how
to
start
programming
I
wrote
these
programs
that
actually
helped
us
cheat
on
our
geometry
tests
People
started
plugging
in
and
sharing
the
program
That
was
my
first
taste
of
you
know
like
product
market
fit
and
having
people
like
the
thing
you
code
or
build
But
that
path
was
not
very
straightforward
for
me
So
when
I
was
a
student
I
actually
lost
a
lot
of
interest
in
software
The
degree
found
a
way
to
kind
of
take
the
excitement
away
for
me
After
my
first
two
years
I
wanted
to
drop
out
But
instead
of
dropping
out
I
got
a
taste
of
hackathons
Hackathons
I
think
are
so
fun
because
it
gives
you
the
opportunity
not
just
to
create
something
fast
but
also
you
can
build
products
that
real
people
use
You
can
build
things
that
real
people
want
If
you
do
it
right
you
can
put
it
on
a
website
and
have
real
users
at
the
end
of
the
weekend
And
I
was
addicted
from
then
on
really
on
understanding
that
software
could
go
change
the
world
world
So
you
were
working
as
a
software
engineer
at
Uber
and
some
other
big
tech
healthcare
companies
What
was
that
experience
like
Yeah
working
at
a
company
like
Uber
obviously
the
salary
is
pretty
lucrative
From
the
outside
it's
a
booming
successful
startup
I
was
there
in
2016
I
was
there
pre
IPO
That
was
the
hot
place
to
be
And
yet
while
there
I
just
saw
the
downsides
of
large
corporations
just
ineffective
teams
honestly
And
that
was
a
bit
sad
to
be
a
part
of
because
I
really
want
to
make
direct
change
in
this
world
And
so
in
addition
to
just
being
disillusioned
with
big
tech
then
I
was
also
disillusioned
with
kind
of
the
office
space
and
just
not
wanting
to
show
up
every
day
I
needed
to
get
a
break
and
get
away
So
what
I
did
actually
is
I
left
and
I
just
nomad
I
just
traveled
the
world
for
a
year
year
and
I
almost
just
had
to
reach
the
point
of
like
I
don't
need
software
for
now
I'm
just
going
to
be
a
nomad
I'm
just
going
to
travel
and
do
yoga
and
see
the
world
you
know
know
What
was
that
experience
like
of
deciding
to
quit
quit
and
drop
everything
and
go
do
this
nomad
thing
How
did
you
feel
in
that
time
Yeah
so
I
felt
really
scared
I
felt
really
worried
to
kind
of
step
out
of
that
comfort
This
was
a
pretty
risky
move
to
leave
not
just
a
great
startup
but
also
to
leave
San
Francisco
I
felt
like
all
of
software
existed
there
But
during
that
year
of
travel
I
met
some
folks
in
Australia
Australia
who
were
distributing
financial
aid
for
nonprofits
through
Ethereum
And
it
was
just
the
most
niche
out
of
this
world
experience
to
cross
paths
with
those
folks
while
being
outside
of
San
Francisco
and
outside
of
the
tech
bubble
They
almost
like
pulled
me
back
in
to
realize
technology
can
be
used
for
good
Technology
can
be
impactful
And
that
got
me
really
interested
all
over
again
in
software
in
Ethereum
and
making
something
in
crypto
Yeah
What
happens
next
How
do
you
come
up
with
the
idea
for
Earnify
When
I
came
back
to
the
US
it
took
me
over
a
year
to
kind
of
re
assimilate
to
being
in
the
US
being
American
and
knowing
that
I
wanted
to
base
my
life
here
As
I
did
that
I
just
started
competing
in
more
and
more
of
these
hackathons
This
was
a
one
month
long
hackathon
and
crypto
was
popping
off
It
was
getting
very
hot
As
a
user
in
this
community
I
knew
the
pain
points
I
already
knew
which
problem
I
wanted
to
solve
but
I
love
waiting
until
the
ideas
are
really
clear
And
so
sometimes
I'll
take
the
first
two
or
three
weeks
of
a
month
long
hackathon
just
letting
the
ideas
bounce
around
in
my
brain
brain
so
that
when
I
do
hit
the
computer
I
have
tons
of
conviction
Once
I
have
that
conviction
the
idea
just
flows
a
lot
more
easily
And
that's
what
happened
here
is
that
I
waited
till
almost
the
last
second
From
then
it
was
just
building
the
solution
I
needed
Once
I
hit
the
code
base
and
started
writing
this
I
basically
went
start
to
finish
I
think
four
or
five
hours
total
Dawson
is
proof
that
just
one
person
can
start
a
million
dollar
business
in
just
a
few
hours
But
that
comes
with
knowing
the
right
information
and
finding
the
right
problem
to
solve
Now
imagine
there
was
a
place
that
gave
you
all
this
The
problems
to
solve
the
blueprints
to
solve
them
and
the
strategies
that
turn
simple
ideas
into
million
dollar
online
businesses
Well
at
Starter
Story
we
have
a
library
of
over
4
000
case
studies
and
business
idea
breakdowns
where
you
can
access
this
all
backed
by
data
from
real
entrepreneurs
So
if
you're
serious
about
building
a
profitable
side
project
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
and
we're
going
to
give
you
50
solo
developer
ideas
just
like
Dawson's
so
you
can
get
started
on
your
journey
Now
let's
get
back
to
how
Dawson
actually
launched
this
business
So
you
build
this
thing
in
basically
five
hours
in
the
hackathon
and
it
starts
taking
off
Can
you
tell
me
more
about
that
Yeah
I
shipped
the
website
put
it
on
a
public
URL
and
publishing
this
tweet
that
just
went
super
viral
about
the
website
Crafted
this
tweet
just
really
intentionally
I
included
a
nice
little
video
of
how
the
searching
worked
for
an
address
that
had
a
ton
of
airdrops
for
it
So
of
course
it's
kind
of
teasing
folks
letting
them
know
this
is
what's
possible
out
there
And
I
think
there
was
almost
a
bit
of
a
charitable
feeling
where
folks
were
like
I
want
to
help
other
people
find
the
money
they
didn't
know
they
had
also
Hitting
retweet
was
such
an
easy
thing
to
do
I
had
10
000
organic
signups
at
the
end
of
that
48
hours
And
how
did
you
get
those
signups
Yes
I
got
those
signups
by
optimizing
this
page
for
the
call
to
actions
to
sign
up
for
the
email
both
in
the
header
and
in
just
a
massive
button
above
the
fold
using
drop
shadows
and
borders
properly
to
draw
the
user's
eyes
towards
these
buttons
It
felt
incredible
I
almost
was
losing
faith
before
that
I've
always
been
shipping
stuff
but
never
had
that
many
eyes
on
what
I've
built
I
thought
you
had
to
be
already
at
the
top
to
get
eyes
on
your
content
But
I
realized
if
you
just
add
a
lot
of
value
for
people
that
you
can
rise
to
the
top
that
way
as
well
Yeah
So
you
got
this
app
it's
getting
a
bunch
of
free
users
How
does
this
turn
into
a
thing
that
makes
a
million
dollars
ARR
I
came
up
with
this
idea
of
an
anti
email
strategy
And
this
is
just
rooting
for
the
fact
that
I
hate
getting
spam
emails
And
so
I
just
never
sent
an
email
unless
the
email
was
you
have
matched
this
amount
of
money
You
have
this
to
go
claim
The
open
rate
was
through
the
roof
Just
everyone
wanted
to
always
open
these
emails
if
they
got
one
And
then
what
I
just
did
is
I
decided
one
day
every
single
airdrop
from
now
on
is
going
to
be
paywalled
So
you'll
see
okay
you
have
793
of
this
airdrop
but
you
cannot
claim
it
unless
you
pay
Yeah
If
I
was
charging
people
it
was
always
so
they
could
get
even
more
out
of
it
And
I
felt
like
that
honest
relationship
led
to
so
many
signups
and
just
people
telling
other
friends
about
it
as
well
Yeah
Let's
talk
about
growth
What
channels
actually
grew
this
business
Yes
A
strict
choice
I
made
in
the
beginning
was
never
do
paid
ads
By
doing
that
anyone
that
even
hears
about
the
website
already
knows
that
they
have
money
to
go
claim
there
But
what
I
really
leaned
into
was
Twitter
So
a
lot
of
crypto
people
hang
out
on
Twitter
And
I
used
to
do
these
really
kitschy
fun
campaigns
where
I
did
one
called
25
days
of
Christmas
Every
single
day
for
25
days
I
would
tag
someone
publicly
on
Twitter
and
say
the
amount
of
dollars
they
had
unclaimed
with
a
screenshot
It
was
basically
saying
like
you're
an
idiot
if
you
don't
go
claim
this
And
they
would
be
tagging
them
and
all
that
Yeah
even
there'd
be
this
community
pressure
that
was
actually
healthy
Of
other
people
seeing
it
being
like
well
I
wish
I
had
that
to
go
claim
Yeah
I
also
just
became
a
fiend
for
going
to
conferences
showing
up
in
person
and
letting
people
know
about
what
I
was
building
led
to
even
more
signups
as
well
Cool
But
yeah
crypto
is
a
crowded
space
Anyone
could
build
an
app
like
this
technically
How
did
you
differentiate
Earnify
The
thing
that
made
Earnify
so
different
is
just
how
obsessive
I
was
about
quality
And
that
led
to
this
really
good
reputation
again
where
if
someone
got
a
notification
they
knew
it
was
a
high
dollar
value
that
they
could
go
claim
right
then
And
any
of
the
competitors
who
were
trying
they
were
including
too
much
And
that
too
much
led
to
lower
quality
And
then
people
didn't
trust
And
trust
is
so
big
because
of
how
much
hacking
and
phishing
there
is
within
crypto
Yeah
Another
part
is
just
being
early
That's
not
always
advice
you
can
replicate
but
if
you
can
that's
obviously
going
to
be
helpful
You
can
be
first
to
the
scene
and
then
provide
so
much
quality
that
no
one
can
even
catch
up
Yeah
So
you
built
this
as
a
solo
developer
as
a
solopreneur
Tell
me
what
that
experience
was
like
Yeah
Solo
has
a
lot
of
pros
and
a
lot
of
cons
One
of
the
pros
is
you
get
to
take
it
where
you
want
You
don't
have
to
ask
permission
and
you
get
to
ship
to
users
directly
Any
team
is
going
to
slow
you
down
a
bit
on
that
Yeah
But
of
course
the
cons
are
it
can
be
lonely
You
can
also
think
something's
a
great
idea
when
it's
not
And
so
you
got
to
stay
around
in
communities
if
you
can
I
did
a
bit
of
co
working
at
the
time
and
these
conferences
I
mentioned
in
order
to
bounce
off
ideas
from
other
people
and
make
sure
I
wasn't
just
in
an
echo
chamber
in
my
head
Yeah
You're
a
software
engineer
What
are
your
favorite
tools
and
coding
languages
What
do
you
build
with
Yeah
finally
the
best
part
So
what
I
love
to
code
in
is
TypeScript
I
use
TypeScript
full
stack
We've
got
Node
js
on
the
back
end
We've
got
React
on
the
front
end
And
I
pull
this
all
together
with
a
framework
called
Next
js
So
Next
js
makes
really
fast
websites
Having
speed
and
having
all
of
this
website
just
load
so
fast
for
everyone
everyone
was
also
part
of
what
helped
me
grow
I'm
a
big
Mac
guy
I
have
a
maxed
out
MacBook
Pro
I
have
a
split
keyboard
just
super
nerdy
I
can
get
good
posture
and
just
a
huge
32
31
inch
monitor
to
make
sure
that
my
eyes
are
resting
all
day
as
well
For
code
editor
I
use
VS
Code
Anyone
out
there
who
does
TypeScript
knows
that's
probably
going
to
be
the
best
choice
anyways
So
you
got
this
successful
profitable
business
and
then
something
crazy
happens
Can
you
tell
me
about
that
So
I
got
a
Twitter
DM
from
David
Hoffman
He's
one
of
the
podcasters
in
this
large
podcast
called
Bankless
I
had
been
watching
and
listening
to
Bankless
for
years
In
fact
Bankless
helped
me
get
into
Ethereum
I
had
a
bucket
list
item
that
was
to
get
my
name
mentioned
on
Bankless
Not
only
did
I
get
my
name
mentioned
but
I
ended
up
being
the
CTO
And
so
it
was
just
a
dream
come
true
But
I
never
considered
the
acquisition
route
until
they
reached
out
and
I
realized
how
realistic
that
was
We
talked
for
several
months
about
some
of
the
specifics
And
yeah
after
two
years
of
growing
the
company
alone
it
was
acquired
by
Bankless
You
sell
your
company
You
have
this
life
changing
event
Tell
me
what
that
experience
was
like
Yeah
it
felt
like
there
was
a
huge
celebration
But
then
right
after
that
it
kind
of
wears
off
The
dopamine
wears
off
It's
a
bit
of
a
freefall
feeling
This
used
to
be
your
passion
It
used
to
be
how
you
spent
every
day
And
then
after
that
you've
got
to
discover
discover
what
your
new
meaning
is
going
to
be
I
feel
that
a
bit
with
travel
with
fitness
with
skiing
with
this
van
When
you
say
that
it
sounds
like
the
dream
Oh
of
course
I
want
to
ski
seven
days
a
week
Of
course
I
want
to
go
wherever
I
want
whenever
I
want
But
actually
that's
not
the
dream
It
only
took
me
a
couple
of
weeks
to
really
feel
how
dark
that
could
be
Because
yeah
you
can
ski
every
day
But
what
you're
spending
seven
days
alone
up
in
the
mountains
you're
not
sharing
experiences
with
other
people
And
it
turns
out
a
lot
of
my
meaning
is
through
community
It's
through
social
stuff
It's
through
spending
time
with
people
and
making
memories
with
people
Do
you
see
yourself
starting
another
company
or
doing
work
Or
are
you
working
now
I
do
yeah
So
I
see
myself
as
a
serial
entrepreneur
This
is
just
one
of
hopefully
many
And
at
the
moment
I
have
started
some
consulting
I'm
really
doing
a
lot
of
open
source
projects
as
well
Back
on
Twitter
again
I'm
also
on
Farcaster
which
is
this
website
that
is
a
decentralized
social
media
platform
And
so
just
publishing
and
building
in
public
is
already
what
I've
started
doing
again
All
right
well
you're
living
this
van
life
right
now
Tell
me
what
a
day
in
the
life
like
is
for
you
living
out
of
this
van
working
and
skiing
Yeah
a
day
in
the
life
is
you
know
I
manage
spending
time
with
friends
And
I
manage
spending
time
up
in
the
mountains
I
manage
a
little
bit
of
time
on
the
computer
So
I
kind
of
balance
these
three
things
Besides
that
I
spend
a
lot
of
time
at
either
co
working
spaces
putting
myself
around
other
people
or
going
to
these
meetups
making
sure
I'm
still
around
these
ideas
a
lot
lot
But
really
doing
it
from
a
different
place
mentally
because
I
want
to
I'm
doing
it
for
the
fun
of
it
I'm
not
doing
it
because
I
have
to
find
customers
or
I
have
to
find
the
next
idea
necessarily
Yeah
that's
great
Okay
one
final
question
If
you
could
sit
on
Dawson's
shoulder
when
you
were
you
know
a
software
engineer
at
Uber
kind
of
really
trying
to
figure
out
what
you
wanted
to
do
when
you're
a
digital
nomad
what
advice
would
you
have
for
him
Yeah
if
I
were
to
talk
to
my
old
self
I
think
I
would
just
say
enjoy
the
process
more
I
wouldn't
want
to
change
what
got
me
to
today
Anything
that
seems
like
a
misstep
was
actually
something
that
taught
me
a
lot
But
it's
just
that
during
that
process
don't
have
as
much
anxiety
Don't
have
as
much
worry
because
it
will
all
work
out
You
know
like
look
at
me
now
It
panned
out
pretty
well
All
right
man
Well
thank
you
Thank
you
Thank
you
for
having
us
Follow
this
advice
and
you'll
build
a
million
dollar
Ethereum
airdrop
app
Hey
guys
Pat
here
I
really
hope
Dawson's
story
inspires
you
and
motivates
some
of
you
to
go
ahead
and
start
your
own
thing
If
you're
curious
about
doing
something
similar
but
you're
still
looking
for
an
idea
Well
I
have
something
for
you
right
now
You
can
download
our
deep
dive
solo
developer
report
for
free
It
breaks
down
50
different
solo
developer
ideas
including
their
business
models
how
much
money
they
make
and
tons
of
other
stuff
you'd
want
to
know
Just
click
the
first
link
in
the
description
And
if
you're
serious
about
finally
building
your
own
idea
consider
joining
Starter
Story
and
we'll
help
you
do
that
Much
love
I'll
see
you
guys
in
the
next
one
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