I Left College to Build This Niche App (Now I Make $20K/Month)
Starter Story
Apr 9, 2026
Ethan dropped out of college after realizing AI could build in a day what took him a week. 6 months later, his app makes $20K/month. This is his exact playbook for finding, building, and marketing a niche app.
Free bootcamp → Build Your Own Mobile App: https://clickhubspot.com/wrbj
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Check out CutCoach: https://www.cutcoach.app/
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🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
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:
0:00 - Don't build for anyone
1:07 - What's your story?
1:38 - App dashboards and data
2:32 - Ethan's background
3:27 - Finding the niche app idea
4:30 - How he built the app
5:15 - Learn to build an iOS app
6:01 - Niche app playbook
7:57 - Tech stack
8:24 - App marketing playbook
9:35 - How he scaled to $20K/month
10:45 - CutCoach app demo
11:45 - Advice to younger self
12:41 - Pat and Gus reflections
13:48 - Go build your own niche app!
Chapters
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
Stack
No tools listed for this business.
I
built
a
mobile
app
that
makes
me
20
000
per
month
This
is
Ethan
He's
19
years
old
and
a
year
ago
he
dropped
out
of
college
and
started
building
apps
Because
my
product
solved
a
very
specific
pain
point
that
no
other
app
solved
it
converted
very
well
But
here's
what's
awesome
The
app
he
built
is
not
designed
for
everyone
In
fact
it
solves
a
very
tiny
problem
for
a
very
niche
community
and
that
might
be
the
secret
hiding
in
plain
sight
In
the
middle
of
wrestling
season
there
was
a
big
demand
for
our
app
And
now
less
than
a
year
later
this
niche
app
has
been
downloaded
thousands
of
times
and
made
over
20
000
in
a
single
month
So
I
asked
Ethan
to
come
out
of
the
channel
to
break
down
exactly
how
he
did
it
And
in
this
episode
we'll
dive
into
the
crazy
simple
niche
app
that
he
built
why
he
didn't
go
viral
and
still
got
thousands
of
users
and
why
everyone
should
be
building
apps
that
solve
niche
tiny
problems
This
one
you
can
not
miss
Let's
dive
in
I'm
Pat
Walls
This
is
Starter
Story
All
right
Ethan
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Yeah
my
name's
Ethan
and
I
built
a
mobile
app
that
makes
me
20
000
per
month
I
launched
it
in
September
and
over
the
last
six
months
we've
gone
from
0
to
over
60
000
total
revenue
and
around
38
000
downloads
Today
I'm
excited
to
share
more
about
the
story
of
how
I
dropped
out
of
college
discovered
Cursor
and
scaled
my
mobile
app
to
over
five
figures
Okay
amazing
Dropped
out
of
college
to
build
an
app
This
is
the
future
Before
we
jump
all
into
it
can
you
show
me
what
you
built
Pull
up
some
of
your
revenue
dashboards
This
is
my
app
CutCoach
It
helps
combat
sport
athletes
cut
weight
for
their
competition
or
fight
coming
up
The
way
it
does
it
is
by
creating
a
science
based
protocol
Here's
our
revenue
for
when
we
launched
the
app
until
the
end
of
January
Right
when
we
launched
the
app
wrestling
season
just
started
Our
revenue
was
climbing
up
as
we
started
to
figure
out
marketing
By
that
time
we
were
in
the
middle
of
wrestling
season
There
was
a
big
demand
for
our
app
since
a
lot
of
the
combat
sport
athletes
needed
to
cut
weights
In
our
app's
lifetime
we
have
actually
around
39
000
downloads
now
It's
just
crazy
how
you
can
build
a
pretty
amazing
business
off
such
a
niche
idea
I
think
about
these
bigger
apps
like
CalAI
This
is
a
very
very
tiny
version
of
this
for
this
specific
combat
sport
wrestling
Super
cool
We're
going
to
talk
all
about
niche
app
but
before
we
do
let's
go
into
your
background
How
do
you
even
get
into
building
apps
Yeah
so
I
started
building
my
first
app
in
the
summer
of
2024
right
before
going
to
university
to
study
computer
engineering
My
first
app
took
about
six
months
to
build
and
was
designed
to
automate
parts
of
my
mom's
workflow
at
her
job
While
I
was
there
I
built
another
app
using
only
AI
tools
That
experience
made
me
realize
how
quickly
AI
was
changing
software
development
So
I
decided
to
leave
university
and
learn
development
my
own
First
few
months
of
2025
I
built
several
apps
but
didn't
market
any
of
them
and
realized
that
this
was
a
mistake
Around
that
time
I
discovered
Cursor
which
made
it
much
easier
and
faster
to
build
apps
and
this
allowed
me
to
shift
my
focus
toward
learning
sales
and
marketing
instead
of
only
development
Okay
cool
So
this
is
pretty
crazy
I
mean
even
at
19
years
old
you've
already
covered
a
lot
of
the
board
of
what
it
takes
to
build
successful
apps
which
is
super
cool
Obviously
you
had
some
previous
apps
that
you
built
before
Those
didn't
work
out
How
did
you
find
the
idea
for
this
app
that
eventually
made
20
000
a
month
Ever
since
I
was
growing
up
I've
always
competed
at
a
high
level
in
combat
sports
I
was
a
provincial
judo
champion
and
also
a
national
wrestling
champion
And
whenever
I
had
to
compete
in
combat
sports
I
would
always
have
to
cut
a
significant
amount
of
weight
in
a
short
period
of
time
I
never
knew
how
to
do
this
properly
until
one
of
my
coaches
gave
me
a
proper
combat
sport
weight
cutting
plan
Fast
forward
two
years
after
my
short
time
at
college
I
was
sitting
in
my
room
thinking
of
an
app
idea
that
I
could
relate
my
passion
of
wrestling
with
my
hobby
of
creating
apps
And
eventually
I
came
up
with
the
idea
for
CutCoach
So
the
reason
my
other
apps
didn't
make
any
money
was
just
because
I
didn't
market
them
For
this
app
I
just
decided
to
learn
marketing
right
after
I
finished
it
and
ship
this
one
out
as
fast
as
possible
so
that
I
can
iterate
on
what
users
actually
wanted
Okay
so
you
dropped
out
of
school
and
you
kind
of
had
your
back
against
the
wall
a
little
little
bit
saying
okay
everyone
can
build
apps
I
can
build
this
stuff
with
cursor
in
like
10
minutes
So
that's
the
thing
I
got
to
learn
is
marketing
We're
going
to
talk
all
about
marketing
But
before
we
do
let's
talk
about
the
build
You're
working
on
a
computer
science
degree
That
doesn't
teach
you
how
to
build
good
apps
that
you've
built
So
how'd
you
learn
How'd
you
build
it
Yeah
I
started
building
the
CutCoach
app
in
June
of
last
year
using
cursor
and
ChatGPT
It
took
me
around
a
month
to
build
the
MVP
and
I
gave
it
to
my
wrestling
club
to
beta
test
after
I
finished
building
it
The
first
version
of
the
app
was
basically
an
app
where
the
coach
was
supposed
to
give
the
wake
up
plans
to
the
athletes
However
I
realized
that
there
was
a
lot
of
friction
using
this
concept
and
my
wrestling
club
didn't
use
the
app
So
during
July
and
August
I
changed
the
whole
concept
of
the
app
to
make
it
so
that
the
app
would
give
the
wake
up
plans
to
the
athletes
instead
of
the
coach
I
tested
the
app's
wake
cuts
on
myself
and
did
a
whole
redesign
which
I
eventually
released
in
September
Here's
what's
awesome
about
Ethan's
story
He
did
not
spend
years
learning
how
to
code
He
picked
up
cursor
found
a
very
niche
problem
and
then
built
an
app
that
made
20
000
in
a
single
month
Ethan
is
proof
that
anyone
can
learn
how
to
do
this
and
I
want
to
help
you
do
the
same
To
do
this
we
just
launched
the
iOS
bootcamp
for
free
Inside
we
will
walk
you
step
by
step
through
how
to
come
up
with
an
idea
and
turn
it
into
a
real
app
ready
to
ship
to
the
world
The
best
part
is
you
don't
need
any
experience
to
get
started
because
Ethan's
journey
all
started
with
one
decision
Stop
thinking
and
just
start
building
This
iOS
bootcamp
will
help
you
get
started
right
now
If
you're
interested
just
head
to
the
link
in
the
description
to
start
building
your
first
app
for
free
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
episode
Okay
I
think
this
is
super
cool
A
lot
of
people
watching
this
are
probably
wondering
I
have
a
niche
problem
in
my
life
How
do
I
actually
go
about
building
an
app
and
actually
getting
paid
users
So
what
would
be
like
your
step
by
step
process
if
you
had
to
start
over
today
Yes
step
one
would
be
to
solve
a
problem
within
your
hobby
So
solving
a
problem
within
your
hobby
is
a
very
effective
strategy
because
you
already
understand
and
enjoy
the
activity
And
this
makes
it
much
easier
to
solve
problems
other
people
will
most
likely
experience
too
And
I
basically
just
ask
ChattyPT
you
know
what
are
some
good
app
ideas
that
I
can
build
within
a
specific
niche
that
I
choose
This
is
a
very
straightforward
method
and
this
AI
brainstorm
can
help
you
come
up
with
ideas
you
never
even
thought
And
once
you
have
the
app
idea
I
usually
just
open
Figma
and
start
designing
the
app
right
away
And
once
I
figure
out
the
wireframes
for
the
app
I
usually
go
to
a
popular
app
and
a
similar
app
within
the
same
niche
And
I
look
at
the
layout
of
their
app
and
I
take
the
elements
from
it
and
adapt
it
to
my
app
So
I
don't
copy
it
the
exact
same
because
you
know
I'd
like
to
be
creative
Try
not
to
reinvent
the
wheel
Just
take
what's
working
from
their
app
adapt
it
a
little
and
change
it
up
I
think
that's
a
great
strategy
especially
if
it's
a
bigger
app
Let's
say
you
are
building
a
language
app
and
you're
copying
something
that
Duolingo
did
You
know
that
they've
run
tons
and
tons
of
tests
They
have
a
huge
team
And
the
reason
that
they
have
the
onboarding
this
way
or
the
logo
this
way
is
probably
something
that
they've
tested
over
many
years
You
get
to
stand
on
the
shoulders
of
giants
and
just
essentially
copy
that
and
then
put
your
later
twist
on
it
So
that's
great
advice
What's
the
next
step
After
I
create
the
design
in
Figma
I
code
the
app
straight
away
So
since
Cursor
can
code
your
app
very
fast
I
usually
just
tell
Cursor
to
create
the
front
end
first
and
make
sure
the
code
that
I
created
matches
the
front
end
design
that
I
created
in
Figma
And
then
I
start
creating
the
back
end
So
I
use
Cursor
and
ChatGPT
for
the
development
And
then
I
integrate
Superbase
for
the
database
to
store
all
the
data
And
I
use
Vercel
to
host
the
landing
page
and
JavaScript
files
I
use
OpenAI
API
for
the
AI
functionality
within
my
app
I
integrate
Revenue
Cat
Mixpanel
Superwall
for
paywalls
and
analytics
And
then
if
I
need
to
I'll
use
CronJob
for
scheduled
automations
So
you
build
the
app
What
about
the
marketing
What's
the
next
step
to
building
a
niche
app
in
2026
Yeah
so
for
marketing
I
would
say
to
start
off
with
organic
posts
I
got
the
ideas
from
social
media
pages
that
were
in
the
same
niche
as
mine
which
I
then
adapted
to
my
app
An
example
of
the
first
video
that
I
posted
organically
was
a
video
where
I
showed
what
a
UFC
fighter
looked
like
on
a
weight
cut
and
what
they
look
like
after
their
weight
cut
I
also
added
a
call
to
action
at
the
end
of
the
video
to
give
users
an
incentive
to
download
my
app
I
noticed
that
the
videos
didn't
get
that
many
views
but
I
also
noticed
that
the
people
that
were
viewing
my
posts
were
very
high
intent
viewers
As
I
noticed
around
10
to
15
downloads
per
day
from
posts
that
got
anywhere
from
200
to
500
views
And
I
think
the
reason
was
because
my
product
was
so
unique
and
it
solved
a
very
specific
pain
point
that
no
other
app
solved
It
converted
very
well
on
my
organic
posts
even
though
they
didn't
get
that
many
views
I
think
there's
a
huge
opportunity
in
niche
apps
like
this
You
don't
need
to
get
millions
of
views
like
you
think
you
might
need
to
do
if
you
can
get
five
to
10
conversion
ratio
on
views
which
is
really
really
high
Let's
dive
a
little
bit
more
into
that
because
yeah
you
can
get
10
to
15
installs
but
that's
not
thousands
of
paying
customers
Once
you
sort
of
figure
out
what
videos
work
what
was
like
the
more
scalable
growth
strategy
Yeah
After
posting
organically
I
switched
over
to
influencer
marketing
Since
my
app
was
in
a
very
niche
category
there
were
not
a
lot
of
big
influencers
to
partner
with
So
I
decided
that
I
would
ask
small
creators
to
partner
with
me
instead
to
start
off
So
to
find
influencers
I
would
basically
just
scroll
on
my
for
you
page
on
Tik
Tok
Tok
or
Reels
on
Instagram
and
I
would
DM
creators
asking
them
to
partner
I
found
that
most
of
the
creators
that
I
DM'd
said
yes
to
the
partnerships
You
know
I
started
off
with
influencers
that
got
around
a
thousand
to
ten
thousand
views
per
video
then
switched
later
to
influencers
that
got
20
000
plus
views
per
video
I
saw
that
the
influencer
marketing
strategy
was
working
not
only
because
I
had
a
very
high
intent
audience
but
also
because
I
had
a
very
unique
product
Later
I
decided
to
put
those
influencer
videos
into
paid
ads
just
to
see
what
would
happen
And
to
my
surprise
it
added
a
lot
of
extra
revenue
and
helped
us
scale
much
faster
and
much
more
efficiently
OK
well
thanks
for
sharing
that
I
want
to
change
the
topic
a
little
bit
and
I
want
to
actually
see
this
app
that
you
built
Could
you
actually
give
me
a
quick
demo
of
what
is
the
niche
app
that
you
built
that
made
over
20
000
in
a
single
month
Yeah
So
here's
the
app
And
when
you
open
it
it
just
has
the
nutrition
values
that
you
have
to
stay
within
And
each
day
you
can
just
log
your
meals
here
So
here
I'm
going
to
put
that
I
ate
some
chicken
And
as
you
see
the
app
is
extracting
the
nutritional
values
from
the
chicken
and
putting
it
in
your
daily
nutrition
goal
And
all
you
have
to
do
to
cut
the
weight
for
your
competition
is
to
simply
stay
within
the
limits
in
the
app
and
make
sure
you
don't
go
over
And
each
day
you
can
also
put
in
your
weight
so
you
can
track
your
progress
of
your
weight
going
down
And
in
this
screen
you
can
see
the
recommended
meals
for
each
day
These
meals
help
you
stay
within
your
limits
so
you
don't
go
over
and
miss
weights
on
competition
day
OK
last
question
that
we
ask
all
founders
who
come
on
Starter
Story
is
if
you
go
back
in
time
to
young
Ethan
before
you
were
building
apps
as
hobbies
or
you're
in
college
would
be
that
one
piece
of
advice
that
you
give
yourself
or
anyone
watching
this
who
wants
to
build
a
niche
mobile
app
like
you
One
piece
of
advice
I'd
give
myself
would
be
to
follow
my
own
advice
You
know
when
I
was
still
in
high
school
I
noticed
how
I
would
make
decisions
based
on
other
people's
opinions
or
advice
even
though
I
already
knew
deep
down
what
the
right
decision
was
to
make
Because
of
this
I
found
myself
living
the
lives
that
other
people
wanted
rather
than
living
my
own
life
Now
while
I
still
seek
advice
from
others
I
make
sure
to
adapt
it
to
my
life
rather
than
letting
it
control
my
life
And
doing
this
has
helped
me
feel
much
more
fulfilled
and
also
given
me
a
much
stronger
sense
of
purpose
in
my
life
That's
awesome
man
Thank
you
Ethan
for
coming
on
Dude
super
cool
app
Over
20
000
a
month
with
a
niche
wrestling
app
I'm
excited
to
see
what
you
build
in
the
future
too
Thanks
for
coming
on
and
sharing
all
this
so
openly
Yeah
thanks
for
having
me
I
wonder
how
many
apps
there
are
Like
the
fact
that
there's
two
in
wrestling
everyone
I
know
who
are
wrestlers
like
are
super
passionate
about
wrestling
Right
And
so
I
wonder
if
that
maybe
there's
something
there
you
know
a
hundred
percent
That's
why
it
wouldn't
make
money
if
it
was
pickleball
For
example
pickleball
It
could
be
old
It
could
be
young
I
feel
like
wrestlers
is
like
really
just
like
high
school
college
I
would
say
there's
definitely
an
opportunity
in
high
school
and
college
sports
where
it's
like
a
small
community
but
everyone's
sort
of
like
competing
You
know
your
parents
are
probably
going
to
pay
for
that
app
Are
you
going
to
pay
for
that
app
so
you
can
make
weight
for
your
wrestling
competition
You're
willing
to
pay
30
to
make
weight
because
if
you
don't
make
weight
the
cost
is
way
higher
People
will
be
very
disappointed
in
you
or
whatever
it
is
So
it's
actually
a
really
painful
problem
for
a
really
niche
community
And
I
think
that's
one
of
the
reasons
why
it's
successful
Man
that
was
cool
I
just
think
he
said
this
like
if
you're
just
kind
of
excited
about
this
hobby
or
something
there's
probably
a
lot
of
people
also
excited
about
that
And
you
can
go
kind
of
build
this
niche
app
and
I
don't
know
if
this
is
right
but
like
no
niche
is
like
too
small
you
know
like
weight
cutting
for
wrestlers
like
that
feels
like
so
narrow
but
yeah
that's
kind
of
my
last
takeaway
I
think
So
if
you're
watching
this
and
you
thought
this
was
cool
check
the
link
in
the
description
We
have
a
link
for
our
iOS
playbook
where
you'll
come
up
with
an
idea
build
it
and
ship
it
within
a
couple
of
days
We'll
walk
you
through
how
to
do
that
with
AI
tools
I
put
that
link
down
there
You
can
click
it
and
get
started
today
All
right
Thanks
for
watching
We'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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