I Made $1.5M From An App You’ve Never Heard Of
Starter Story
Apr 13, 2026
An unexpected phone call gave Jordan Rejaud the idea for an app that's now done $1.5M in revenue. And he's done it with zero ads, no content, and a customer base most founders would never think to build for.
Free database → 190+ Micro-SaaS Ideas Making Millions: https://clickhubspot.com/emfw
Follow Jordan: https://x.com/jordanrejaud
Check out Parakeet Chat: https://parakeet.chat/
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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 - You've never heard of this app
0:54 - What's your story?
1:26 - Founder background
2:03 - Building the app
2:28 - Find a niche app idea
3:11 - Tech stack (and why it doesn't matter)
4:27 - How he found the app idea
5:28 - Validating the idea
6:20 - Advice for actually validating ideas
7:35 - Growth
8:43 - What does this app do?
9:42 - How does it make money?
10:11 - App revenue and statistics
11:27 - Advice: Make more mistakes
12:58 - Pat and Gus reflections: build niche apps!
Chapters
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
Stack
- Custom Built (link)
95
of
you
do
not
realize
that
this
is
an
industry
This
is
Jordan
and
he's
made
over
1
5
million
from
a
single
app
but
I
can
guarantee
you've
never
heard
of
it
My
product
doesn't
have
a
user
interface
There's
no
mobile
app
You
cannot
download
it
on
your
phone
Here's
the
thing
Jordan
didn't
just
build
another
trending
idea
He
found
a
customer
that
almost
nobody
is
building
for
Then
he
went
all
in
and
it
worked
I
built
my
MVP
I
released
it
And
then
I
had
200
paying
users
and
I
was
profitable
from
within
the
first
month
So
I
brought
Jordan
onto
the
channel
to
tell
the
whole
story
and
in
this
episode
episode
we'll
dive
into
how
he
found
this
hidden
market
that
nobody's
building
for
the
secret
to
how
he
got
his
first
200
paying
users
and
the
business
idea
you
have
never
heard
of
that
is
absolutely
crushing
it
I'm
not
going
to
spoil
it
You
just
have
to
watch
Let's
dive
in
I'm
Pat
walls
and
this
is
starter
story
Jordan
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Hey
my
name
is
Jordan
and
I
have
solo
bootstrapped
two
businesses
that
have
each
made
over
a
million
in
total
revenue
The
first
one
is
pretty
boring
mainstream
normal
you
know
know
to
working
on
self
driving
cars
drones
for
famous
companies
but
you
probably
wouldn't
guess
the
second
one
It's
in
a
category
95
of
people
don't
even
think
of
as
an
industry
That's
what
I'm
happy
to
talk
about
Okay
Well
I'm
excited
to
get
into
it
When
you
told
me
about
what
your
app
does
I
got
super
excited
because
I
think
it's
really
really
cool
We're
going
to
talk
all
about
it
But
before
we
do
let's
talk
about
how
you
get
into
building
apps
What's
your
background
So
when
I
was
a
kid
I
wanted
to
be
like
a
scientist
or
an
engineer
or
an
astronaut
And
I
went
to
grad
school
I
got
a
master's
of
science
I
worked
on
a
moon
Rover
and
some
of
our
robotic
stuff
in
grad
school
When
I
graduated
I
got
a
corporate
job
as
a
researcher
big
American
company
a
fortune
100
And
I
thought
the
corporate
world
was
a
little
boring
So
I
taught
myself
how
to
code
And
when
I
went
to
San
Francisco
and
from
there
I
got
more
into
entrepreneurship
Okay
cool
So
you
get
into
corporate
America
you
realize
it's
not
exactly
for
you
right
It
reminds
me
a
little
bit
of
my
story
I
went
to
college
went
to
the
corporate
world
and
realized
I
want
to
build
stuff
I
want
to
learn
how
to
code
So
let's
talk
about
that
This
app
that
we're
talking
about
today
how
did
you
learn
to
build
it
By
the
time
I
started
this
project
I
already
had
probably
about
a
decade
of
experience
writing
software
So
I
wasn't
completely
clueless
And
so
it
took
me
a
month
to
build
the
prototype
which
is
what
I
use
to
validate
the
idea
And
then
another
month
to
build
the
payment
system
So
from
the
second
month
it
was
profitable
So
it
took
about
one
month
to
get
the
first
200
users
on
the
platform
And
it's
just
kind
of
grown
What
I
love
about
Jordan's
story
is
that
he
found
this
hyper
niche
problem
that
nobody
was
paying
attention
to
And
then
he
turned
this
hidden
idea
into
a
300
000
per
year
SAS
business
I
think
the
best
business
ideas
ones
like
these
solve
a
real
problem
for
a
very
niche
type
of
customer
But
how
do
you
actually
go
about
finding
these
ideas
Well
in
partnership
with
HubSpot
we
built
a
free
database
of
over
190
proven
micro
SAS
ideas
that
are
already
making
money
right
now
This
database
includes
real
revenue
numbers
traffic
cost
to
start
pricing
models
growth
tactics
all
of
it
So
if
you
want
to
find
your
next
idea
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
grab
the
database
for
free
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
episode
Okay
cool
Well
you
got
200
users
It
wasn't
a
million
users
but
200
That's
when
you
know
you
had
something
Let's
talk
about
the
tech
stack
Can
you
walk
me
through
that
Sure
I
built
it
in
TypeScript
because
I
build
almost
everything
in
TypeScript
I
mean
nowadays
you
do
everything
in
AI
So
again
this
was
made
in
the
stone
age
back
when
we
would
write
code
manually
But
at
this
point
I
haven't
opened
my
code
editor
in
three
to
six
months
I
have
the
AI
system
writing
all
the
code
for
me
AI
is
the
new
tech
stack
is
my
point
But
specifically
on
my
project
what
I
used
is
TypeScript
like
I
said
React
for
the
front
end
Postgres
as
the
database
Redis
as
the
in
memory
database
which
I
use
with
the
queuing
system
Auth0
because
no
one
wants
to
write
their
own
login
system
So
you
use
something
that
someone
else
wrote
Prisma
which
makes
it
easier
to
make
calls
to
your
database
Although
nowadays
I
guess
technically
the
AI
does
it
for
you
So
perhaps
these
things
aren't
as
useful
And
Zod
which
is
a
way
to
make
sure
that
information
coming
in
from
external
servers
can
be
validated
to
a
certain
schema
And
also
a
lot
of
Docker
containers
One
question
I
get
a
lot
is
I
got
a
brilliant
business
idea
What
language
should
I
use
And
the
answer
is
it
doesn't
really
matter
Do
what
you
think
works
do
what
you
think
is
interesting
The
tech
stack
is
not
that
important
as
sheer
speed
Love
that
There's
one
more
skill
that
I
think
is
still
very
very
valuable
is
to
have
good
ideas
Let's
talk
about
that
How'd
you
come
up
with
the
idea
for
this
eventual
app
that
makes
over
300
000
a
year
So
I
had
been
working
in
San
Francisco
as
a
freelance
software
engineer
and
I
had
a
guy
I
was
working
with
I
was
producing
a
mobile
app
for
him
And
we
were
having
a
meeting
to
finish
up
the
project
It
was
near
completion
And
I
go
onto
the
zoom
call
and
I
get
there
and
his
girlfriend
who
I
wasn't
expecting
was
there
and
she
was
really
upset
And
she
just
told
me
he
got
sent
to
prison
And
that
kind
of
just
sort
of
shocked
me
a
lot
One
day
he's
here
and
you're
talking
and
you're
working
with
him
And
the
next
day
he's
gone
So
I
kept
in
touch
with
him
for
a
couple
of
years
you
know
paper
letters
very
high
tech
Eventually
he
told
me
how
a
lot
of
these
services
in
prison
are
just
a
massive
massive
scam
It
offers
not
very
good
quality
services
at
a
very
high
price
So
I
figured
I
could
do
something
better
and
lots
of
people
who
use
my
product
degree
Okay
I
mean
that's
a
crazy
story
Usually
people
would
just
find
ideas
from
you
know
some
AI
thing
that
they
want
to
help
do
but
you
built
something
in
the
prison
industry
which
is
just
wild
So
you
come
up
with
this
idea
to
improve
the
lives
of
people
that
are
in
prison
How
did
you
validate
this
idea
In
this
situation
it's
a
bit
different
Prison
is
a
closed
ecosystem
And
so
you
can't
easily
send
them
a
link
to
you
know
you
know
your
webpage
and
they
can
check
out
your
idea
and
you
collect
email
addresses
It's
not
going
to
work
So
in
this
step
validating
the
idea
and
building
the
MVP
or
the
same
thing
I
had
to
build
the
MVP
get
it
in
front
of
them
in
order
to
validate
it
So
I
talked
to
my
contacts
in
the
prison
I
said
Hey
here's
this
tool
I
want
to
build
I've
heard
you
guys
are
currently
using
older
technology
It
doesn't
work
very
well
It's
overpriced
So
here's
what
I
envision
could
be
a
better
product
for
you
And
so
you
get
a
lot
of
feedback
People
are
super
responsive
for
this
People
were
telling
other
people
about
it
And
like
I
said
within
a
month
I
had
200
users
and
that
was
enough
for
me
to
validate
it
Okay
cool
So
you
kind
of
mentioned
a
little
bit
earlier
that
you're
the
type
of
person
that
has
lots
and
lots
of
business
ideas
I
think
a
lot
of
people
watching
this
channel
also
feel
the
same
They
want
to
build
lots
and
lots
of
things
So
what
would
be
your
advice
for
someone
watching
this
who
wants
to
build
something
and
make
sure
it's
validated
The
specifics
about
how
to
validate
aren't
as
important
as
the
fact
that
you
must
validate
And
what
I
mean
by
that
is
a
lot
of
entrepreneurs
they
fall
in
love
with
their
idea
You've
probably
heard
lots
of
people
They
say
Oh
Oh
I've
got
this
idea
for
an
app
and
they
spend
12
months
creating
the
perfect
mobile
app
They
haven't
shown
it
to
anyone
They
have
no
feedback
from
actual
customers
Validation
is
not
necessarily
a
specific
strategy
is
do
you
want
to
validate
Because
as
soon
as
you
validate
your
idea
goes
from
a
little
thing
in
your
head
that
you
love
and
is
so
protected
to
the
world
And
the
world
is
probably
going
to
spit
on
it
and
they're
going
to
hate
it
And
they're
going
to
think
it's
boring
that
you
can
look
up
in
five
minutes
on
the
internet
how
to
validate
any
specific
thing
The
point
is
most
people
don't
want
to
validate
because
if
you
validate
it
means
you
might
invalidate
your
idea
And
most
people
it's
an
emotional
thing
They
don't
want
to
they're
too
emotionally
invested
in
the
idea
of
being
an
entrepreneur
except
that
you
must
validate
and
you
must
be
willing
to
let
your
idea
die
That's
a
great
piece
of
advice
or
insight
is
that
validation
isn't
a
specific
framework
or
strategy
So
if
you're
coming
on
here
watching
this
thinking
okay
I'll
follow
this
and
I'll
validate
like
you
said
just
do
it
So
validate
fast
validate
often
validate
early
That's
what
I
see
from
the
hundreds
of
people
that
we've
brought
onto
this
YouTube
channel
Let's
talk
about
growth
How'd
you
get
people
to
use
your
thing
and
eventually
turn
it
into
a
300
K
per
year
app
So
prison
is
a
closed
ecosystem
It
is
very
difficult
if
you're
on
the
outside
to
communicate
and
vice
versa
So
I
had
a
few
people
on
the
inside
who
I
was
talking
about
with
my
project
and
they
just
showed
it
to
other
people
And
then
those
people
showed
it
to
other
people
because
if
you
create
a
good
product
and
it
resonates
with
people
people
will
be
your
zealots
right
They'll
be
your
cultists
Like
I
have
heard
this
expression
Apple
doesn't
have
customers
they
have
cult
members
and
that's
kind
of
an
exaggeration
but
it's
true
Lots
of
people
who
like
these
products
want
to
talk
about
it
So
it's
all
word
of
mouth
honestly
and
people
want
like
a
cooler
answer
but
no
it's
just
all
word
of
mouth
I
did
build
an
internal
recruitment
system
where
if
one
of
our
customers
would
recruit
another
customer
and
the
other
person
signed
up
and
started
paying
for
the
product
the
first
person
would
get
like
a
month
or
so
of
free
credits
So
that
helped
The
way
you
want
to
think
about
growth
and
entrepreneurship
is
as
a
scientist
So
just
be
willing
to
experiment
be
willing
to
fail
come
up
with
a
strategy
It's
probably
terrible
but
you
will
get
data
back
and
then
you
will
be
able
to
reiterate
on
that
Yeah
I
a
hundred
percent
agree
with
that
I
want
to
change
topics
and
actually
talk
about
this
app
Can
you
explain
what
is
the
actual
app
that
you
built
that
makes
300
000
a
year
ParaCute
Chat
is
an
AI
learning
communication
app
for
incarcerated
people
It
helps
them
talk
to
chat
GPT
and
other
AI
services
so
they
can
learn
whatever
they
want
Mostly
they
use
it
to
learn
about
their
own
legal
rights
And
also
there's
a
communication
aspect
where
people
can
use
it
to
talk
to
their
family
We've
had
a
lot
of
messages
from
our
users
saying
Oh
thank
you
Thanks
for
your
system
I
was
able
to
talk
to
my
daughter
I
haven't
been
able
to
talk
to
her
in
years
and
she
sent
me
a
hello
message
and
it
means
the
world
for
me
From
the
perspective
of
the
users
it's
the
internal
prison
email
system
They
just
email
a
specific
email
address
and
our
bot
processes
that
information
and
then
sends
them
a
reply
reply
And
so
our
app
is
essentially
a
chat
bot
that
people
on
the
inside
can
use
to
talk
to
And
it
will
look
up
things
on
chat
GPT
It'll
look
up
sports
statistics
That
is
it
There
is
no
app
in
the
sense
that
you
can
go
on
the
Play
Store
and
download
it
This
is
so
cool
I
don't
know
that
much
about
the
email
system
that
they
use
but
you
built
around
these
limitations
I'm
curious
and
what
a
lot
of
people
be
wondering
is
like
how
does
an
app
like
this
make
money
or
how
do
prisoners
even
pay
for
this
Since
I'm
assuming
that's
a
little
bit
more
complicated
That's
a
good
question
In
most
businesses
customers
and
the
users
are
the
same
people
In
this
it's
different
So
the
users
are
the
incarcerated
people
on
the
inside
The
customers
are
their
families
on
the
outside
and
it's
just
a
monthly
SAS
The
customers
just
pay
for
it
It's
15
or
20
bucks
a
month
depending
on
the
plan
you
want
There's
a
discount
if
you
get
yearly
Last
year
2025
Parakeet
chat
made
a
little
over
300
K
in
revenue
And
in
total
over
the
lifetime
it
has
made
1
5
million
American
dollars
And
in
the
last
month
you
can
check
that
live
if
you
want
on
TrustMRR
If
you
don't
trust
me
total
amount
of
people
who've
ever
tried
it
is
around
30
000
people
And
that's
20
of
the
entire
federal
prison
population
in
the
United
States
So
if
you
know
someone
who's
in
federal
prison
or
has
been
there's
a
pretty
good
chance
that
they've
used
it
That
means
you
know
know
someone
on
the
inside
talking
to
their
family
So
almost
a
hundred
thousand
family
connections
that
wouldn't
exist
if
this
product
didn't
happen
And
we've
sent
out
like
9
million
messages
since
then
When
people
use
Parakeet
chat
most
of
them
it's
studying
case
law
and
legal
research
I
would
assume
it's
probably
about
their
own
legal
case
understanding
their
rights
They
have
very
limited
resources
So
that's
the
biggest
use
case
We
actually
get
a
lot
of
entrepreneurial
questions
for
the
platform
And
a
lot
of
them
I
would
say
are
probably
smarter
than
the
average
ones
I
get
on
the
outside
That's
awesome
man
I
mean
I
think
that's
awesome
that
there's
a
lot
of
entrepreneurial
questions
Cause
I
know
that
when
you
get
out
of
prison
prison
it
can
be
tough
to
get
back
into
the
workforce
So
starting
a
business
may
be
a
great
option
for
people
who
have
been
recently
incarcerated
Last
question
that
we
ask
all
founders
who
come
onto
Starter
Story
if
you
could
go
back
in
time
and
stand
on
Jordan's
shoulders
before
you
got
started
even
maybe
before
you
started
building
stuff
in
Silicon
Valley
and
learn
to
code
and
all
that
what
would
be
your
advice
for
anyone
watching
this
who
wants
to
build
stuff
like
you
did
If
I
had
to
go
back
in
time
and
give
young
Jordan
advice
I
would
tell
him
everything
you
think
about
business
is
wrong
This
is
not
just
an
entrepreneur
thing
This
is
in
general
most
people's
most
ideas
about
most
things
are
not
grounded
in
anything
If
you've
not
done
business
or
any
specific
subject
everything
you
believe
is
probably
wrong
I
didn't
do
everything
perfectly
with
Parakeet
You
always
make
mistakes
but
on
the
whole
I
had
previously
made
enough
mistakes
that
I
didn't
make
them
later
on
And
the
reason
things
worked
out
pretty
well
in
this
project
is
not
because
I'm
a
brilliant
I'm
a
genius
is
I've
made
these
mistakes
10
years
ago
So
it
took
me
10
years
to
get
to
this
point
People
say
an
overnight
success
no
such
thing
It
doesn't
exist
Reality
is
if
you
want
to
be
a
successful
entrepreneur
you
need
to
start
fucking
up
right
now
You
need
to
go
and
come
up
with
a
stupid
idea
an
idiotic
idea
but
everyone
tells
you
will
not
work
and
just
do
it
right
now
Even
if
you
know
it's
going
to
fail
good
even
better
if
you
know
if
it's
going
to
fail
because
then
you
have
no
illusions
that
it
will
succeed
Just
do
it
In
a
way
of
it
doesn't
completely
cripple
you
and
lose
all
your
money
and
get
you
arrested
right
But
do
it
in
a
controlled
way
and
you
will
learn
more
from
that
mess
up
than
you
will
from
reading
20
books
That's
the
best
advice
I've
heard
all
week
Love
that
Thanks
for
coming
on
the
show
Jordan
Awesome
business
awesome
story
awesome
insights
Thanks
for
coming
on
I'm
glad
Thanks
for
having
me
Pat
All
right
Gus
producer
of
Starter
Story
What'd
you
think
First
thought
is
super
unique
business
I
had
never
heard
of
that
That's
one
of
the
reasons
I
was
like
interested
in
having
him
on
the
channel
or
and
that
stood
out
to
me
It's
like
wow
there
is
really
a
business
everywhere
I
personally
love
the
business
Incarcerated
people
or
prisoners
are
getting
access
to
AI
tools
that
can
help
them
with
things
like
case
law
and
stuff
like
that
So
you're
sitting
there
in
prison
wanting
to
learn
wanting
to
better
your
situation
wanting
to
help
you
fight
your
case
And
like
we
talked
about
in
the
last
video
we
just
filmed
building
niche
apps
for
small
communities
is
maybe
the
future
of
AI
and
building
businesses
A
lot
of
the
times
we'll
interview
people
that
are
young
22
years
old
23
years
old
they
have
this
successful
app
and
then
you
kind
of
feel
bad
when
you
see
that
because
you're
older
than
them
and
maybe
it
feels
like
they
just
started
out
and
then
figured
it
out
right
away
But
every
time
you
look
at
those
stories
you
realize
that
there's
still
like
six
seven
10
years
behind
They
just
got
started
earlier
and
they
made
all
those
mistakes
And
as
he
mentioned
there
is
no
such
thing
as
an
overnight
success
So
if
you're
watching
this
and
thinking
I
want
to
get
started
I
want
to
invalidate
some
ideas
Check
out
that
link
I
put
down
there
in
the
description
where
you
can
find
micro
SAS
ideas
Some
that
might
be
similar
to
this
that
serve
niche
communities
that
do
one
thing
they
do
one
thing
Well
I'll
put
that
link
in
the
description
It's
free
You
can
download
it
Hope
you
enjoyed
this
episode
We'll
see
in
the
next
one
Peace
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