How I Built It: $40K/Month iPhone App
Starter Story
Sep 24, 2024
This is how Steven Cravotta built a viral iPhone app to over $40,000/month.
📚 52+ Micro-SaaS Business Ideas → https://www.starterstory.com/micro?utm_campaign=stevencravotta&utm_source=youtube
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So
my
mobile
app
Puff
Count
is
currently
doing
40
000
per
month
in
recurring
revenue
I
honestly
don't
think
you
need
any
experience
to
build
mobile
apps
because
to
be
honest
I
didn't
have
any
How
did
this
guy
build
a
40
000
per
month
mobile
app
with
no
coding
experience
Well
it's
all
because
of
his
unconventional
approach
to
shipping
Marketing
really
is
95
of
the
success
of
a
mobile
app
Stephen
Cravata
started
his
journey
as
a
typical
online
entrepreneur
jumping
from
one
business
model
to
another
while
not
seeing
really
any
success
with
anything
But
one
day
he
stumbled
upon
mobile
apps
and
immediately
recognized
the
opportunity
Not
a
lot
of
people
are
doing
mobile
apps
right
now
but
it's
a
lot
easier
than
a
lot
of
people
think
to
get
into
It's
untapped
So
I
gave
Stephen
a
call
and
asked
him
about
his
business
and
how
anyone
can
start
building
similar
profitable
mobile
apps
from
scratch
Luckily
he
shared
his
entire
process
how
to
find
and
validate
your
idea
how
to
build
an
app
with
no
experience
and
how
to
market
and
monetize
it
All
right
let's
get
into
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
What's
up
Stephen
It's
exciting
to
have
you
Thanks
for
joining
the
show
Can
you
tell
me
a
little
bit
more
about
yourself
and
the
business
that
you
built
Yeah
sure
I'm
Stephen
Cravata
I
build
viral
mobile
apps
I've
amassed
over
12
million
downloads
on
my
apps
in
total
I'm
working
on
an
app
right
now
called
Puff
Count
that
is
currently
doing
40
000
in
monthly
recurring
revenue
So
this
is
the
last
30
days
of
sales
for
Puff
Count
As
you
can
see
we
did
43
000
in
sales
And
if
we
look
at
the
last
90
we
have
done
just
over
112
000
in
sales
So
before
we
get
into
how
people
can
actually
start
building
these
apps
can
you
tell
us
what
you
really
like
about
this
business
model
With
apps
there's
unlimited
scale
You
can
reach
anyone
on
the
planet
and
all
you
have
to
do
is
build
it
once
and
you
can
sell
it
a
million
times
So
it's
unlike
any
other
business
in
that
way
But
also
it's
a
lot
easier
than
a
lot
of
people
think
to
get
into
With
no
code
tools
and
with
Upwork
you
can
build
these
apps
in
less
than
a
month
And
there's
templates
online
so
you
don't
have
to
start
from
scratch
anymore
The
biggest
misconception
people
have
is
that
it's
hard
to
get
into
So
not
a
lot
of
people
are
doing
mobile
apps
right
now
It's
untapped
But
I
honestly
don't
think
you
need
any
experience
to
build
mobile
apps
because
to
be
honest
I
didn't
have
any
I
don't
design
anything
I
don't
develop
anything
I
just
have
the
idea
and
I
know
how
to
put
a
team
together
You
just
need
to
be
driven
and
not
give
up
on
your
idea
Got
it
Okay
let's
talk
about
how
you
can
actually
build
something
like
this
step
by
step
Everything
starts
with
an
idea
right
Can
you
share
your
ideation
process
I
take
mental
notes
of
problems
that
I
experience
in
my
day
to
day
life
If
you're
building
an
app
from
the
position
of
solving
a
problem
for
yourself
you
become
the
ideal
user
And
that
makes
you
so
much
better
at
creating
the
product
and
making
it
useful
for
the
people
you're
trying
to
reach
If
you
can
solve
a
problem
for
someone
and
you
can
kind
of
take
them
through
this
transformation
whether
it
be
weight
loss
dieting
quitting
vaping
If
you
can
improve
someone's
life
they
are
going
to
love
your
product
And
the
marketing
becomes
much
easier
as
well
right
Because
you
can
be
like
hey
you
have
an
XYZ
problem
Here's
the
solution
So
everything
becomes
easy
if
you're
solving
a
problem
for
someone
Steven
is
the
perfect
example
of
how
someone
with
zero
experience
turned
a
simple
idea
into
thousands
of
dollars
But
that
came
with
knowing
the
right
information
and
having
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
that's
what
you're
going
to
get
at
Starter
Story
It's
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
52
micro
SaaS
ideas
just
like
Steven's
so
you
can
get
started
on
your
journey
right
now
Okay
so
scratching
your
own
itch
is
definitely
the
way
to
go
if
you
want
to
find
a
painful
problem
But
what
do
you
do
after
you
get
the
idea
for
your
app
How
do
you
actually
validate
it's
an
idea
worth
building
I
did
market
research
I
looked
at
Sensor
Tower
looked
at
other
you
know
quit
drinking
or
quit
smoking
cigarettes
apps
and
I
saw
that
they
were
crushing
it
Looked
at
Google
Trends
saw
that
vaping
was
on
the
rise
and
then
probably
the
most
important
part
was
I
looked
on
TikTok
I
saw
that
vape
videos
were
going
super
viral
on
TikTok
But
I
think
where
a
lot
of
young
entrepreneurs
especially
fall
short
is
they
give
up
on
the
idea
too
quickly
If
you
have
a
good
idea
and
it
solves
a
problem
for
people
like
commit
to
it
Just
like
me
for
Puff
Counter
The
first
four
to
six
months
I
didn't
make
any
money
It
was
only
after
I
locked
in
the
marketing
Like
marketing
is
90
of
being
successful
and
validating
an
idea
All
right
we'll
definitely
touch
on
the
marketing
later
But
for
now
let's
focus
on
building
the
app
What
do
you
do
after
the
idea
is
locked
in
What
I
do
is
I
brain
dump
everything
So
I
get
on
Google
Docs
and
I
brain
dump
all
the
ideas
all
the
features
that
I
want
in
the
app
I
put
all
the
competitors
there
and
I
kind
of
write
out
you
know
what
I
think
the
app
should
do
And
then
from
there
I
literally
take
a
piece
of
paper
and
a
pencil
pencil
and
I
start
to
sketch
out
the
app
When
you're
looking
at
these
competitors
and
you're
seeing
who's
making
money
in
your
niche
in
the
market
on
the
app
store
you
should
be
taking
note
of
everything
Their
features
their
onboarding
their
UI
That
will
give
you
a
good
guide
into
what
a
good
app
looks
like
And
then
you
take
those
sketches
and
you
upload
them
to
a
site
called
99designs
You
upload
those
sketches
and
you
say
here's
the
app
here's
the
premise
of
it
here
are
the
features
make
my
app
come
to
life
And
you'll
have
50
60
sometimes
70
plus
professional
UI
designers
all
submit
their
idea
of
what
your
app
should
look
like
This
is
how
I
developed
the
UI
for
literally
all
of
my
apps
Okay
And
what
about
turning
that
design
into
an
actual
working
app
How
do
you
build
it
with
no
coding
experience
You
go
on
to
Upwork
and
you
look
for
a
developer
You
can
price
it
based
on
like
the
complexity
of
your
app
For
an
app
like
PuffCount
it's
fairly
straightforward
A
couple
of
main
features
You
get
that
done
for
less
than
five
grand
right
You
can
get
the
MVP
out
there
I
recommend
only
hiring
developers
from
Eastern
Europe
They're
going
to
give
you
the
best
quality
code
for
a
cheaper
price
Once
you
have
your
developer
that
you'd
like
to
go
with
you
do
it
on
a
per
project
completion
basis
So
I
don't
pay
anyone
per
hour
I
pay
them
when
the
app
is
complete
it's
on
the
store
There's
no
bugs
but
100
you
can
build
an
app
for
less
than
1
000
You
can
go
to
a
website
called
ThemeForest
and
you
can
download
a
pretty
decent
starter
template
for
any
app
out
there
And
again
you
know
just
launching
an
MVP
like
keep
it
simple
And
if
your
budget
is
tighter
like
the
simpler
your
app
the
better
And
how
do
we
trust
the
developer
What
if
they
steal
the
idea
for
our
app
It's
never
been
a
problem
for
me
And
also
your
ideas
are
worth
absolutely
nothing
And
more
likely
than
not
the
idea
that
you
have
for
this
app
already
exists
So
like
the
ideas
out
there
you
just
have
to
trust
someone
I
always
take
like
a
15
minute
interview
call
with
the
people
that
I
like
from
the
applicants
on
Upwork
I
get
their
vibe
I
see
are
they
coming
to
the
table
with
more
ideas
for
my
app
Do
they
seem
excited
about
it
How
do
they
present
But
you
have
to
get
past
that
fear
of
hiring
someone
online
that
you
don't
really
know
Like
that's
part
of
being
a
founder
is
finding
great
talent
trusting
them
and
iterating
as
you
go
Okay
now
let's
talk
about
the
elephant
in
the
room
Marketing
share
your
strategy
Marketing
really
is
95
of
the
success
of
a
mobile
app
And
TikTok
is
the
best
way
to
market
any
app
The
only
thing
you
need
to
be
successful
on
TikTok
is
you
need
to
know
how
to
do
market
research
So
that's
exactly
what
I
did
I
went
on
TikTok
I
typed
in
vaping
and
I
saved
all
of
the
most
viral
videos
there
And
I
put
them
into
a
spreadsheet
so
I
could
really
understand
what
the
hook
was
what
the
value
was
how
they
were
shooting
the
content
For
example
this
one
that
got
8
3
million
views
drove
tens
of
thousands
of
downloads
for
Puff
account
I
saw
a
viral
video
This
guy
had
like
20
million
plus
views
taking
apart
a
vape
So
I
was
like
okay
cool
I'm
going
to
use
the
same
concept
And
I'm
going
to
show
people
exactly
what
are
in
a
vape
And
then
at
the
end
conveniently
call
to
action
baby
Nothing
crazy
I
think
where
a
lot
of
people
go
wrong
is
like
they'll
make
the
entire
video
about
their
products
and
they'll
talk
about
the
features
and
all
this
other
stuff
And
then
it
becomes
a
clear
sales
video
Like
that
sucks
No
one
wants
to
watch
a
sales
video
on
TikTok
My
TikToks
are
entertainment
first
call
to
action
at
the
end
A
quick
two
second
call
to
action
Okay
so
right
now
TikTok
organic
is
the
bread
and
butter
of
marketing
mobile
apps
But
are
there
any
other
marketing
channels
that
have
worked
well
for
you
The
beautiful
thing
about
organic
TikTok
is
if
the
video
does
well
organically
it's
a
great
indicator
that
it's
a
great
creative
in
general
You
can
put
them
on
paid
ads
and
click
the
spend
my
money
button
That's
literally
all
you
have
to
do
because
as
long
as
the
creative
is
good
the
algorithms
on
Facebook
ads
or
TikTok
ads
or
whatever
they
will
optimize
around
that
solid
creative
and
they
will
find
you
customers
What
you
can
also
do
is
you
can
find
influencers
on
these
platforms
and
you
can
pay
them
to
make
content
for
you
In
my
experience
it's
tough
to
you
know
work
with
influencers
They
always
want
a
ton
of
cash
and
they
don't
really
care
you
know
how
the
videos
perform
for
you
But
you
can
find
those
diamond
in
the
rough
creators
and
you
can
reach
out
to
them
and
get
pretty
cheap
content
And
you
can
use
that
and
scale
that
way
As
well
Okay
cool
Now
let's
talk
about
the
next
step
of
the
process
of
building
a
mobile
Monetization
What's
the
best
strategy
to
turn
these
users
or
turn
these
eyeballs
into
paying
customers
Yeah
so
there's
many
different
ways
to
monetize
apps
And
in
my
first
games
I
monetized
through
ads
because
people
were
on
the
app
all
the
time
They
were
playing
the
game
a
lot
So
the
ads
worked
well
for
Grid
and
Wordle
But
for
these
tool
focused
apps
like
Puffcount
ads
don't
really
work
because
you're
not
expecting
the
user
to
be
on
your
app
for
a
super
long
period
of
time
So
the
way
you
monetize
that
is
through
in
app
purchases
You
need
the
user
to
either
buy
your
app
or
commit
to
monthly
yearly
weekly
subscription
The
kind
of
strategy
that
everyone
is
using
now
is
the
app
is
free
You
go
through
the
onboarding
and
then
you
hit
what
is
called
a
hard
paywall
This
is
essentially
a
screen
that
asks
you
to
pay
pay
And
if
you
don't
pay
you
can't
access
the
features
in
the
app
A
hard
paywall
is
unskippable
When
I
changed
Puffcount
to
a
hard
paywall
and
I
made
users
commit
to
a
free
trial
before
they
could
use
any
features
in
the
app
it
changed
my
business
overnight
My
conversion
rate
shot
through
the
roof
upwards
of
20
25
Nice
And
what
about
pricing
How
can
someone
find
the
best
price
point
for
their
app
I
A
B
tested
different
pricings
I
started
at
4
went
up
to
12
right
With
a
lot
of
users
coming
to
your
app
you're
getting
a
lot
of
data
and
you're
understanding
which
price
point
gives
you
the
highest
LTV
the
highest
lifetime
value
I
use
Superwall
to
do
this
You
can
remotely
configure
your
paywalls
and
you
can
change
the
price
without
sending
app
store
updates
You
can
do
it
much
quicker
And
Superwall
will
actually
tell
you
which
price
point
will
give
you
the
best
LTV
So
I
just
optimize
for
that
the
highest
LTV
price
point
You
mentioned
earlier
that
before
getting
hit
with
the
paywall
the
user
is
being
walked
through
the
onboarding
process
What's
your
experience
with
that
The
onboarding
is
super
important
because
this
is
an
opportunity
for
you
to
walk
the
user
through
their
own
problem
So
for
example
on
PuffCount
my
onboarding
is
extensive
and
I
ask
the
users
a
lot
of
questions
And
some
people
say
that's
annoying
I
don't
want
to
do
that
I
just
want
to
get
into
the
app
But
the
data
has
told
me
that
if
I
walk
the
users
through
the
onboarding
they
commit
time
and
I'm
able
to
walk
them
through
their
problem
that
PuffCount
is
solving
So
when
they
hit
the
paywall
they've
thought
about
their
problem
a
lot
lot
and
they're
like
wow
I
actually
really
do
need
to
quit
quit
or
I
really
do
need
this
product
And
they're
much
more
likely
to
convert
All
right
now
let's
get
technical
What
tools
and
software
do
you
use
to
build
all
of
these
apps
The
tech
stack
I
use
to
build
apps
is
pretty
short
I
use
Upwork
to
find
and
hire
developers
I
use
99designs
to
get
the
UI
built
I
use
Superwall
to
A
B
test
my
paywalls
Optimizing
your
paywall
is
how
you're
going
to
make
money
with
your
app
Like
you
need
to
optimize
your
paywall
and
find
the
highest
LTV
So
that
is
100
essential
Everyone
who
has
a
mobile
app
should
be
using
Superwall
I
use
RevenueCat
for
analytics
data
RevenueCat
is
good
too
because
that
will
give
you
more
data
on
your
user
lifetime
value
And
again
your
user
lifetime
value
is
like
the
most
important
metric
in
your
app
You
need
to
understand
how
much
paying
users
are
generating
you
over
their
lifetime
so
that
you
know
how
much
you
can
spend
on
paid
ads
or
on
influencers
or
on
installs
And
as
long
as
your
customer
acquisition
cost
is
lower
than
your
LTV
you're
making
money
I
use
AppSupplier
as
my
MMP
It
connects
with
my
mobile
app
and
Facebook
or
TikTok
ads
and
sends
data
back
to
those
platforms
I
use
TikTok
and
Facebook
ads
to
send
traffic
I
also
use
Mixpanel
and
Amplitude
to
get
kind
of
more
in
depth
analytics
in
my
products
and
see
what
people
are
doing
in
the
app
once
they
do
download
it
once
they
do
pay
And
cheat
code
is
like
you
should
stay
on
the
free
plans
I
don't
think
you
should
ever
really
upgrade
Mixpanel
or
Amplitude
Like
you
should
get
your
data
understand
what
you
need
to
change
and
then
get
out
All
right
for
anyone
looking
for
ideas
I
want
to
ask
what
do
you
think
is
the
most
lucrative
niche
to
build
an
app
in
right
now
When
I
look
at
like
the
most
profitable
niches
in
mobile
apps
I
think
a
lot
of
them
do
have
to
do
with
helping
people
be
better
Lose
weight
quit
vaping
quit
drinking
Anything
in
the
health
space
I
think
will
absolutely
crush
And
of
course
like
there
are
already
apps
that
are
doing
really
well
Like
in
fitness
you
have
like
MyFitnessPal
and
you
have
all
these
weight
training
apps
But
it
comes
down
to
the
marketing
Can
you
get
in
front
of
people
at
a
cheaper
cost
than
these
mobile
apps
right
Being
a
young
founder
you
truly
do
have
an
advantage
advantage
because
all
these
old
heads
in
the
industry
these
big
slow
moving
companies
that
never
iterate
on
their
idea
a
small
nimble
entrepreneur
can
take
them
out
All
it
takes
is
one
viral
TikTok
All
right
another
question
for
you
Some
people
watching
this
right
now
may
have
started
a
couple
other
things
before
but
didn't
see
immediate
results
and
eventually
gave
up
or
quit
What
advice
would
you
give
to
those
people
The
struggle
of
building
something
new
is
it's
never
going
to
be
perfect
on
the
first
try
But
I've
done
this
enough
times
now
to
know
it's
a
process
and
you
have
to
keep
iterating
I
know
it's
a
good
idea
I
know
it
can
make
money
That's
all
I
need
I
don't
need
it
to
work
super
quick
right
Like
I
just
need
that
validation
And
then
I
can
go
out
into
the
market
and
talk
to
customers
and
make
it
better
over
time
Everything
is
built
over
time
Puff
Count's
been
live
for
four
years
but
only
last
six
or
seven
months
have
I
really
made
decent
revenue
per
month
It
takes
time
it
takes
commitment
and
you
have
to
be
willing
to
learn
All
right
next
question
How
does
a
day
in
the
life
look
like
for
a
mobile
app
builder
like
you
I'm
actually
nomading
I've
been
traveling
for
about
six
months
now
I'm
in
Europe
time
So
my
day
doesn't
start
till
later
in
the
afternoon
like
1pm
is
when
I
start
hopping
on
the
phone
and
talking
to
people
So
I
have
my
morning
to
myself
make
a
coffee
go
to
the
gym
get
a
workout
in
And
then
I'm
in
the
zone
to
start
building
start
talking
to
my
team
start
taking
sales
calls
whatever
it
is
And
I
work
till
7
8
9pm
sometimes
much
later
depending
on
what's
getting
done
And
then
you
know
on
the
weekends
I
have
a
chance
to
explore
an
entirely
new
city
and
new
culture
and
meet
new
people
and
try
new
things
So
inspiration
is
a
fleeting
feeling
And
when
you
do
feel
inspired
to
build
an
app
or
build
a
new
project
or
work
super
hard
like
you
have
to
take
advantage
of
it
Going
back
to
why
I
kind
of
like
decided
to
be
a
nomad
and
travel
like
it's
so
I
can
do
more
of
that
So
when
I
had
these
moments
of
inspiration
inspiration
I
wasn't
distracted
by
anything
I
can
lock
in
All
right
last
question
that
we
always
ask
If
you
could
stand
on
young
Stephen's
shoulders
shoulders
and
give
him
some
advice
or
advice
for
anyone
who
wants
to
make
it
in
this
online
business
world
what
advice
would
you
give
First
of
all
it's
not
as
hard
as
you
think
Like
you
just
have
to
be
driven
and
you
have
to
you
know
know
be
willing
to
work
with
people
who
have
skill
sets
that
you
don't
Outsource
what
you're
bad
at
and
build
a
team
around
you
build
a
team
that
you
trust
treat
your
team
well
And
again
don't
give
up
super
early
on
the
idea
It
takes
months
sometimes
years
for
a
project
to
take
off
Relentlessly
talk
to
users
users
get
feedback
and
iterate
based
on
data
A
huge
mistake
that
I
see
first
time
mobile
app
founders
doing
is
like
they're
like
hey
I
have
this
random
idea
for
a
feature
in
my
app
that
I
think
I'm
going
to
spend
two
months
developing
right
before
launching
my
MVP
Don't
do
that
Like
go
to
market
with
something
simple
that
you
can
afford
get
feedback
from
users
and
then
build
on
top
of
it
with
your
team
All
right
Stephen
thank
you
so
much
for
your
time
The
businesses
that
you've
built
are
amazing
And
thank
you
for
coming
on
here
and
sharing
it
with
everyone
Peace
brother
Yo
guys
I
really
hope
you
enjoyed
the
rest
of
the
video
video
and
got
some
good
takeaways
from
Stephen
But
I
want
to
say
something
quick
At
the
end
of
the
day
the
point
of
these
videos
is
to
inspire
you
and
show
you
that
this
is
possible
so
that
you
can
go
start
your
own
thing
on
your
own
While
learning
is
important
and
will
give
you
new
ideas
action
is
the
thing
that's
actually
going
to
move
the
needle
forward
and
take
you
where
you
want
to
go
go
So
research
learn
find
an
idea
and
then
go
build
that
shit
as
fast
as
you
can
If
you're
still
feeling
a
little
lost
right
now
click
that
first
link
in
the
description
and
you're
going
to
get
a
free
list
of
Micro
SaaS
business
ideas
so
you
can
get
going
on
your
side
project
Much
love
and
I'll
see
you
guys
in
the
next
one
Peace
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