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I built this app for my dad. Now it makes $18K/month
Starter Story
Oct 14, 2026
Kourosh built an app in a very crowded market... and yet still managed to grow it to over $18K/month. His secret is insanely simple: everyone else is chasing tech-savvy power users, but Kourosh built this app for a type of custer everyone is ignoring (his dad). This video is the story of how to build a successful product in a "saturated" market.
50+ AI app ideas making millions: https://clickhubspot.com/q8ij
Say hi to Kourash: https://x.com/BuildingWaves
Check out Voicy: https://usevoicy.com/
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 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
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
Originally
I
just
built
it
as
a
fun
tool
for
my
dad
And
then
when
I
saw
that
people
were
downloading
without
any
marketing
I
just
picked
it
up
as
my
side
project
And
now
it
makes
16
to
20
K
per
month
Meet
Kourosh
He
built
an
app
in
one
of
the
most
crowded
markets
out
there
I'm
talking
about
a
space
where
competitors
have
raised
millions
and
somehow
his
simple
app
today
makes
over
18
000
a
month
So
I
wanted
to
know
how
the
real
secret
behind
his
success
has
nothing
to
do
with
the
app
category
itself
It's
all
about
how
he
finds
his
customers
These
to
you
and
me
are
vitamins
They
make
us
a
little
bit
better
but
to
the
people
that
I'm
serving
it's
a
painkiller
Like
they
need
that
product
to
work
When
he
told
me
all
about
it
I
was
blown
away
So
I
invited
Kourosh
to
come
onto
the
channel
to
break
everything
down
for
us
And
in
this
episode
we're
going
to
dive
into
the
app
that
he
built
that
now
makes
over
18
000
a
month
in
one
of
the
most
saturated
markets
out
there
the
customer
that
nobody
else
is
building
for
and
why
that
makes
him
successful
and
crazy
enough
how
he
does
this
all
alongside
his
nine
to
five
as
a
side
project
This
one
is
going
to
be
awesome
Let's
dive
in
I'm
Gus
and
this
is
Starter
Story
Kourosh
welcome
to
Starter
Story
So
excited
to
have
you
on
the
channel
Could
you
tell
us
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Sure
My
name
is
Kourosh
and
I
built
a
speech
to
text
app
called
Voicy
and
it
makes
anywhere
from
like
16
to
20K
per
month
So
I
launched
it
two
years
ago
as
a
Chrome
extension
Originally
I
just
built
it
as
a
fun
tool
for
my
dad
And
then
when
I
saw
that
people
were
downloading
the
Chrome
extension
without
any
marketing
I
just
picked
it
up
as
my
side
project
And
then
I
built
the
Windows
app
the
Mac
app
Linux
iOS
Android
Android
and
now
we're
absolutely
everywhere
And
it's
really
really
really
fun
Not
just
because
like
it
makes
money
but
also
because
like
we
help
people
in
a
really
nice
way
that
I
can
talk
about
later
Well
I'm
so
excited
to
talk
about
that
last
piece
that
you
just
said
what
you
do
a
little
bit
differently
from
everybody
else
But
before
we
get
into
that
let's
talk
about
Voicy
itself
Could
you
pull
up
your
landing
page
and
just
tell
us
a
little
bit
about
what
Voicy
is
how
it
works
So
this
is
the
landing
page
for
Voicy
I
don't
think
I
need
to
explain
like
what
a
dictation
app
is
Everyone
and
their
mom
has
built
one
but
it
essentially
allows
you
to
use
really
really
good
dictation
with
OpenAI's
Whisper
API
absolutely
anywhere
on
your
computer
and
also
on
your
phone
So
we
primarily
serve
people
who
are
older
or
people
with
disabilities
people
people
who
can't
really
type
normally
on
their
computers
without
any
pain
This
is
my
revenue
dashboard
We're
at
11K
MRR
but
on
a
monthly
basis
we
make
anywhere
from
like
16
to
20K
That's
because
we
sell
lifetime
deals
So
usually
our
monthly
plan
is
like
8
49
We
have
a
lifetime
plan
for
like
260
and
that
has
been
doing
quite
well
So
we
have
around
like
2
500
daily
active
users
around
10
000
monthly
active
users
We
have
1
400
active
subscriptions
and
we
offer
this
thing
called
the
disability
disability
discount
where
we
just
give
you
20
off
if
you
email
me
and
20
of
our
users
are
on
that
disability
discount
Yeah
dude
I
think
that's
one
of
the
reasons
I
wanted
to
have
you
on
the
channel
like
I've
said
a
couple
of
times
is
you
are
serving
this
different
kind
of
customer
than
maybe
some
of
the
other
competitors
are
positioning
their
products
for
and
we're
going
to
get
into
that
Uh
here
in
a
little
bit
but
first
let's
take
just
a
few
steps
back
How
did
you
get
into
this
What
were
you
doing
before
Voicy
Do
you
have
a
technical
background
So
I
grew
up
in
Iran
and
Tehran
And
when
I
turned
18
I
moved
to
London
to
study
And
like
as
a
kid
who
doesn't
know
what
they
want
to
do
I
just
studied
business
And
at
the
same
time
like
I
just
started
being
interested
in
startups
So
I
started
playing
around
with
no
code
tools
back
then
because
I'm
from
a
non
technical
background
And
the
first
app
that
I
properly
built
was
a
community
analytics
app
called
meat
waves
and
that
one
grew
to
5k
MRR
but
it
never
really
took
off
because
I
just
didn't
do
marketing
But
that
experience
allowed
me
to
just
become
a
full
time
product
manager
I
was
like
a
product
manager
and
FinTech
for
like
two
three
years
I
learned
how
to
code
during
COVID
and
I
learned
it
from
like
an
actual
book
So
that
was
all
my
coding
experience
but
never
like
good
enough
to
like
build
my
own
stuff
And
kept
building
kept
getting
better
at
it
I
think
Hey
it's
Gus
real
quick
hopping
in
I
love
everything
that
Kourosh
is
breaking
down
Honestly
he's
proof
that
you
do
not
need
a
unique
idea
All
you
need
to
do
is
find
proven
successful
businesses
and
start
building
in
that
category
And
that's
why
we
put
together
this
database
of
over
50
successful
AI
app
ideas
Inside
you're
going
to
find
everything
that
you
need
in
order
to
validate
your
idea
stuff
like
revenue
costs
tech
stack
growth
strategies
everything
that
you
need
to
figure
out
whether
this
is
an
idea
you
want
to
go
build
or
not
It's
100
free
to
download
Just
head
to
that
link
in
the
description
and
grab
it
right
there
All
right
let's
get
back
to
Kourosh
Kourosh
Yeah
that's
the
old
days
of
learning
to
code
from
a
book
I
remember
I
learned
a
little
bit
of
code
from
schools
that
gamified
like
how
to
learn
how
to
code
Even
that
feels
like
ancient
now
Yeah
So
how
do
you
come
up
with
the
idea
for
Voicy
Tell
me
about
that
So
like
two
years
ago
my
dad
came
to
visit
me
in
London
and
my
dad's
like
an
insane
workaholic
like
on
his
computer
24
seven
And
while
he
was
visiting
me
I
got
super
sick
So
I
went
to
the
hospital
I
was
stuck
in
bed
for
like
two
weeks
and
my
dad
was
sitting
next
to
me
all
day
every
day
just
like
typing
on
his
computer
like
click
click
click
Like
drove
me
insane
I
swear
to
God
to
write
an
email
He
took
a
two
to
three
business
days
And
at
the
same
time
like
I
started
using
ChatGPT's
dictation
functionality
and
back
in
the
day
like
it
just
blew
me
away
So
at
some
point
I
was
so
annoyed
and
I
was
just
like
I
wish
I
could
just
give
him
this
dictation
absolutely
everywhere
And
that's
where
the
idea
of
Voicy
came
from
That's
funny
Yeah
It's
kind
of
like
old
guy
coded
right
That's
how
my
mom
and
my
dad
still
like
even
use
a
computer
to
this
day
That's
really
funny
Okay
So
tell
me
about
how
you
built
this
You
said
you
learned
how
to
code
by
reading
a
book
and
I'm
sure
you
learned
a
little
bit
more
along
the
way
What's
the
build
timeline
How
long
did
it
take
you
to
build
the
MVP
So
Voicy
was
the
first
product
I
ever
shipped
fully
in
code
And
back
in
the
day
it
was
literally
just
like
prompting
in
ChatGPT
I
think
it
was
like
3
5
or
4
at
that
point
And
then
copy
pasting
the
code
into
an
IDD
and
praying
to
God
that
it
will
work
But
the
version
that
I
started
out
with
was
like
a
Chrome
extension
because
back
in
the
day
everyone
was
like
the
easiest
thing
to
build
is
a
Chrome
extension
I
got
from
like
idea
to
MVP
in
two
weeks
And
when
I
say
MVP
like
truly
MVP
So
once
it
was
live
and
I
push
it
out
there
I
finally
then
discovered
Cursor
which
like
blew
up
my
productivity
truly
10x
And
after
about
like
six
months
of
having
the
extension
I
decided
to
sit
down
and
build
the
Windows
app
And
there's
this
like
weird
conception
that
only
Mac
people
pay
for
like
apps
is
like
the
entire
business
world
is
on
Windows
guys
So
I
built
the
Electron
app
which
took
around
like
three
months
And
then
after
that
I
could
just
build
the
Mac
app
with
another
month
work
of
time
So
at
this
point
once
the
Mac
app
was
released
I
was
super
comfortable
with
code
So
building
the
Linux
app
super
easy
took
like
two
weeks
iOS
app
came
just
like
six
months
ago
The
Android
app
I
swear
to
God
was
one
shotted
with
Cloud
Opus
4
8
I
I
love
what
you're
saying
there
about
like
it
reminds
me
a
little
bit
of
I'm
not
like
a
big
developer
by
any
means
but
the
initial
version
of
a
chat
GPT
where
you
would
kind
of
like
prompt
it
and
then
put
it
into
your
ID
And
then
when
Cursor
came
out
it
was
like
wow
this
is
awesome
All
the
way
to
you
know
Cloud
being
able
to
one
shot
apps
That's
really
awesome
What's
the
tech
stack
behind
Voice
Team
My
biggest
expense
apart
from
like
API
costs
is
my
website
which
is
on
Framer
And
that's
like
at
around
like
200
per
month
Then
I
pay
for
Cursor
and
for
Codex
I
pay
for
Codex
because
it's
a
beast
and
it's
a
lot
of
bang
for
your
buck
But
whenever
I
need
Opus
models
I
go
to
Cursor
Then
for
analytics
I
use
Postdoc
I
don't
pay
for
it
I
use
Loops
for
emails
Then
for
like
YouTube
videos
and
all
of
the
marketing
stuff
that
I
create
I
use
this
platform
called
Tela
which
is
super
similar
to
Loom
or
like
ScreenStudio
They're
amazing
My
VPSs
are
on
Ionos
for
around
like
40
per
month
And
my
growth
engine
it's
called
RomeoSEO
com
which
is
actually
my
own
product
I
use
that
for
SEO
Cool
Thanks
for
sharing
how
you
built
it
and
the
tech
stack
Before
we
get
into
the
type
of
customer
that
uses
Voice
Team
let's
just
talk
a
little
bit
about
the
growth
How
did
you
take
it
from
zero
to
18
000
a
month
where
it's
at
today
Yeah
So
from
day
zero
just
to
get
it
off
the
ground
the
Chrome
web
store
where
I
was
able
to
get
traffic
for
basically
zero
work
I
think
from
like
day
one
when
we
uploaded
it
and
I
asked
like
five
friends
to
leave
reviews
we
instantly
got
like
10
or
20
page
views
just
from
that
in
the
beginning
So
that
got
me
to
like
my
first
let's
say
a
hundred
users
But
at
the
same
time
I
was
also
posting
on
Reddit
like
absolute
crazy
every
day
We
had
this
like
content
angle
that
I
knew
would
go
viral
in
every
subreddit
So
I
posted
that
like
five
six
times
until
I
got
blocked
That
got
us
to
like
two
or
300
people
And
the
true
growth
of
Voicy
is
from
SEO
Like
I've
always
been
an
SEO
guy
love
SEO
We
have
like
200
blog
posts
We
have
like
30
different
landing
pages
Our
website
is
localized
in
like
four
or
five
different
languages
Recently
we
started
with
YouTube
too
So
standard
videos
around
like
how
to
do
speech
to
text
We
started
like
a
YouTube
series
called
AI
for
Seniors
and
that
one
is
taking
off
We
went
from
like
a
thousand
subs
to
like
12
000
subscribers
in
YouTube
in
like
a
month
Crazy
Thanks
for
walking
through
some
of
that
I
feel
like
I've
seen
online
people
talking
about
how
SEO
is
dead
or
kind
of
you
know
know
it's
old
news
but
at
least
for
you
or
in
this
space
maybe
it
still
works
So
that's
really
cool
Your
YouTube
series
AI
for
Seniors
really
leads
me
into
what
I
really
want
to
talk
about
with
you
which
is
kind
of
the
type
of
customer
that
you
work
with
Your
main
customers
are
older
folks
or
people
with
disabilities
So
let's
talk
a
little
bit
about
how
you
landed
on
your
specific
type
of
customer
So
I'm
a
product
manager
I
get
on
user
calls
Like
if
I
could
just
be
on
user
calls
24
seven
that's
all
I
would
do
And
with
Voicy
what
I
would
realize
is
that
like
60
to
70
of
the
people
were
like
professionals
like
you
and
me
We
were
already
fast
typers
and
we
wanted
Voicy
to
make
us
like
10
more
productive
And
then
like
20
30
of
the
time
I
would
speak
to
someone
who
had
a
physical
disability
or
someone
who
was
just
a
senior
person
who
wasn't
as
tech
savvy
and
couldn't
use
their
computer
as
much
Those
guys
love
the
product
They
didn't
care
about
any
improvements
They
were
like
this
MVP
I
could
live
with
forever
Over
time
it
just
became
obvious
to
me
that
I
can't
compete
with
Whisperflow
and
all
of
those
guys
but
Whisperflow
and
those
people
they
don't
want
to
go
after
the
senior
market
They
just
don't
do
it
And
it's
not
as
sexy
I
suppose
suppose
Like
there's
this
quote
that
says
like
don't
sell
vitamins
sell
painkillers
I
think
dictation
tools
to
you
and
me
are
vitamins
They
make
us
a
little
bit
better
But
to
the
people
that
I'm
serving
it's
a
painkiller
Like
they
need
that
product
to
work
That's
really
smart
And
I
think
that's
a
real
secret
sauce
there
too
of
like
when
you're
talking
to
people
about
your
product
those
customer
conversations
That
takes
me
to
my
last
question
here
is
when
I
was
thinking
about
bringing
it
on
the
channel
I
was
thinking
about
how
Whisperflow
and
all
these
other
companies
that
have
raised
tons
of
money
money
It's
kind
of
a
quote
crowded
or
saturated
market
Why
do
you
think
you
stand
out
or
are
still
successful
So
I
think
something
that
Voicy
taught
me
is
that
within
a
crowded
market
or
to
be
honest
within
any
market
it's
not
the
best
product
that
wins
It's
the
product
that
your
customer
sees
first
You
just
have
one
article
that
shows
up
above
your
competitor
even
if
your
competitor
has
a
better
product
Most
people
will
click
on
that
first
link
in
Google
or
within
the
AI
search
and
they
will
try
out
your
product
There's
no
reason
why
you
have
to
have
the
better
product
And
the
second
part
of
it
is
that
like
the
market
feels
super
crowded
for
people
like
you
and
me
But
when
we
go
into
the
market
that
I'm
serving
these
older
folks
like
they're
not
talking
about
Whisperflow
They're
talking
about
a
dictation
tool
that
was
created
like
15
years
ago
Even
with
the
new
tool
I'm
building
Romeo
SEO
it's
an
SEO
tool
Like
usually
we'd
market
it
to
indie
hackers
like
you
and
me
but
what
figuring
out
is
that
like
it's
local
traders
that
want
local
SEO
more
than
indie
hackers
want
it
So
I
can
just
go
to
them
and
like
that
market
is
less
crowded
So
keep
an
open
mind
Something
that
I
always
hate
when
people
say
is
that
like
I'm
going
after
my
ideal
customer
profile
but
I
always
say
like
your
ideal
customer
profile
picks
you
In
the
early
days
just
post
stuff
online
everywhere
You
don't
always
have
to
go
after
the
biggest
market
Go
after
the
easiest
market
lowest
barrier
to
entry
I
think
especially
for
indie
hackers
Very
cool
Wow
I
love
it
That's
really
simple
I
might
have
to
put
my
mom
and
my
dad
onto
this
app
because
I
also
get
annoyed
with
how
they
text
just
one
finger
on
the
phone
And
you
stay
on
Whisperflow
but
you
put
your
parents
on
Voicy
Right
now
I'm
on
Whisperflow
but
no
hate
on
Whisperflow
I
think
it's
kind
of
just
where
I
landed
first
Oh
it's
a
great
product
Yeah
All
right
Final
question
we
ask
all
founders
to
come
on
to
Starter
Story
If
you
could
stand
on
your
shoulders
from
before
you
started
Voicy
or
for
people
watching
who
are
just
getting
started
what
advice
would
you
give
to
yourself
or
to
them
I
think
turn
off
your
brain
It's
really
not
that
serious
And
just
do
things
If
you
think
you
can
grow
your
app
by
writing
a
blog
post
write
10
If
you
think
you
can
grow
it
by
doing
a
YouTube
video
do
five
videos
Like
turn
off
your
brain
Don't
strategize
Don't
find
the
perfect
marketing
channel
or
the
perfect
product
to
build
Just
do
the
thing
and
do
it
five
times
more
than
you
think
you
should
And
quantity
will
get
you
to
quality
but
it'll
also
get
you
way
way
more
learnings
way
quicker
than
if
you
just
try
to
create
quality
content
I
think
I
was
always
a
perfectionist
Waste
of
time
I
should
just
post
stupid
content
Yeah
I've
seen
this
thing
online
recently
That's
like
an
idiot
in
motion
goes
farther
than
a
genius
at
rest
I
think
that's
really
cool
Awesome
Kourosh
thank
you
so
much
for
sharing
about
Voicy
breaking
it
down
for
us
here
today
For
those
watching
or
who
made
it
here
leave
a
comment
or
a
question
down
in
the
comments
Kourosh
maybe
we'll
have
you
back
when
you're
making
50K
or
100K
per
month
But
man
congrats
on
the
success
This
was
fun
It
was
super
Honestly
I'm
still
stunned
that
you
guys
actually
wanted
to
hear
me
talk
So
thank
you
for
having
me
For
sure
Awesome
man
All
right
right
I
just
wrapped
up
with
Kourosh
Really
enjoyed
everything
he
broke
down
A
couple
of
takeaways
One
the
customer
that
buys
Voicy
If
you're
watching
this
video
or
if
you're
on
Twitter
you're
totally
in
the
AI
space
There's
so
many
people
out
there
that
are
not
I
think
about
my
mom
my
parents
even
some
of
my
friends
who
are
my
age
There's
so
much
opportunity
to
build
stuff
that's
really
simple
They
just
care
that
it
solves
a
problem
for
them
So
that's
kind
of
one
takeaway
And
the
second
one
probably
the
most
important
one
is
I
know
Pat
has
talked
about
this
a
lot
over
the
years
He
learned
about
this
20
of
people
that
were
using
his
product
because
he
was
talking
to
customers
And
that's
something
that
personally
I'm
not
really
good
at
And
if
you're
watching
this
you
need
to
talk
to
people
that
you
want
to
potentially
use
your
product
And
then
maybe
the
last
thing
is
no
such
thing
as
a
saturated
market
I
feel
like
we've
said
that
a
million
times
on
this
channel
even
when
there's
huge
competitors
or
open
source
tools
people
are
still
going
to
buy
something
that's
a
true
painkiller
And
again
for
his
customers
Voicy
is
So
if
you're
still
looking
for
an
app
idea
at
the
link
in
the
description
we
have
have
a
list
of
over
50
successful
AI
apps
Just
go
ahead
and
grab
that
for
free
All
right
right
Leave
a
comment
with
any
feedback
or
any
thoughts
for
me
as
a
new
kind
of
host
here
at
Starter
Story
Thanks
again
for
watching
We
will
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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