Esc
I Copied A Huge App. Now I Make $80K/Month
Starter Story
Aug 9, 2026
Tomer took one of the most successful apps in the world and built it for his local market. Today, just 12 months after launching, he's already doing over $80K/month.
This video breaks down his playbook for reverse-engineering a proven app idea and building your own.
iOS App Ideas: http://go.starterstory.com/lp-test-3-ios-app-ideas-description
Follow Tomer: https://twitter.com/tomercn
Check Cal Buddy: https://calbuddy.co.il/
🔔 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.
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No tools listed for this business.
What
if
you
didn't
need
an
original
idea
at
all
What
if
instead
you
could
reverse
engineer
apps
that
are
already
working
Well
that's
exactly
what
our
guest
did
today
And
within
12
months
he
built
a
million
dollar
app
I
launched
it
a
year
ago
and
now
it
makes
over
80k
per
month
Meet
Tomer
He
saw
a
successful
app
realized
it
didn't
exist
in
his
country
and
thought
can
I
build
this
So
he
did
And
it
worked
almost
immediately
We
started
with
only
1k
on
the
first
month
And
since
then
we
grew
consistently
until
the
previous
month
we
made
over
81k
I
asked
Tomer
to
come
on
to
the
channel
to
reveal
exactly
how
he
did
all
this
And
in
this
episode
we're
going
to
dive
into
what
popular
app
he
localized
how
he
built
it
in
just
a
couple
of
months
without
being
a
developer
developer
and
the
genius
marketing
strategy
that
skyrocketed
his
app
to
over
80
000
a
month
All
right
let's
dive
in
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
Tomer
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Hey
my
name
is
Tomer
and
I've
built
a
calorie
tracking
mobile
app
I
launched
it
a
year
ago
and
now
it
makes
over
80k
per
month
So
today
I'm
excited
to
talk
about
how
I
took
a
super
popular
app
idea
in
the
US
and
localized
it
to
my
local
market
But
yeah
Tomer
when
I
saw
what
you
built
I
thought
oh
that
looks
like
a
similar
app
A
lot
of
people
watching
this
are
thinking
oh
I
know
the
app
that
he
built
but
it's
not
that
app
But
what
I
thought
was
cool
about
it
is
you
took
it
and
you
took
it
down
to
your
own
country
Before
we
get
into
how
you
did
that
how
you
found
that
idea
tell
me
a
little
bit
more
about
what
the
app
is
what
it
does
Pull
up
some
of
your
revenue
screenshots
I'd
love
to
see
Sure
So
the
app
is
an
AI
calorie
tracker
Similarly
to
CalAI
you
simply
take
a
picture
of
your
food
and
it
tells
you
the
calories
and
macros
in
seconds
And
I've
built
it
specifically
for
the
Israeli
market
in
Hebrew
So
here's
the
revenue
chart
from
the
moment
we
launched
the
app
in
June
2025
until
the
previous
month
April
26
We
started
with
only
one
K
on
the
first
month
And
since
then
we
grew
consistently
until
the
previous
month
we
made
over
81
K
OK
I
mean
first
of
all
congratulations
This
is
amazing
Let's
talk
about
how
you
get
here
What
were
you
doing
before
Were
you
always
building
apps
What's
your
background
How
do
you
get
to
this
point
where
you
have
an
app
that's
making
over
80
000
a
month
Yeah
So
before
building
this
app
I
was
doing
marketing
for
other
businesses
I
found
it
extremely
boring
And
I
wasn't
really
passionate
about
promoting
other
people's
products
And
I
wanted
to
look
for
opportunities
to
build
my
own
product
I
stumbled
upon
a
podcast
with
Zack
the
founder
of
CalAI
We
talked
about
how
they
scaled
quickly
to
over
1
million
per
month
And
I
realized
that
it
doesn't
matter
that
the
app
already
exists
if
no
one
knows
about
it
in
my
local
market
And
fitness
and
nutrition
is
a
very
big
niche
It
doesn't
matter
the
country
or
the
market
So
I
decided
that
there
is
enough
potential
in
it
even
in
a
smaller
local
market
OK
cool
Well
I'm
also
curious
on
how
you
actually
built
something
like
this
How
did
you
go
about
building
this
How
long
did
it
take
to
build
and
get
to
an
app
that
was
live
in
the
App
Store
Yeah
So
I'm
not
a
developer
I
had
a
little
bit
of
coding
experience
from
high
school
and
stuff
I
learned
by
myself
But
nothing
more
than
that
Cursor
was
just
released
at
the
time
And
I
wanted
to
see
if
you
could
actually
build
software
like
it
was
magic
with
AI
prompting
And
two
weeks
later
after
starting
the
experiment
with
Cursor
I
had
a
working
version
with
all
the
main
app
features
working
From
the
first
line
of
code
to
being
live
on
the
App
Store
it
was
around
two
months
total
The
funny
thing
is
that
the
coding
wasn't
what
took
the
actual
time
What
actually
slowed
the
process
was
waiting
for
Apple
to
accept
my
developer
program
and
passing
the
App
Store
reviews
Yeah
that's
something
that
I
hear
often
from
a
lot
of
people
who
come
on
here
They
say
it
was
quick
to
build
but
then
the
part
that
took
the
longest
was
getting
Apple
to
review
it
So
if
anyone
is
watching
this
right
now
and
building
something
get
it
done
Get
it
shipped
to
Apple
It
might
be
another
month
There's
this
back
and
forth
and
you
finally
get
it
approved
So
yeah
I
want
to
switch
topics
a
little
bit
What
I
loved
about
what
you
did
is
you
took
this
popular
app
and
then
you
localized
it
to
your
country
I'm
just
curious
how
you
came
up
with
the
idea
to
do
this
Yeah
so
it
was
March
2025
and
I
was
actively
looking
for
an
idea
And
when
I
heard
the
Kalei
podcast
it
clicked
immediately
Although
my
original
plan
was
to
build
something
big
for
the
U
S
market
the
chance
to
take
a
proven
winner
and
be
the
first
to
localize
it
to
my
local
market
was
the
simplest
zero
to
one
move
for
me
the
way
I
saw
it
And
if
you
are
going
to
localize
an
app
for
a
small
market
like
Israel
the
niche
has
to
be
huge
Because
the
market
is
small
you
can't
be
in
a
tiny
vertical
So
fitness
and
nutrition
is
one
of
the
biggest
niches
in
the
world
And
I
happen
to
know
it
very
well
personally
So
it
was
a
perfect
fit
for
me
OK
this
strategy
by
Tomer
is
absolutely
genius
Instead
of
finding
some
crazy
original
new
idea
he
found
a
proven
app
and
he
built
a
very
niche
version
of
it
in
his
country
So
you
might
be
wondering
here
OK
how
do
I
do
this
How
do
I
find
a
proven
idea
just
like
this
Well
we've
got
something
for
you
We've
put
together
our
free
database
of
over
30
iOS
app
ideas
that
are
making
real
money
right
now
Inside
of
this
database
you
will
find
all
the
data
that
you
need
Revenue
numbers
business
models
starting
costs
and
much
more
This
is
all
the
stuff
that
you
might
need
to
validate
your
potential
idea
your
app
that
could
be
the
next
CalBuddy
So
if
you're
ready
to
find
your
idea
and
get
started
building
right
now
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
You
can
grab
this
database
100
for
free
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
episode
But
I'm
curious
does
your
app
do
anything
differently
Did
you
realize
as
you're
building
it
Oh
it
needs
to
do
this
differently
because
I'm
in
Israel
I'm
just
curious
how
similar
it
is
to
CalAI
Yes
so
honestly
it's
not
a
one
to
one
clone
but
the
product
itself
isn't
very
different
The
same
core
experience
as
the
other
AI
color
trackers
You
point
your
camera
at
the
meal
you
get
calories
and
macros
So
the
differences
are
in
the
language
and
a
bunch
of
small
modifications
to
fit
how
Israelis
actually
eat
and
talk
about
food
That's
on
the
product
side
The
real
differentiation
and
I
want
to
be
very
clear
about
this
because
I
think
a
lot
of
builders
are
missing
it
is
the
brand
and
distribution
Almost
anyone
can
build
an
app
with
a
cursor
in
two
weeks
But
I
think
about
it
like
this
If
I
can
acquire
a
user
for
half
what
my
competition
pays
that
means
I
have
more
cash
flow
than
they
do
And
more
cash
flow
means
I
can
outspend
them
on
growth
I
think
that's
a
really
good
point
It's
mostly
the
same
based
on
the
product
but
it's
widely
different
based
on
the
language
the
content
that
we're
creating
the
design
And
that
makes
it
basically
a
different
app
It's
the
same
concept
but
it's
like
a
plumber
here
in
the
US
where
I
live
is
going
to
be
way
different
than
a
plumber
out
in
Israel
So
let's
talk
about
that
A
lot
of
people
are
building
apps
right
now
and
they
don't
have
any
users
But
you
went
very
quickly
from
zero
to
80
000
a
month
So
walk
me
through
that
What
did
you
do
to
grow
your
app
so
quickly
Yeah
sure
So
I
think
that
my
biggest
advantage
going
in
was
that
I
came
from
marketing
And
it's
important
to
say
that
every
channel
works
UGC
influencers
paid
ads
SEO
The
question
is
which
channel
is
the
most
efficient
for
your
specific
market
For
me
it
was
paid
ads
CPMs
are
significantly
lower
than
in
the
US
So
you
can
run
paid
ads
profitably
without
a
time
of
testing
the
capital
So
I
studied
the
most
viral
content
from
similar
apps
in
the
US
and
the
most
viral
fitness
and
nutrition
content
in
Israel
Based
on
that
I
created
the
creatives
and
I
used
them
in
the
ad
campaigns
That
got
me
to
around
20
000
per
month
in
four
months
And
I
always
knew
that
once
I
have
the
traction
and
the
social
proof
needed
I'll
start
working
with
influencers
to
create
a
strong
brand
that's
hard
to
copy
And
I
knew
that
working
with
big
influencers
will
cost
a
fortune
just
for
a
single
story
or
reel
So
I
came
up
with
a
better
idea
partnering
with
big
influencers
They
get
a
percentage
of
the
revenue
and
as
a
result
the
incentives
are
aligned
The
more
money
I
make
the
more
money
they
make
It
also
meant
that
now
I
have
two
well
known
faces
who
represent
my
app
That's
what
took
the
app
from
20
000
to
80
000
per
month
If
you're
watching
this
and
you're
this
far
into
the
interview
this
might
be
one
of
the
coolest
things
that
I've
seen
anyone
that
I've
talked
to
on
StarterStory
do
from
a
marketing
perspective
So
I'd
love
if
you
could
just
dive
a
little
bit
deeper
into
how
that
works
and
what
have
you
learned
after
working
with
these
big
names
Obviously
they're
not
building
the
apps
They're
probably
not
super
involved
with
the
product
day
to
day
So
how
does
that
work
So
to
make
sure
that
they're
on
schedule
they're
delivering
the
content
that
they
have
to
The
entire
agreement
is
based
on
work
timelines
So
you
want
to
create
an
agreement
which
says
how
many
pieces
of
content
they
have
to
deliver
To
you
and
how
many
filming
days
or
recording
days
they
have
to
do
each
month
So
I
think
for
me
specifically
I
got
really
lucky
because
I
know
the
fitness
in
Israel
super
well
And
I
happen
to
know
the
guy
personally
that
then
I
signed
a
deal
with
So
what
we
did
is
we
have
a
rev
short
deal
for
all
the
revenue
that
comes
from
Israel
But
the
main
thing
that
I
think
everyone
should
focus
about
here
is
that
you
have
to
get
some
social
proof
and
to
show
that
the
app
is
working
and
users
are
excited
and
happy
about
it
before
approaching
these
mega
big
influencers
or
celebrities
Okay
so
are
you
giving
like
half
your
business
away
to
these
influencers
What
if
you
want
to
go
find
more
influencers
or
one
influencer
doesn't
work
out
Are
you
giving
away
like
all
your
business
to
these
influencers
So
another
advantage
of
me
waiting
to
making
20k
per
month
before
approaching
them
that
I
can
negotiate
a
better
deal
and
not
act
like
it
was
from
the
get
go
So
they
get
50
50
So
once
you
do
that
you
can
get
the
influencers
to
agree
on
much
better
terms
Yeah
the
typical
model
is
hey
let
me
pay
you
per
post
But
because
they
are
getting
a
cut
of
all
Israeli
revenue
they
actually
have
skin
in
the
game
Maybe
they
talk
about
it
not
just
in
the
one
post
that
they're
paid
to
do
Maybe
they
talk
about
it
on
you
know
whatever
the
TV
show
they're
on
or
when
they're
getting
interviewed
somewhere
else
So
let's
switch
topics
a
little
bit
And
let's
talk
about
tech
stack
I
know
that
you
mainly
built
this
but
you're
not
a
developer
So
walk
me
through
some
of
the
tools
that
you
used
to
build
this
So
I
use
Cloud
for
coding
and
AI
agents
across
the
business
which
is
200
per
month
I
use
PostHook
for
product
analytics
It's
20
per
month
Revenue
Cat
for
subscription
management
Superbase
for
database
and
storage
It's
35
per
month
And
Expo
for
in
app
updates
It's
100
per
month
And
last
question
that
we
ask
all
founders
who
come
on
to
Starter
Story
If
you
could
go
back
in
time
Tomer
to
before
you
had
built
a
successful
app
what
advice
would
you
give
yourself
or
what
advice
would
you
give
to
the
thousands
of
people
that
are
going
to
watch
this
and
get
inspired
So
I
think
the
best
advice
is
don't
be
afraid
of
what
you
don't
know
You
need
to
have
a
lot
of
self
confidence
to
believe
that
whatever
gets
thrown
at
you
you'll
figure
it
out
Because
there
will
always
be
setbacks
and
new
things
you'll
have
to
learn
along
the
way
And
some
will
look
super
complex
and
scary
but
you
can
never
allow
yourself
to
become
the
constraint
of
the
business
and
be
the
one
holding
it
back
Yeah
that's
great
advice
Thank
you
for
coming
on
and
sharing
it
I
think
it's
going
to
become
a
lot
bigger
both
your
app
and
this
new
way
of
marketing
So
thank
you
Tomer
for
coming
on
and
sharing
Thank
you
All
right
Gus
producer
of
Starter
Story
What
do
you
think
of
CalBuddy
I
mean
the
obvious
takeaway
is
you
don't
need
a
new
idea
Hopefully
people
watching
don't
think
like
oh
it's
not
original
or
like
he's
just
stealing
it
Hopefully
that's
not
the
takeaway
Hopefully
the
takeaway
is
like
oh
so
I
don't
need
to
like
reinvent
the
wheel
you
know
kind
of
thing
So
that's
my
first
thought
Yeah
no
what
I
thought
was
interesting
about
what
he
said
is
there
are
hundreds
if
not
thousands
of
calorie
and
fitness
tracking
apps
on
the
App
Store
I've
personally
used
10
of
them
and
I
don't
look
at
those
and
think
like
oh
these
are
all
clones
of
each
other
Right
And
when
he
told
me
that
people
think
about
dieting
and
food
differently
in
the
U
S
than
they
do
in
Israel
And
therefore
that
kind
of
like
defeats
the
whole
argument
of
this
clone
thing
Like
this
app
is
better
for
that
market
than
Cal
AI
because
A
it's
in
Hebrew
and
two
it's
for
that
market
So
I
think
that
this
is
one
of
like
the
big
opportunities
here
is
yeah
take
popular
apps
and
localize
them
to
other
countries
Yeah
I
know
a
lot
of
our
audience
you
know
know
we
see
that
the
data
like
a
good
chunk
are
not
just
in
the
U
S
So
yeah
there's
like
a
huge
opportunity
for
someone
watching
to
think
about
it
for
their
own
place
or
their
own
country
or
their
own
city
or
whatever
We
talked
to
a
lot
of
people
who
kind
of
have
this
approach
find
a
proven
idea
like
remix
it
How
long
do
you
think
that
continues
to
work
Not
just
like
in
apps
but
like
restaurants
or
cars
or
whatever
Like
so
many
examples
of
like
just
the
same
thing
over
and
over
in
the
world
That's
the
work
But
anyway
just
that's
something
I'm
thinking
about
It's
like
yeah
yeah
Well
two
things
One
is
the
country's
thing
is
that
like
the
markets
are
still
wide
open
in
lots
of
countries
I
talked
to
a
lot
of
people
on
here
that
continue
to
mention
this
They
go
hey
even
when
I
was
just
trying
to
run
paid
ads
I
first
started
running
them
in
Argentina
because
I
could
get
better
metrics
over
there
So
there's
that
And
then
the
second
one
is
that
new
problems
are
always
emerging
So
I
think
the
Cali
is
a
good
example
of
that
is
that
I
showed
up
and
now
there's
this
new
API
where
you
can
scan
your
food
and
get
like
a
pretty
accurate
result
So
yeah
I
think
this
year
2026
is
the
time
to
act
In
the
description
down
there
we're
going
to
put
our
database
of
30
very
very
popular
app
ideas
that
you
can
copy
You
can
localize
to
your
country
or
do
them
somewhat
differently
These
are
proven
apps
that
are
making
a
whole
lot
of
money
in
their
categories
And
they're
a
great
canvas
to
start
if
you
want
to
build
apps
and
do
something
similar
So
I'll
put
that
down
there
in
the
description
I
hope
you
guys
enjoyed
this
episode
We'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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