Esc
I Make $13K/Month From This Simple App
Starter Story
Oct 7, 2026
Max built a simple iOS app to solve his own problem at the gym. But here’s the thing… before this app, he had never shipped a single line of code in his life. In fact, he was going down the traditional route: college, internships, everything. But he found apps and decided to go all-in. Today, his app makes $14K/month and is growing. This is his app story for anyone looking to get started with apps in 2026.
Get HubSpot's free CRM, the one that updates itself: https://clickhubspot.com/2b1y
Say hi to Max: https://x.com/MaxHirsch13
Check out Maxed AI: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/maxed-ai-smart-fitness-app/id6759180029
🔔 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.
Over
the
last
28
days
we're
at
like
14
000
15
000
a
month
This
is
Max
In
just
a
few
months
he
completely
changed
his
life
by
building
apps
And
he
did
it
all
without
any
technical
experience
at
Six
months
ago
I
had
never
built
a
mobile
app
With
just
an
idea
and
his
phone
he
grew
this
simple
app
to
over
13
000
a
month
There
were
a
few
different
apps
that
people
were
using
There
wasn't
really
one
unified
platform
so
I
just
went
out
and
built
it
We
asked
Max
to
come
onto
the
channel
and
break
down
exactly
how
he
did
it
And
in
this
episode
we'll
dive
into
how
he
did
it
without
knowing
a
single
thing
about
coding
his
simple
marketing
strategy
that
you
can
do
for
free
and
the
really
simple
app
idea
that
now
makes
over
13
000
a
month
This
one
is
going
to
be
good
Let's
dive
in
I'm
Gus
And
I'm
Pat
And
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
Max
welcome
to
Starter
Story
Excited
to
have
you
here
Could
you
tell
us
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Yeah
thanks
so
much
for
having
me
Really
excited
to
be
here
today
I'm
Max
founder
and
CEO
of
Maxed
AI
Six
months
ago
I
had
never
built
a
mobile
app
and
had
very
minimal
coding
experience
Today
I
built
one
of
the
fastest
growing
lifting
apps
on
the
market
Maxed
AI
and
I'm
seeing
a
really
strong
growth
trajectory
That's
awesome
Max
Congrats
I'm
excited
to
talk
about
how
you
did
this
how
you
found
the
idea
and
how
you
grew
it
But
before
we
go
there
let's
talk
briefly
about
Maxed
AI
What
is
the
app
Who
are
your
users
And
then
pull
up
your
revenue
dashboards
to
kind
of
show
it
to
the
audience
Maxed
AI
is
really
your
all
in
one
health
and
fitness
coach
It
knows
exactly
how
much
you
slept
last
night
It
will
do
a
workout
program
tailored
just
for
you
and
your
goals
and
allows
you
to
track
your
lifts
track
your
nutrition
and
even
track
all
your
supplement
and
peptide
protocols
So
you
know
this
is
kind
of
an
overview
of
the
app
store
here
We're
up
to
164
ratings
which
is
really
exciting
So
looking
at
our
revenue
cat
here
over
the
last
28
days
we're
you
know
nearly
14
000
in
revenue
Over
an
entire
month
we're
at
like
14
000
15
000
a
month
You'll
see
here
the
MRR
is
low
That's
because
I
don't
believe
in
building
an
app
relying
on
people
to
forget
to
cancel
their
subscriptions
So
we
just
charge
an
upfront
24
99
yearly
fee
which
is
just
really
2
a
month
So
looking
at
some
of
the
other
statistics
here
we
actually
hit
1
000
active
subscribers
which
is
super
exciting
In
the
new
customer
growths
over
20
000
in
the
last
28
days
over
40
000
all
time
We
just
hit
20
000
iOS
downloads
as
well
So
really
scaling
and
we're
reinvesting
every
single
cent
we're
earning
into
growing
the
business
A
question
that's
coming
to
mind
is
there's
a
dime
a
dozen
lifting
apps
fitness
apps
You
kind
of
just
described
sort
of
an
all
in
one
you
know
health
app
which
I'm
sure
there's
millions
of
those
What
do
you
think
makes
yours
like
different
I
think
building
this
agentic
coach
is
a
step
in
the
right
direction
to
differentiate
us
So
the
Max
Coach
is
wired
to
every
component
of
the
app
So
you
never
have
to
leave
one
screen
to
do
anything
to
check
your
sleep
to
you
know
adjust
your
workout
program
to
see
workout
tutorials
All
of
it
can
be
from
one
page
And
you
know
being
able
to
do
founder
led
content
has
brought
on
so
many
subscribers
to
the
app
to
you
know
follow
along
the
journey
and
feel
like
they're
a
part
of
something
Yeah
I
really
love
everything
that
Max
is
breaking
down
for
us
right
now
And
it
got
me
thinking
about
something
Once
you
have
customers
they're
the
most
valuable
part
of
your
business
Knowing
who
they
are
and
what
they
want
is
what's
going
to
keep
your
business
going
But
a
lot
of
founders
have
this
information
scattered
everywhere
In
their
email
in
their
notes
app
in
different
spreadsheets
That
is
exactly
why
I
want
to
tell
you
about
HubSpot's
CRM
With
HubSpot's
Smart
CRM
it
puts
all
your
customer's
information
in
one
place
And
it
actually
updates
itself
so
you
know
exactly
what's
going
on
with
your
customers
all
the
time
Using
the
link
in
the
description
you
can
actually
get
started
100
for
free
So
if
you
want
to
finally
figure
out
what's
going
on
with
your
customers
just
head
to
the
link
in
the
description
and
check
out
HubSpot's
CRM
All
right
let's
get
back
to
Max
So
Max
super
cool
app
Before
we
get
into
how
you
came
up
with
the
idea
for
this
app
what
I
want
to
understand
is
a
little
bit
more
about
your
background
So
how
long
you've
been
building
apps
And
how
did
you
even
get
into
this
and
find
out
that
this
was
possible
I
graduated
from
the
University
of
Michigan
I
spent
two
summers
in
finance
one
in
venture
capital
one
in
sales
and
trading
To
be
completely
honest
I
was
probably
the
worst
intern
imaginable
I
was
not
passionate
about
the
work
I
was
doing
So
I
started
building
a
food
review
app
called
Dishrate
And
then
I
realized
I
have
no
idea
how
to
build
this
This
isn't
possible
I'd
have
to
pay
tens
of
thousands
of
dollars
in
development
to
get
this
thing
live
So
I
gave
up
And
then
you
know
sort
of
around
December
January
I
started
seeing
people
with
zero
coding
experience
building
apps
People
that
I
knew
if
they
could
build
apps
I
could
build
apps
So
one
day
I
got
set
up
with
a
Cloud
Code
15
membership
and
just
started
typing
Six
months
later
I
don't
think
I've
gone
a
day
without
being
in
my
terminal
and
working
with
Cloud
as
much
as
possible
That's
awesome
So
easy
to
build
now
And
we
just
talked
to
so
many
people
on
this
channel
that
start
open
a
cloud
start
chatting
with
it
and
see
what
comes
out
The
question
that
I
think
is
maybe
even
more
important
to
understand
here
how
did
you
come
up
with
the
idea
for
that
app
How
did
you
know
it
was
something
that
could
potentially
make
money
and
even
be
a
really
successful
app
I
wasn't
naive
to
the
fact
that
there
were
100
other
competitors
already
out
there
But
I
wanted
to
build
something
I
was
actually
passionate
about
And
lifting
is
my
favorite
thing
to
do
in
the
world
My
friends
and
I
lifted
all
of
college
But
I
noticed
an
interesting
pattern
Strava
and
Nike
Run
Club
are
really
the
two
dominant
players
when
it
comes
to
running
It
felt
like
lifting
that
there
was
a
gap
there
that
there
were
a
few
different
apps
that
people
were
using
There
wasn't
really
one
unified
platform
So
I
just
went
out
and
built
it
And
maybe
I
was
a
little
oblivious
to
the
fact
that
there
were
so
many
apps
out
there
that
had
so
many
years
of
experience
But
I
think
being
naive
is
good
at
times
also
On
that
note
now
that
you've
had
some
experience
you
have
a
production
app
that's
used
by
thousands
of
people
What
is
the
tech
stack
look
like
right
now
What
are
the
main
tools
that
someone
should
be
using
if
they're
building
apps
And
how
much
does
that
cost
you
every
month
It's
pretty
inexpensive
I
have
Cloud20x
I
have
Superbase
which
I'm
paying
20
a
month
for
I'm
paying
for
Vercel
and
Expo
to
help
deploy
my
app
and
submit
updates
and
all
of
that
sort
of
stuff
And
then
I
use
RevenueCat
for
my
payments
So
my
advice
would
be
to
anyone
the
barriers
to
entry
are
so
low
This
is
the
best
time
ever
to
build
an
app
Yeah
I
love
what
you
said
there
that
the
barrier
to
entry
is
really
low
Almost
anyone
can
download
Cloud
start
typing
and
start
building
out
their
idea
And
because
that's
so
accessible
or
easier
now
like
you
said
that's
not
really
the
moat
anymore
So
let's
talk
a
little
bit
about
how
you
go
from
0
to
10
000
a
month
I
knew
nothing
about
this
X
community
now
that
completely
gives
you
the
keys
on
how
to
build
an
app
to
10
000
a
month
I
thought
I
was
going
to
launch
a
free
app
and
somehow
make
money
from
monetizing
off
selling
ad
slots
Fortunately
I
met
someone
through
Instagram
that
had
some
experience
building
apps
And
he
kind
of
took
me
under
his
wing
and
told
me
the
direction
that
apps
are
heading
and
you
need
to
hard
paywall
your
app
So
hard
paywall
was
step
number
one
I
think
the
step
from
there
was
marketing
And
I
didn't
have
a
big
budget
to
go
pay
50
UGC
creators
to
go
make
videos
for
me
like
a
lot
of
the
other
big
lifting
apps
So
I
figured
what's
the
easiest
way
to
do
that
It's
to
film
myself
So
I
started
filming
every
day
five
videos
10
videos
getting
over
kind
of
that
initial
cringe
and
fear
of
you
know
your
friends
sending
you
around
and
laughing
at
you
Because
the
reality
is
most
people
don't
even
care
And
then
I
started
really
understanding
what
formats
are
working
I
would
look
at
all
of
the
videos
I
posted
and
analyze
you
know
what's
the
hold
rate
What's
the
skip
rate
And
then
I
started
running
the
best
performers
as
paid
ads
So
I
started
on
a
low
budget
at
first
But
as
I
started
to
see
that
there
really
was
product
market
fit
I
started
to
slowly
up
the
budget
And
you
know
now
we're
spending
around
250
a
day
on
paid
ads
and
finally
starting
a
side
shift
campaign
to
get
you
know
five
other
people
like
me
that
can
make
videos
every
single
day
as
well
Nice
That's
awesome
And
when
we
talked
before
this
interview
you
told
me
a
little
bit
about
how
you've
kind
of
tried
a
lot
of
things
when
it
comes
to
marketing
and
growing
your
app
So
for
people
watching
what
would
you
say
is
working
right
now
or
not
working
right
now
when
it
comes
to
trying
to
grow
an
app
trying
to
market
an
app
like
yours
I
would
say
you
don't
really
have
the
scope
defined
of
your
app
yet
and
you
don't
understand
what
features
are
going
to
drive
downloads
It's
very
early
on
I
would
avoid
hiring
UGC
creators
You're
going
to
need
to
know
the
exact
direction
I
mean
the
angles
that
are
going
to
work
before
you
want
to
burn
money
doing
that
And
then
I
would
say
right
now
Meta
is
much
better
than
TikTok
I
think
the
views
are
more
valuable
I
think
they're
higher
intent
buyers
I
think
the
demographic
is
better
and
they
just
have
a
higher
willingness
to
pay
So
beyond
that
I
think
clipping
has
really
exploded
It's
still
early
enough
on
the
wave
that
you
can
make
a
lot
of
money
for
your
mobile
app
doing
such
This
is
a
great
way
to
get
international
exposure
and
a
great
way
to
get
organic
downloads
Earlier
you
said
something
about
you
sharing
your
journey
online
So
tell
me
a
little
bit
more
about
the
like
founder
led
content
how
that's
been
so
important
for
you
what
the
impact
of
that
has
been
It's
been
incredible
I've
gotten
opportunities
I
could
never
imagine
Even
just
being
on
this
show
here
is
a
real
honor
And
I
think
people
love
passion
and
people
love
authenticity
and
they
want
to
follow
along
So
three
months
ago
I
started
tweeting
and
it's
unbelievable
I
mean
I'd
say
roughly
a
third
of
my
revenue
is
from
people
on
X
which
is
so
crazy
that
are
just
following
my
journey
And
you
know
we're
looking
for
a
lifting
app
or
just
want
to
support
me
I
think
there's
a
misconception
on
X
that
people
are
going
to
copy
your
idea
and
you
have
to
build
in
stealth
I
would
argue
the
exact
opposite
Be
as
public
about
it
as
possible
Show
everyone
what's
working
what's
not
Tell
them
about
your
vulnerabilities
People
are
really
supportive
Kind
of
a
side
note
but
I
think
building
your
personal
brand
is
one
of
the
most
powerful
things
you
can
do
But
I
want
to
switch
topics
a
little
bit
because
I'm
curious
You
don't
have
a
huge
background
in
software
development
You
don't
have
a
huge
team
building
this
app
I'd
love
if
you
could
give
me
a
short
demo
of
the
app
What
does
the
app
do
How
does
it
look
Could
you
show
us
right
now
OK
so
this
is
the
homepage
for
the
app
here
So
you
see
your
schedule
today's
workout
And
you
see
three
pillars
here
really
Your
saved
templates
which
are
workouts
that
you've
saved
You
can
see
your
leaderboard
rank
here
I'm
unfortunately
78th
and
I've
already
lifted
twice
this
week
So
a
lot
of
really
competitive
people
on
the
app
And
it's
very
inclusive
for
everyone
But
the
main
thing
we're
working
on
is
this
chatbot
which
I
have
here
And
you
can
text
it
every
single
thing
and
it'll
adjust
your
workout
program
depending
on
like
I
said
I'm
a
bit
sick
here
Adjust
my
volume
So
it
adjusted
my
chest
and
back
day
And
I
asked
earlier
to
build
me
a
protein
packed
dessert
Made
me
a
recipe
with
all
of
the
ingredients
I
had
available
So
I
have
that
saved
here
And
then
the
social
feed
That's
a
ton
of
fun
Holds
us
accountable
and
I
think
makes
us
competitive
too
So
I'm
always
a
supporter
of
a
good
healthy
competition
So
yeah
that's
really
what
the
app
looks
like
Thanks
for
sharing
Looks
awesome
The
last
question
that
we
ask
all
founders
to
come
on
here
If
you
could
have
any
advice
for
anyone
watching
this
who
wants
to
build
apps
Maybe
they
just
are
about
to
graduate
college
Thinking
about
going
to
college
college
What
would
be
your
piece
of
advice
that
you've
learned
through
your
journey
so
far
I
would
say
you
know
I
went
in
with
this
kind
of
like
half
in
half
out
approach
I
built
an
app
but
I
was
too
afraid
to
market
it
And
I
didn't
want
to
attach
my
name
to
it
And
I
was
too
afraid
to
film
myself
So
the
best
advice
I
could
give
you
is
go
all
in
Film
yourself
Annoy
the
crap
out
of
everyone
around
you
because
you're
so
obsessed
with
it
And
document
your
journey
Because
it's
gonna
be
really
fun
to
look
back
on
and
see
all
the
progress
you've
made
That's
some
of
the
most
rewarding
things
I've
done
here
Just
being
able
to
look
back
at
videos
from
four
months
ago
when
I
got
my
first
paying
customer
And
being
all
excited
to
now
doing
you
know
14
000
15
000
a
month
That's
amazing
advice
Max
What
you've
done
is
proof
of
what
can
happen
in
just
a
few
months
When
you
go
all
in
build
something
and
yeah
scream
from
the
rooftop
So
thanks
for
coming
on
Thanks
for
sharing
And
yeah
man
I'm
excited
to
see
what
you
do
Awesome
Thanks
guys
so
much
Really
appreciate
you
having
me
on
And
can't
wait
to
come
back
on
again
someday
All
right
Gus
producer
and
co
host
of
Starter
Story
What'd
you
think
of
Max
and
Maxed
Max
and
Maxed
That's
funny
I
just
loved
kind
of
his
vibe
and
energy
So
I
like
that
about
him
I
think
my
big
takeaway
is
just
that
you
don't
really
need
like
a
crazy
unique
idea
to
be
successful
I
can't
even
remember
all
the
lifting
apps
specifically
of
people
we've
talked
to
I
think
there's
been
at
least
three
which
just
goes
to
show
you
that
none
of
these
app
ideas
are
complicated
People
go
to
the
gym
they
lift
weights
and
they
want
something
to
be
able
to
track
that
But
the
one
thing
that
you
can't
replicate
is
personal
brand
That
is
the
one
thing
that
I
would
recommend
anyone
to
do
even
though
it
feels
like
you
want
to
keep
it
more
close
to
the
chest
On
that
note
if
this
interview
was
enough
proof
for
you
that
you
don't
need
a
crazy
idea
to
build
something
get
users
start
making
money
online
And
we've
interviewed
hundreds
of
people
that
have
done
this
And
if
you
click
the
link
in
the
description
you
will
find
a
list
of
many
of
those
app
ideas
These
are
app
ideas
that
are
actually
making
revenue
right
now
that
you
can
go
in
you
can
check
out
maybe
find
something
that's
interesting
to
you
Just
click
that
link
you
get
it
100
for
free
All
right
guys
we'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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