Esc
I Quit YouTube & Built a $1M App (Without My Audience)
Starter Story
Sep 17, 2025
Sebastian Ghiorghiu made millions and grew his YouTube channel to 1M subscribers, but then started doubting whether he could build a "real" business, without showing his face on camera. To prove himself, he built an app that now makes $250K/year.
🛠️ Want to build your own app with AI? Check out Starter Story Build → https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=deven
Sebastian's app: https://www.helloatlas.io/
Follow Sebastian: https://www.youtube.com/c/SebastianGhiorghiu
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
This video is an educational case study of one 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
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Transcript
Chapters
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No tools listed for this business.
I
decided
like
I
didn't
want
to
do
it
anymore
So
I
basically
just
went
ghost
on
the
Internet
because
I
wanted
to
build
something
real
that
was
detached
from
my
face
Remember
this
guy
Sebastian
Georgiou
If
you've
been
around
YouTube
the
last
few
years
you
might
have
seen
him
flashy
cars
flexing
on
camera
making
millions
and
building
a
YouTube
channel
that
hit
nearly
one
million
subscribers
But
then
he
disappeared
No
uploads
no
flexing
just
gone
So
I
reached
out
bro
what
happened
And
what
he
told
me
completely
blew
my
mind
Instead
of
doubling
down
on
being
an
influencer
Sebastian
walked
away
from
it
completely
He
decided
to
build
a
software
business
behind
the
scenes
No
YouTube
no
personal
brand
And
today
that
business
is
doing
hundreds
of
thousands
of
revenue
with
a
team
of
10
people
I
brought
Sebastian
onto
the
channel
to
talk
about
it
And
he
shares
why
he
walked
away
from
being
an
influencer
at
his
peak
What
he
learned
in
the
process
about
the
pros
and
cons
of
building
an
audience
based
business
and
how
he
proved
to
himself
that
he
could
build
a
real
business
This
was
an
awesome
conversation
and
I
hope
you
enjoy
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
Sebastian
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
build
and
what's
your
story
My
name
is
Sebastian
Georgiou
and
I've
been
doing
online
business
for
quite
some
time
now
I
started
out
with
dropshipping
and
e
commerce
and
I
got
into
YouTube
not
too
long
after
that
But
currently
I'm
doing
software
SaaS
That's
my
latest
venture
Today
we
are
a
team
of
10
plus
people
and
we're
generating
multi
six
figures
a
month
in
recurring
revenue
We're
well
on
our
way
in
the
direction
that
I
wanted
to
go
in
and
the
direction
that
I
set
out
when
I
stopped
posting
All
right
Well
to
be
honest
Sebastian
we
don't
usually
bring
on
big
influencers
in
the
space
You
have
a
million
subscribers
on
YouTube
but
there's
a
reason
for
that
You
decided
to
build
a
software
business
without
using
your
personal
brand
Can
you
tell
me
a
little
bit
more
about
that
Yeah
So
you
know
after
this
last
stint
of
posting
content
on
the
internet
the
internet
and
going
mega
viral
you
know
I
had
this
this
feeling
like
I
had
to
basically
turn
on
a
camera
and
talk
and
get
attention
in
order
to
make
money
And
like
most
of
my
income
was
tied
to
that
I
really
wanted
to
break
away
from
that
I
really
wanted
to
break
that
chain
And
I
set
out
to
build
like
this
real
SaaS
company
and
I
didn't
want
to
do
it
in
a
way
where
I
was
going
to
use
my
personal
brand
to
make
videos
and
talk
about
the
SaaS
Um
I
wanted
to
do
it
like
the
cave
way
where
I
just
locked
myself
in
my
room
and
build
it
the
hard
way
and
grow
it
naturally
And
that's
exactly
what
I
did
All
right
Well
before
we
get
into
this
business
that
you
built
I
do
want
to
go
back
What
was
it
like
building
an
audience
based
business
and
being
a
huge
huge
influencer
in
this
space
Um
it's
kind
of
the
dream
that
a
lot
of
people
have
growing
up
and
watching
Jake
Paul
or
like
all
these
influencers
like
just
blow
up
and
become
famous
and
make
so
much
money
and
live
in
these
cool
places
and
hang
out
with
cool
cool
people
Anything
I
did
would
make
money
and
would
do
well
as
long
as
I
was
talking
about
it
But
there
was
sometimes
like
a
little
bit
of
a
mismatch
right
Like
people
would
think
that
you're
this
person
but
deep
down
you're
really
actually
this
person
And
sometimes
those
would
deviate
and
you
wouldn't
feel
so
aligned
with
like
your
internet
personality
but
it
was
cool
all
around
It
was
a
great
experience
Like
I
look
back
and
I
don't
regret
it
at
all
It
was
really
fun
I
think
what
you
had
is
amazing
I
think
a
lot
of
people
watching
this
would
kill
to
be
in
your
position
to
be
able
to
have
millions
of
subscribers
You
can
build
pretty
much
anything
and
someone
will
probably
buy
I
guess
my
question
to
you
is
why
did
you
decide
to
stop
making
videos
and
really
kind
of
go
silent
Yeah
So
I
didn't
want
to
post
videos
anymore
And
I
think
that
the
fundamental
reason
why
was
because
I
felt
very
misaligned
when
I
was
making
this
type
of
content
I
was
making
content
and
I
was
being
someone
that
either
I
A
didn't
want
to
be
or
B
didn't
feel
like
I
truly
was
I
had
this
clip
that
went
viral
on
Tik
Tok
Well
it
went
viral
everywhere
And
it
was
like
the
Lamborghini
clip
If
you're
a
guy
in
your
twenties
and
you
don't
have
a
Lamborghini
you
should
actually
sit
down
and
have
like
a
serious
discussion
with
yourself
as
to
why
you
don't
have
a
Lambo
I
looked
at
like
how
many
impressions
it
had
on
Twitter
just
Twitter
alone
And
it
was
like
a
hundred
million
Vox
did
like
a
piece
on
me
I
got
two
Fox
interviews
So
obviously
that
clip
made
me
a
lot
of
money
money
But
what
I
realized
through
this
last
stint
of
going
like
as
viral
as
I
ever
have
was
that
I
don't
really
want
to
be
the
guy
that
says
all
these
controversial
things
I
wasn't
desperate
then
but
I
was
like
I
really
would
like
to
build
something
that
doesn't
have
my
face
attached
to
it
I
would
really
like
to
build
something
in
a
way
that
it
will
continue
to
grow
and
pay
me
dividends
even
if
I
never
have
to
turn
a
camera
on
again
So
that's
kind
of
when
I
started
to
transition
Okay
So
you
decide
to
go
and
basically
start
over
build
a
totally
different
business
Why
did
you
decide
to
build
a
SaaS
business
The
first
reason
was
that
as
I
started
to
learn
more
about
SaaS
I
predicted
that
if
I
had
just
built
my
SaaS
business
on
the
back
of
my
personal
brand
and
me
telling
my
own
fans
to
buy
it
it
wouldn't
survive
in
the
wild
When
I
say
wild
I
mean
in
the
market
and
among
the
competition
of
other
SaaS
companies
that
would
build
similar
products
as
mine
And
I
also
saw
that
other
influencers
that
started
SaaS
businesses
you
know
they
come
and
go
I
wanted
to
prevent
that
and
avoid
that
if
I
could
And
I
thought
that
building
this
product
in
the
wild
and
creating
something
that
was
truly
good
enough
for
people
to
adopt
and
pay
for
naturally
and
share
with
their
friends
naturally
and
to
get
people
talking
about
it
without
me
convincing
them
to
I
thought
that
was
a
better
strategy
The
second
reason
why
is
because
honestly
I
wanted
to
prove
it
to
myself
People
always
saw
me
as
this
business
guy
and
I
had
influencer
businesses
but
I
never
truly
felt
like
a
good
competitive
player
in
the
space
So
part
of
me
was
just
like
you
know
what
I'm
going
to
do
this
I
know
I
can
do
it
I
can
do
anything
I
want
So
I
went
all
in
literally
all
chips
on
the
table
which
was
super
risky
into
a
new
area
But
it
worked
I
mean
we
had
250K
in
June
a
couple
of
months
ago
Now
the
business
is
on
a
growing
and
sustainable
path
All
right
So
you
decided
to
build
this
software
business
But
how
Did
you
vibe
code
this
Did
you
hire
a
developer
How
did
you
actually
build
this
thing
I
had
a
co
founder
Neither
of
us
were
technical
You
know
we've
hired
a
lot
of
developers
A
lot
of
them
weren't
very
good
because
we
didn't
know
what
we
were
doing
But
every
time
we
made
a
good
hire
the
boat
lifted
for
everyone
You
know
what
I
mean
And
then
in
January
of
this
year
I
literally
chucked
myself
into
the
deep
end
of
the
water
I
bought
out
my
co
founder
for
a
lot
of
money
at
the
time
And
that
was
when
we
were
at
like
13K
or
14K
MRR
It
was
extremely
scary
And
I
remember
putting
it
in
my
notes
I
put
on
January
6th
I
bet
everything
on
myself
I
also
wrote
like
a
revenue
target
And
funny
enough
the
revenue
target
right
under
that
note
was
you
know
exactly
what
you
need
to
do
to
get
to
250K
a
month
in
recurring
revenue
So
just
lock
in
and
do
it
one
thing
at
a
time
And
now
we've
gotten
to
a
point
where
we're
pretty
lean
team
but
all
of
the
engineers
they're
all
like
the
best
we've
ever
seen
They're
really
really
good
And
that
being
said
it
still
is
incredibly
hard
to
find
talent
And
so
if
anyone
is
watching
this
we're
always
willing
to
work
with
talented
people
So
if
you're
a
designer
if
you're
a
developer
even
if
you're
good
at
CRO
any
sort
of
value
you
think
you
could
provide
in
that
area
definitely
reach
out
to
us
We'd
love
to
talk
to
anyone
OK
so
what
I
really
want
to
kind
of
talk
about
and
I
think
you
might
be
one
of
the
only
people
that's
done
both
You've
built
an
audience
based
business
million
subscribers
on
YouTube
and
then
you've
built
a
completely
different
business
that
didn't
really
rely
on
your
personal
brand
I
want
to
ask
you
the
question
Do
you
think
that
audience
really
matters
when
it
comes
to
building
software
or
any
sort
of
online
business
in
2025
You
could
do
it
with
an
audience
You
could
do
it
without
an
audience
as
well
But
there's
no
question
about
it
No
doubt
Audience
makes
everything
way
easier
And
it
was
that
case
for
me
too
Like
I
said
I
didn't
post
videos
on
my
YouTube
channel
and
directly
drive
traffic
to
the
software
But
I
did
use
my
personal
brand
as
leverage
a
lot
I
mean
people
knew
who
I
was
It
was
easy
for
me
to
reach
out
to
people
You
know
developers
did
want
to
work
with
me
from
time
to
time
If
I
made
a
post
on
Twitter
about
hiring
people
I
would
get
applications
And
I
think
that
also
definitely
contributes
quite
a
bit
to
how
fast
we
were
able
to
do
it
and
like
the
speed
at
which
we're
going
So
it
doesn't
matter
in
the
end
because
like
I
said
you
can
do
it
no
matter
what
But
having
an
audience
definitely
definitely
makes
it
easier
OK
I
mean
we
kind
of
talked
about
the
pros
and
the
cons
of
being
an
influencer
and
being
big
in
the
space
and
building
a
business
around
that
But
what
are
the
cons
or
the
downsides
that
you
noticed
of
building
a
product
based
business
without
a
big
sort
of
audience
basis
Well
I'll
start
with
the
cons
The
cons
are
you're
going
from
like
an
audience
from
applause
to
straight
performance
Like
you
have
to
be
straight
competent
That's
all
that
it
is
You
need
to
be
working
all
the
time
a
lot
more
You're
going
to
have
stress
You're
going
to
have
problems
You're
going
to
have
payroll
It's
way
harder
But
the
pro
is
that
it's
just
way
way
more
fulfilling
And
you
have
freedom
like
genuine
freedom
And
if
you
have
a
business
that's
attached
to
your
face
and
a
personal
brand
you
are
kind
of
cuffed
to
the
camera
in
a
way
So
I
wanted
to
break
that
chain
for
myself
That's
kind
of
like
the
tail
end
of
like
the
journey
or
the
path
that
I'm
on
now
All
right
Before
we
go
back
to
Sebastian's
story
let's
talk
about
the
bigger
lesson
here
He
built
a
business
that
makes
hundreds
of
thousands
of
dollars
per
month
without
his
YouTube
audience
which
proves
that
what
really
matters
is
finding
an
idea
that
people
actually
want
and
just
shipping
it
And
that's
exactly
why
we
created
Starter
Story
Build
It's
our
program
where
we
help
you
take
a
simple
idea
build
it
with
AI
coding
tools
and
actually
ship
it
to
the
world
You
don't
need
to
have
a
million
subscribers
or
even
a
big
following
at
all
With
AI
you
can
build
and
launch
your
first
app
in
days
not
years
And
we'll
guide
you
through
it
step
by
step
If
you're
ready
to
stop
waiting
and
actually
start
building
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
The
first
link
is
in
the
description
Now
let's
get
back
to
Sebastian
What
I
think
is
really
cool
and
what
you're
talking
about
a
lot
is
this
sort
of
identity
change
that
you
went
through
once
you
decided
to
drop
the
sort
of
influencer
based
business
and
go
to
a
business
that
didn't
use
it
How
did
that
feel
in
that
moment
and
what
was
hard
about
it
Yeah
it's
a
good
question
It
was
really
hard
especially
when
I
felt
like
I
didn't
want
to
post
anymore
on
the
Internet
and
I
didn't
want
to
turn
on
a
camera
anymore
And
I
was
like
well
how
am
I
going
to
make
money
if
I
don't
do
that
You
know
what
I
mean
Like
how
am
I
going
to
make
money
if
I
don't
monetize
attention
And
I
was
like
kind
of
a
burn
the
boats
moment
where
it's
like
I'm
either
either
going
to
swim
or
drown
Well
thanks
for
sharing
that
If
you
were
starting
over
from
scratch
would
you
go
build
that
audience
build
in
public
or
would
you
go
behind
the
scenes
operator
mode
like
you're
doing
today
If
you're
going
to
build
an
audience
you
have
to
be
talking
about
something
That's
the
only
way
I
built
mine
You
can
start
a
business
that
you
like
build
an
audience
don't
get
carried
away
in
the
audience
side
of
things
always
focus
on
the
business
At
one
point
when
you
can
sustainably
live
off
the
income
from
the
business
double
down
on
that
and
go
all
in
on
the
business
It's
going
to
be
hard
for
people
because
it's
more
of
a
long
term
play
versus
short
term
play
If
you
get
to
a
point
where
you
have
like
a
business
let's
say
you're
making
10K
a
month
and
you
have
an
audience
and
you're
making
10
20K
a
month
month
there's
going
to
be
a
moment
where
you
have
to
pick
It's
like
do
I
tweet
more
Do
I
make
an
info
product
Do
I
look
out
for
sponsors
or
do
I
code
more
and
do
this
And
one
of
those
things
is
going
to
bring
you
very
quick
cash
and
it's
very
short
term
The
other
one
is
going
to
be
better
for
you
long
term
term
And
I
would
advise
people
to
try
to
stay
on
the
long
term
path
instead
of
the
short
term
path
I
mean
that's
great
Without
a
personal
brand
how
did
you
actually
grow
this
business
How
did
you
take
this
business
from
zero
to
250K
in
about
nine
months
What
were
the
actual
marketing
channels
Yeah
the
way
we
got
it
off
the
ground
was
we
would
share
it
with
some
people
People
would
use
it
in
like
Discord
communities
a
little
bit
to
help
out
We
kept
on
improving
it
We
kept
on
listening
to
the
customers
and
it
grew
to
10K
a
month
fairly
organically
As
it
got
to
a
much
better
place
and
to
a
good
place
where
we
felt
pretty
confident
we
reached
out
to
a
couple
of
people
on
YouTube
to
make
videos
about
it
And
then
we
started
up
with
short
form
content
So
at
first
we
weren't
getting
any
views
but
we
were
studying
what
others
were
doing
And
then
we
created
a
system
with
content
that
would
get
a
lot
of
views
and
go
viral
and
bring
a
lot
of
awareness
to
the
brand
And
then
eventually
we
started
paid
ads
as
well
All
of
these
things
started
to
reinforce
each
other
together
And
they
built
like
a
flywheel
of
some
sort
where
somebody
would
make
a
YouTube
video
and
then
like
we
would
have
shorts
made
of
that
video
We'd
post
the
shorts
We
would
have
ads
made
with
that
video
We
would
use
ads
And
then
people
would
kind
of
start
to
see
it
everywhere
So
YouTube
videos
short
form
content
and
paid
ads
makes
up
60
to
65
of
our
total
traffic
Of
course
we
have
affiliates
ChatGPT
if
you
ask
the
right
questions
you
will
get
put
up
in
ChatGPT
SEO
of
course
it's
ranking
quite
high
now
Like
the
App
Store
itself
brings
in
traffic
as
well
People
are
just
searching
for
the
tools
It's
very
diverse
What
I
think
is
sort
of
interesting
about
that
is
the
growth
channels
here
are
content
right
YouTube
short
form
content
and
paid
ads
which
is
probably
a
lot
of
content
as
well
that
are
being
shown
as
ads
Do
you
think
that
all
your
skills
and
experience
that
you'd
built
up
on
YouTube
helped
you
in
an
indirect
way
to
build
the
kind
of
growth
machine
for
this
business
Yeah
I
mean
there's
no
doubt
about
it
Like
these
skills
that
you
build
these
people
that
you
know
these
things
that
learn
they
benefit
you
in
some
way
and
it
creates
like
this
compounding
force
that
makes
you
like
somebody
that's
good
at
business
or
good
at
marketing
or
good
at
whatever
So
I
absolutely
absolutely
think
that
everything
that
I've
done
has
led
me
to
this
moment
And
the
reason
why
it's
working
is
because
of
everything
that
I've
done
and
everything
that
I've
gone
through
like
100
Awesome
Well
thank
you
for
sharing
that
The
last
question
that
I
have
for
you
is
a
question
we
ask
all
founders
who
come
on
StarterStory
If
you
could
stand
on
young
Sebastian's
shoulders
either
before
you're
getting
started
or
when
you
kind
of
made
this
big
change
in
the
type
of
business
that
you
wanted
to
build
what
would
be
your
advice
The
biggest
thing
is
failure
is
normal
right
So
it's
in
those
moments
that
you
fail
that
you
wonder
if
like
are
you
smart
enough
Are
you
good
enough
Do
you
have
what
it
takes
But
that's
just
part
of
the
process
Every
single
person
fails
And
really
the
most
successful
people
are
just
the
most
successful
failures
They
have
the
most
failure
but
they
are
crazy
enough
to
keep
going
And
then
also
I
would
say
never
compare
yourself
to
others
like
I
know
no
matter
what
I
say
no
matter
what
I
do
people
are
going
to
watch
this
video
and
some
people
will
be
jealous
Some
people
will
be
like
oh
he
had
it
easy
He
had
his
personal
brand
or
like
lucky
him
like
whatever
They're
going
to
compare
themselves
to
me
And
I
would
advise
you
to
try
to
not
do
that
Everyone
in
the
world
does
it
I
do
it
all
the
time
I
look
at
people
above
me
and
I
feel
envious
or
I
feel
jealous
What
you
really
should
be
doing
is
just
comparing
yourself
to
yourself
So
as
long
as
you
keep
winning
then
that's
that's
all
that
matters
All
right
Well
thank
you
Sebastian
for
coming
on
the
channel
I
think
that
super
cool
to
see
your
journey
going
from
big
creator
in
the
space
and
now
big
behind
the
scenes
building
an
awesome
business
Personally
your
channel
is
a
huge
inspiration
for
Starter
Story
I
remember
watching
your
videos
and
saying
man
one
day
we
can
maybe
get
to
a
million
subscribers
So
that's
super
cool
So
thank
you
for
coming
on
taking
time
out
of
your
day
and
hope
people
watching
this
enjoyed
it
I
just
wanted
to
thank
Sebastian
again
for
coming
on
to
the
channel
I
personally
love
his
story
because
it
shows
that
followers
don't
automatically
equal
a
good
business
What
matters
in
the
long
run
is
building
something
durable
something
people
actually
want
And
I
know
a
lot
of
you
watching
want
to
do
the
same
So
why
not
start
building
now
This
is
why
we
created
Starter
Story
Build
It's
our
platform
where
we
will
guide
you
step
by
step
on
how
to
use
AI
to
go
from
an
idea
to
an
app
in
just
a
few
days
You
don't
need
millions
of
followers
or
a
huge
audience
just
an
idea
and
the
willingness
to
try
So
if
you're
ready
to
take
that
first
step
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
description
to
learn
more
about
Starter
Story
Build
Thank
you
guys
for
watching
Let
me
know
what
you
thought
about
this
in
the
comments
I'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
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