Esc
The First App I Built Hit $30K/Month
Starter Story
Aug 27, 2026
This is Reza. He's a guy with zero app experience who built and scaled his app to over $30K/month in just a few months. This video breaks down how he found the idea, built it, and grew it so fast. And his best advice for first time builders on how to find and validate their app ideas.
iOS Bootcamp to ship your first app: https://clickhubspot.com/yrk8
Say hi to Reza: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rezakhonsari/
Check out Vix: https://vixmethod.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
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Transcript
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No tools listed for this business.
My
name
is
Reza
I
built
an
iOS
app
called
Wakes
It's
done
over
140K
this
year
and
right
now
we're
doing
close
to
30K
a
month
This
is
Reza
and
one
year
ago
he
had
never
built
anything
before
in
his
life
I
actually
have
never
written
a
line
of
code
myself
Most
founders
take
years
to
find
their
first
win
but
Reza
is
proof
that
in
2026
you
may
not
actually
need
experience
to
be
successful
as
long
as
you
have
the
right
idea
and
the
right
approach
So
I
asked
Reza
to
come
onto
the
channel
and
break
it
all
down
In
this
episode
we're
going
to
dive
into
the
simple
idea
that
makes
him
30K
a
month
how
he
knew
this
idea
was
going
to
be
successful
before
he
even
built
it
and
his
advice
for
first
time
builders
who
want
to
hit
a
home
run
on
the
first
pitch
All
right
this
one
is
going
to
be
fun
Let's
dive
in
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
Reza
welcome
to
the
channel
I
am
pumped
to
have
you
on
here
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
My
name
is
Reza
I
built
an
iOS
app
called
Wix
which
is
an
AI
manifestation
app
It's
done
over
140K
in
net
subscription
revenue
this
year
and
right
now
we're
doing
close
to
30K
a
month
Today
I'd
love
to
break
down
how
I
found
the
idea
built
it
and
grew
it
to
this
point
Nice
Could
you
break
down
what
your
app
is
who
your
customers
are
and
then
even
pull
up
some
of
your
Stripe
dashboards
to
show
that
this
is
legit
you've
actually
done
this
For
sure
yeah
So
Wix
is
an
AI
manifestation
app
for
iOS
and
users
download
it
because
they
want
to
go
through
a
spiritual
journey
and
usually
it's
about
something
that
they
want
to
manifest
right
Whether
it's
a
relationship
whether
it's
confidence
and
we
create
customized
content
for
them
whether
it's
subliminal
audios
affirmation
content
Currently
our
user
base
is
for
people
who
are
between
the
age
of
18
and
35
and
who
are
deeply
into
manifestation
content
on
TikTok
Okay
I
see
This
is
awesome
Could
you
pull
up
some
of
your
revenue
cat
Stripe
whatever
and
show
how
much
money
this
app
has
made
I'm
curious
to
see
For
sure
yeah
So
this
is
our
Superbowl
dashboard
As
we
can
see
we've
made
34
000
in
the
last
30
days
and
our
conversion
is
sitting
around
16
and
we've
been
able
to
get
over
7
000
downloads
For
the
year
to
date
we've
done
close
to
140K
in
sales
and
May
was
actually
our
best
month
We
did
44K
For
June
we're
really
focusing
on
just
maintaining
that
growth
growth
and
also
preparing
for
a
huge
push
on
content
for
various
locals
in
July
and
August
Nice
Could
you
explain
your
business
model
How
does
it
work
How
much
are
people
paying
for
this
What's
the
business
model
for
this
For
sure
yeah
So
it's
a
subscription
app
and
we
have
three
different
kinds
of
plans
weekly
monthly
and
also
yearly
The
subscription
pricings
are
40
for
the
year
or
20
per
month
Most
people
choose
the
yearly
option
because
it
makes
more
sense
financially
and
they
also
want
to
commit
to
themselves
and
also
their
goals
Well
this
is
cool
Tell
me
a
little
bit
more
about
your
background
How
do
you
get
to
this
point
where
you
have
this
app
that's
made
a
ton
of
money
and
it's
crushing
it
right
now
For
sure
yeah
So
before
Wix
I
was
in
grad
school
I'm
based
in
Toronto
actually
And
for
the
past
few
years
I've
worked
on
startups
growth
but
I
actually
had
never
built
something
that
was
my
own
The
big
shift
for
me
actually
was
realizing
app
ideas
don't
really
need
to
be
complicated
And
Wix
was
the
first
time
I
actually
applied
that
and
shipped
something
It
was
a
lot
easier
for
me
because
I
have
read
a
lot
of
content
on
this
topic
before
whether
it
was
books
YouTube
videos
to
educate
myself
on
the
spiritual
side
of
it
to
be
able
to
ship
a
product
that's
not
just
making
money
but
also
helps
people
during
that
process
as
well
Yeah
I
love
that
So
I'm
curious
how
did
you
actually
come
up
with
the
idea
How
did
you
know
this
is
something
that
could
make
money
Most
people
who
find
their
first
idea
they
have
a
couple
failed
ideas
but
you
crushed
it
on
the
first
one
So
how
did
that
happen
Yeah
for
sure
Yeah
Honestly
it
goes
back
to
a
year
ago
I
was
on
TikTok
just
scrolling
looking
for
underserved
markets
where
I
could
you
know
build
something
and
provide
value
And
I
was
looking
for
three
main
things
right
First
thing
I
was
looking
for
was
the
fact
that
you
know
know
what
is
getting
a
lot
of
views
right
now
on
TikTok
Where
is
obvious
buyer
intent
And
lastly
where
the
product
experience
is
still
at
And
manifestation
was
something
that
kept
showing
up
over
and
over
again
I
realized
that
most
apps
were
still
focusing
on
generic
affirmations
And
my
insight
from
all
the
research
that
I
did
was
the
fact
that
people
do
not
want
generic
affirmations
People
want
something
that's
customized
to
them
And
my
bet
for
this
product
was
that
you
know
know
AI
is
at
a
point
where
it
could
actually
create
personalized
content
at
scale
and
also
at
a
very
low
cost
And
not
only
would
provide
value
to
people
but
also
they
would
pay
for
it
as
well
Okay
I
love
that
What
I'm
curious
to
hear
about
because
this
was
your
first
business
idea
how
did
you
know
it
was
a
good
idea
I'm
curious
to
hear
that
For
sure
So
for
me
like
when
I
was
thinking
about
how
to
actually
you
know
validate
this
I
was
like
you
know
I
got
to
stop
over
thinking
And
I
actually
wanted
to
test
the
core
behavior
that
I
was
betting
on
which
was
the
core
behavior
of
the
app
in
the
version
one
So
while
we
were
building
VIX
on
the
side
I
launched
a
TikTok
page
where
we
were
testing
that
whole
audio
concept
right
You
know
AI
audio
with
personalized
content
and
in
a
fun
way
that
the
app
would
present
as
well
And
I
was
just
looking
for
a
signal
from
TikTok's
algorithm
algorithm
whether
this
type
of
content
is
getting
views
I
was
not
trying
to
make
the
app
really
complicated
I
was
building
the
most
simplest
version
I
could
do
in
a
month
to
be
able
to
test
and
validate
it
during
the
next
three
months
What
Reza
is
breaking
down
right
here
is
gold
Because
Reza
is
proof
that
you
don't
need
a
crazy
idea
or
a
ton
of
experience
You
just
need
to
ship
something
A
lot
of
people
ask
me
hey
Pat
how
do
I
get
started
How
do
I
find
the
right
app
What
do
I
build
Well
I've
got
the
perfect
thing
for
you
We
recently
launched
our
free
iOS
bootcamp
which
is
our
program
that
will
take
you
from
idea
to
a
real
working
app
on
the
app
store
just
like
Reza
In
the
bootcamp
you
will
build
your
app
100
with
AI
even
if
you've
never
written
a
single
line
of
code
before
in
your
life
So
if
you're
ready
to
build
and
finally
ship
your
idea
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
and
you
can
get
started
100
for
free
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
episode
Thank
you
for
sharing
that
Let's
talk
about
how
you
actually
went
about
building
this
because
you
built
the
whole
app
yourself
What
was
the
actual
timeline
How
did
you
do
it
How
long
did
it
take
For
sure
yeah
So
I
started
building
Wix
back
in
July
of
last
year
and
it
took
about
four
weeks
I
think
the
whole
process
was
about
three
different
parts
First
the
design
of
the
app
the
coding
and
actually
the
audio
pipeline
which
is
the
core
feature
that
I
was
betting
on
Yeah
so
version
one
was
published
on
the
app
store
in
August
and
we
started
marketing
it
And
then
during
October
when
we
actually
found
the
marketing
angle
we
started
shipping
a
lot
more
features
After
I
would
say
in
October
when
we
actually
started
pushing
in
the
marketing
side
of
things
I
think
I
didn't
really
ship
any
updates
from
October
to
December
because
I
was
only
focused
on
marketing
marketing
and
finding
the
distribution
angle
that
I
can
focus
on
for
the
next
six
months
And
once
we
found
that
that
was
around
January
and
I
really
thought
about
the
feedback
that
I
was
getting
whether
it
was
from
content
user
requests
or
just
emails
that
we
were
getting
from
our
support
I
made
a
decision
to
not
just
focus
on
this
from
a
marketing
perspective
and
also
actually
started
putting
more
value
into
the
app
app
so
when
users
come
in
they
get
a
lot
more
value
and
actually
are
able
to
use
it
on
a
daily
basis
versus
it
just
becomes
a
gimmicky
product
Yeah
What
is
the
actual
tech
stack
What
tools
did
you
use
What
tools
would
you
recommend
people
watching
this
if
they
want
to
build
an
app
Yeah
First
thing
I
would
say
is
a
CloudMax
subscription
It
does
a
lot
of
our
content
pipelines
analytics
and
so
on
for
us
as
well
Next
I
would
say
Superbowl
This
is
what
we
use
for
paywalls
and
analytics
tracking
payment
tracking
and
so
on
Next
is
UGC
Studio
This
is
the
platform
that
we
use
to
run
our
contents
and
test
them
and
also
see
why
they
work
and
why
they
don't
Next
is
Screen
Design
And
lastly
I
would
use
100
Railway
It's
the
easiest
thing
for
deploying
anything
backend
related
infrastructure
and
also
we
don't
have
to
deal
with
AWS
Nightmare
or
anything
DevOps
related
Well
thank
you
for
sharing
that
I
want
to
switch
topics
a
little
bit
to
marketing
How
did
you
get
your
app
to
30
000
a
month
within
a
year
on
your
first
try
What
was
the
marketing
side
For
sure
yeah
I
think
marketing
is
always
the
hardest
part
We
use
TikTok
for
our
main
distribution
channel
and
main
marketing
channel
right
now
And
we
started
about
last
year
just
doing
slideshows
Right
now
we
have
close
to
25
different
accounts
that
we're
posting
on
a
daily
basis
And
each
account
we
have
a
personal
led
strategy
for
them
And
it
works
because
you
see
for
example
one
content
or
one
TikTok
account
that
performs
really
well
We
can
take
the
same
persona
or
same
hook
and
apply
it
through
10
more
accounts
to
be
able
to
amplify
your
distribution
I've
also
experimented
a
lot
with
different
types
of
contents
For
example
we
launched
the
Spotify
page
using
our
audio
pipeline
And
we
were
like
this
is
getting
a
lot
of
views
So
we
also
launched
the
same
thing
on
YouTube
on
TikTok
and
so
on
And
right
now
that
channel
alone
Spotify
YouTube
and
the
TikTok
page
brings
close
to
20
of
our
monthly
revenue
Back
in
February
when
I
launched
it
it
was
basically
nothing
It
was
just
a
bed
But
over
time
as
we
developed
it
more
and
understood
what
people
really
wanted
from
those
we
were
able
to
scale
it
to
this
point
Okay
let's
take
a
step
back
What
would
you
recommend
someone
watching
this
to
actually
find
What
do
I
create
What
kind
of
content
do
I
create
that's
going
to
potentially
lead
to
me
getting
views
and
potentially
conversions
Yeah
that's
a
really
good
question
And
I
would
say
there
are
three
different
parts
to
it
So
what
we
did
initially
was
to
go
through
TikTok
find
20
videos
that
I
personally
liked
and
I
could
actually
put
my
own
twist
on
it
or
slideshows
and
started
writing
the
hooks
myself
And
at
that
point
I
went
to
for
example
ChatGPT
and
gave
a
list
of
my
ideas
and
started
refining
them
further
to
be
able
to
get
to
the
final
formats
And
honestly
one
of
the
best
uses
for
ChatGPT
or
Cloud
for
content
is
to
be
able
to
organize
the
videos
and
analyze
them
rather
than
the
creation
side
What
we
do
right
now
is
to
actually
you
know
know
look
at
the
videos
create
the
formats
from
them
once
we
have
any
you
know
content
idea
And
then
we
can
repeat
that
format
across
other
accounts
as
we
grow
It's
just
about
testing
new
things
finding
a
video
on
TikTok
slideshow
or
just
something
you
see
for
example
on
Reddit
Like
if
you
put
your
own
twist
on
it
it
actually
becomes
a
better
video
and
a
better
angle
Yeah
Thanks
for
sharing
that
Could
you
show
me
your
app
that
makes
over
30
000
a
month
month
Could
you
give
me
a
quick
demo
For
sure
yeah
So
this
is
the
dashboard
and
this
is
where
all
the
action
happens
We
also
have
a
daily
tarot
card
where
people
can
pull
and
see
something
that
you
know
could
be
interesting
to
them
But
the
core
value
of
the
app
comes
from
the
actual
audio
and
the
guided
affirmations
And
for
example
they
want
to
manifest
money
in
abundance
You
can
click
on
Manifest
Now
and
write
a
little
bit
about
what
they
want
to
manifest
here
right
I
want
to
manifest
my
dream
life
living
in
a
big
beautiful
apartment
that
I
can
call
home
And
the
app
asks
them
a
couple
of
questions
based
on
what
they're
going
through
So
yeah
after
a
couple
more
questions
it
starts
generating
the
audio
for
them
This
is
usually
very
quick
And
as
we
can
see
it
started
Take
a
slow
breath
in
and
let
it
go
It's
late
and
you've
got
the
listings
open
again
So
yeah
that's
pretty
much
our
core
selling
feature
I
would
say
And
then
we
ask
how
they
felt
after
the
session
so
we
can
make
the
next
one
better
for
them
based
on
how
they
felt
today
That's
awesome
Last
question
that
we
ask
Every
founder
comes
on
Starter
Story
You
were
successful
on
your
first
app
And
a
lot
of
people
watching
this
are
either
built
their
first
app
or
thinking
about
building
their
first
app
So
what
would
be
your
advice
to
those
people
watching
right
now
My
whole
advice
would
revolve
around
persistence
That's
something
that
I
did
a
lot
during
this
last
one
year
And
in
the
beginning
it's
really
hard
to
tell
the
difference
between
this
is
not
working
And
also
I
have
not
figured
out
the
angle
yet
My
advice
would
be
don't
quit
before
you
actually
know
what
isn't
working
because
everything
is
workable
and
everything
is
fixable
And
if
you
stay
in
the
game
long
enough
and
you
test
different
things
and
actually
try
to
understand
why
things
don't
work
the
market
or
the
algorithms
or
whatever
else
you
want
to
call
it
will
teach
you
and
guide
you
to
wherever
you
want
to
be
That's
great
advice
Thanks
Reza
for
coming
onto
the
channel
Congratulations
on
your
success
And
hopefully
we'll
see
you
back
on
the
channel
when
you
hit
100
000
a
month
month
or
maybe
even
a
million
dollars
a
month
But
thank
you
for
coming
on
and
sharing
It's
a
great
story
Thank
you
very
much
Thank
you
for
having
me
All
right
Gus
producer
of
Starter
Story
What'd
you
think
about
Reza
and
the
Manifestation
app
doing
30
000
a
month
Yeah
it's
really
incredible
to
me
that
these
apps
make
money
not
nothing
about
what
he
shared
or
anything
like
that
but
just
that
this
as
a
topic
topic
is
something
people
pay
for
It's
pretty
incredible
And
then
the
second
thing
quick
is
just
it
was
cool
for
me
to
hear
hear
that
this
was
kind
of
his
first
attempt
And
that
was
one
of
the
reasons
I
wanted
to
bring
him
on
the
channel
is
it
was
his
first
try
building
something
And
he
kind
of
shared
a
lot
about
how
he
made
that
happen
Obviously
not
everyone
is
successful
in
their
first
try
But
it's
cool
to
hear
someone
just
do
it
to
see
that
happen
or
hear
that
story
It's
pretty
awesome
Yeah
When
I
talk
to
founders
who
have
their
first
idea
they
usually
work
on
something
called
a
TARPIT
idea
T
A
R
P
I
T
TARPIT
idea
And
it's
like
just
what
everyone
tries
to
build
It's
like
a
marketplace
like
some
sort
of
buyer
where
you
need
two
sides
of
a
marketplace
and
it's
almost
impossible
to
get
right
Or
it's
like
a
recipe
generator
or
it's
a
social
network
right
These
are
the
ideas
that
everyone
tries
at
first
I
talk
to
founders
all
day
and
I
swear
like
half
the
time
it's
like
one
idea
like
that
He
just
skipped
that
whole
thing
and
just
watched
the
content
on
Starter
Story
or
on
other
channels
and
saw
what's
working
And
he
did
it
Validate
the
demand
first
build
something
based
on
social
media
and
these
sorts
of
things
That's
what
he
did
Yeah
And
that's
obviously
the
big
secret
is
TikTok
or
marketing
right
That's
the
actual
secret
to
this
business
success
It
could
have
been
any
idea
he
shared
But
it
was
the
whole
like
I
liked
what
he
said
about
I
made
all
the
content
first
myself
I'm
on
Twitter
all
the
time
and
I
see
all
these
people
sharing
all
the
hacks
or
shortcuts
or
AI
blah
blah
blah
blah
to
make
everything
faster
And
he
was
just
like
my
first
three
accounts
were
100
me
That's
what
it
takes
I
think
So
I
don't
know
I
was
thinking
about
that
too
I
think
what's
probably
a
little
bit
more
interesting
is
this
manifestation
space
Manifestation
is
really
really
powerful
I
read
this
book
called
Think
and
Grow
Rich
Famous
book
from
like
150
years
ago
And
it
said
basically
write
down
what
you
want
put
it
on
your
wall
and
read
it
every
day
right
This
is
something
that
is
timeless
It's
existed
for
hundreds
of
years
Maybe
that's
one
of
the
reasons
why
this
app
is
doing
so
well
is
that
it's
built
on
a
timeless
concept
that's
really
popular
And
I'm
sure
if
you
go
to
Claude
right
now
and
type
in
what
other
categories
exist
here
that
maybe
are
not
super
crowded
on
the
app
store
that
could
be
an
interesting
category
So
I
think
that's
cool
But
yeah
if
this
video
inspired
you
and
you're
thinking
hey
I
want
to
go
build
my
app
Well
we
have
something
for
you
It
is
our
iOS
bootcamp
Can
go
in
the
description
right
now
You
can
download
that
and
you
can
go
through
it
And
by
the
end
you'll
have
a
live
app
on
the
app
store
which
is
just
insane
So
stop
watching
this
video
right
now
and
get
started
I
hope
you
guys
enjoy
this
one
We'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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