This app replaced my 9-5 ($150K/year)
Starter Story
Sep 24, 2025
Christian Konnerth grew Wishlists to $150K/year WHILE working a 9-5 job. And 2 months ago, he went full-time on his side project.
🛠️ 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=chris
Chris' app: https://www.wishlists-app.com/
Follow Chris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-konnerth-9a3432200/
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:45 - Who is Chris
1:05 - From 9-5 to solopreneur
1:51 - Idea for Wishlists
2:30 - Building alongside a 9-5
3:38 - Lessons learned
4:51 - How to find a side project
5:59 - Build your side project in 12 days
6:36 - Side project growth timeline (realistic)
7:58 - How Chris grew Wishlists
9:52 - Numbers behind Wishlists
10:23 - Tech stack
10:51 - How the app works
11:50 - Do not overcomplicate things
12:42 - Summary of the episode
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
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
Stack
No tools listed for this business.
I'm
Chris
and
I
turned
a
really
simple
wishlist
app
into
a
150k
a
year
business
And
now
two
months
ago
I
quit
my
job
Meet
Chris
He
built
a
simple
app
that
pays
him
six
figures
a
year
I
didn't
do
any
marketing
the
standard
way
But
what's
even
crazier
is
that
he
did
it
all
without
having
to
quit
his
full
time
job
So
what
did
he
build
Well
I
brought
him
onto
the
channel
to
share
everything
How
he
found
an
idea
worth
building
on
the
side
How
he
structured
his
days
so
he
could
manage
it
all
And
why
the
app
he
built
was
perfect
for
building
a
profitable
side
project
If
you're
looking
to
build
something
on
the
side
while
you
have
a
9
5
job
this
is
the
video
to
watch
Alright
let's
get
into
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
Alright
Chris
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Hi
I'm
Chris
and
I
turned
a
really
simple
wishlist
app
into
a
150k
a
year
business
without
a
team
without
funding
with
zero
marketing
I
just
built
it
as
a
side
project
and
it
grew
slowly
over
time
And
now
two
months
ago
I
quit
my
job
I
mean
I
love
that
you
did
this
as
a
side
project
It's
something
that
I
did
as
well
I
started
Starter
Story
while
I
had
a
full
time
job
and
we're
going
to
get
all
into
that
But
I
just
want
to
understand
a
little
bit
more
about
your
background
How
did
you
even
get
into
this
idea
of
building
a
side
project
Okay
so
it
all
started
in
I
think
2019
back
in
university
And
I
wanted
to
work
for
this
cool
bike
brand
It
was
quite
a
cool
company
I
thought
getting
into
apps
was
the
way
to
get
into
these
cool
startups
And
they
had
this
job
offer
as
a
working
student
for
an
app
developer
So
I
just
applied
for
it
even
though
I
couldn't
develop
apps
Obviously
they
declined
but
that
just
motivated
me
because
they
said
they
liked
my
enthusiasm
enthusiasm
and
that
just
gave
me
the
boost
That's
when
I
decided
to
get
into
app
development
because
I
wanted
to
have
these
kind
of
jobs
Okay
cool
I
like
that
Rejection
is
the
ultimate
motivation
How
do
you
go
from
rejection
to
actually
finding
this
idea
for
your
app
that
eventually
becomes
hugely
successful
I
wanted
to
start
app
development
and
the
number
one
project
is
a
to
do
list
app
but
there
are
2
million
to
do
list
apps
out
there
So
I
thought
I'd
do
something
similar
and
that
was
a
wishlist
app
because
back
then
I
was
still
using
an
Excel
sheet
for
my
own
wishlist
because
I
thought
there
was
no
nice
and
pretty
wishlist
app
out
there
So
wishlist
app
is
basically
a
nicer
version
of
your
notes
app
for
Christmas
You
store
all
of
your
wishes
and
then
you
can
share
them
with
your
family
Okay
well
we're
going
to
dive
all
into
wishlist
apps
in
a
second
and
exactly
how
your
app
works
But
again
what
I
think
is
super
cool
about
your
story
is
you
built
this
while
you're
in
university
full
time
student
and
then
while
you
had
a
full
time
job
So
can
you
just
break
down
what
that
kind
of
whole
journey
looked
like
How
long
have
you
been
building
this
And
how
was
that
whole
process
I've
been
building
wishlists
for
almost
6
years
now
It
was
3
years
in
university
and
then
2
and
a
half
years
in
my
full
time
job
My
usual
schedule
was
getting
up
at
8
and
working
on
my
side
project
for
about
an
hour
but
not
development
but
smaller
stuff
for
example
answering
support
emails
or
checking
in
analytics
And
then
from
9
to
6
usually
I
just
did
my
real
job
Then
from
6
to
8
I
was
doing
my
personal
stuff
sometimes
sport
And
from
8
to
11
sometimes
later
I
would
work
again
on
my
side
project
That
worked
specifically
well
in
the
colder
months
but
in
the
summer
I
couldn't
really
motivate
motivate
myself
to
keep
developing
after
a
full
day
of
developing
So
the
start
of
2025
I
negotiated
to
have
a
four
day
week
to
have
another
full
day
for
wishlist
All
right
so
you
did
this
successfully
You
were
able
to
quit
your
full
time
job
and
work
for
yourself
now
In
this
five
year
journey
that
you
went
through
what
were
your
biggest
learnings
on
how
to
actually
do
this
how
to
build
a
side
project
and
take
it
all
the
way
First
I
would
say
be
honest
with
your
employee
be
upfront
about
your
side
project
because
it's
mutually
beneficial
You
learn
so
much
at
your
work
in
your
specific
field
but
having
a
side
project
means
you
have
to
do
everything
and
that's
also
super
beneficial
for
your
work
Next
thing
I
would
say
is
use
every
free
time
you
get
car
rides
train
rides
but
by
using
every
free
time
you
should
also
make
sure
to
prioritize
Never
forget
your
friends
family
your
girlfriend
they
are
key
to
everything
Third
I
would
say
use
the
wintertime
wisely
In
winter
no
one's
going
to
say
oh
look
how
nice
the
weather
is
outside
how
can
you
be
inside
coding
And
that
will
not
happen
in
winter
So
use
the
wintertime
wisely
Last
I
really
started
to
like
working
holidays
because
that
just
combines
being
social
and
being
productive
Find
a
small
group
of
friends
or
colleagues
or
anyone
basically
anyone
who's
in
your
field
as
well
It
just
helps
a
lot
being
around
other
motivated
people
and
it
also
keeps
your
mental
health
in
a
good
shape
Okay
now
I
want
to
understand
a
little
bit
more
about
how
to
find
an
idea
how
to
find
the
right
side
project
to
work
on
Now
that
you've
been
successful
with
yours
what
do
you
think
is
the
playbook
for
anyone
watching
this
What
would
be
your
recommendation
on
what
to
build
and
kind
of
how
to
build
it
Start
small
Start
with
an
actual
problem
either
you
or
someone
else
experienced
because
I
guarantee
you
if
you
have
this
problem
there's
at
least
one
more
person
on
this
earth
with
the
same
problem
And
that
should
be
enough
to
start
this
project
Also
super
important
for
me
was
setting
I
would
say
the
correct
goals
If
I
had
set
my
goal
six
years
ago
to
have
150k
a
year
or
I
would
have
thrown
away
that
project
So
my
first
goal
was
not
to
get
a
million
dollars
but
to
have
a
random
person
who
I
don't
know
download
the
app
At
least
for
me
since
it
was
a
side
project
monetization
can
come
afterwards
You're
working
anyway
so
monetization
should
be
not
your
priority
Use
this
first
monetization
later
and
most
most
importantly
just
have
fun
It's
a
side
project
So
worst
case
it
fails
you
still
have
your
full
time
job
and
at
least
you
had
a
good
time
and
most
certainly
you
learned
quite
a
lot
All
right
Well
before
we
get
back
to
how
Chris
grew
his
side
project
to
150
000
a
year
I
need
to
point
out
something
important
Chris's
app
changed
his
life
but
he
didn't
overthink
it
He
found
a
simple
idea
and
simply
launched
it
into
the
real
world
And
that's
exactly
why
we
created
Starter
Story
Build
It's
our
program
where
you
will
learn
how
to
use
AI
tools
to
take
your
idea
and
launch
a
real
working
app
in
just
a
couple
of
weeks
even
if
you've
never
coded
before
If
you're
ready
to
stop
sitting
on
the
sidelines
and
actually
build
something
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
and
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
All
right
Let's
get
back
to
the
video
All
right
right
So
my
next
question
is
around
realistic
timelines
You've
been
doing
this
for
five
years
That's
subjectively
a
long
time
Can
you
break
down
what
a
real
journey
looks
like
for
a
side
project
to
become
a
full
time
income
If
you
can
break
down
when
you
started
and
how
this
thing
kind
of
grew
that'd
be
great
So
in
2019
I
started
building
wishlists
It
was
2020
when
I
first
released
the
first
version
of
the
app
And
in
2021
I
got
my
first
job
as
app
developer
which
I
only
got
because
I
developed
this
wishlist
app
before
So
that
was
also
when
I
had
the
idea
of
relaunching
wishlists
because
I
couldn't
even
ship
updates
because
the
code
base
was
all
over
the
place
So
in
23
I
finished
university
in
July
and
I
already
got
a
full
time
job
as
app
developer
secured
for
October
So
that
meant
I
had
two
months
free
time
So
end
of
October
I
had
the
launch
of
wishlist
2
0
I
also
hit
the
100K
registered
users
And
in
24
I
had
my
full
time
job
as
app
developer
plus
my
side
project
wishlist
And
in
25
in
July
I
quit
the
job
and
now
I'm
full
time
wishlist
Nowadays
everyone
would
just
wipe
code
it
on
a
weekend
But
for
me
it
took
six
years
So
for
me
it
was
I
guess
a
marathon
and
not
just
a
wipe
coding
weekend
I
mean
that's
awesome
It
is
a
marathon
not
a
sprint
sprint
That
reminds
me
of
my
story
too
and
how
long
it
took
to
build
Starter
Story
while
I
had
a
full
time
job
Let's
switch
topics
a
little
bit
here
I
want
to
understand
a
little
bit
about
the
growth
Look
a
lot
of
people
can
build
stuff
especially
while
they
have
a
full
time
job
But
the
growth
and
the
marketing
and
getting
the
users
how
did
you
do
that
for
wishlist
Being
a
developer
also
means
that
I'm
naturally
bad
at
marketing
So
I
just
didn't
do
any
marketing
the
standard
way
Also
I
simply
didn't
have
the
money
for
it
And
my
goal
was
also
not
to
make
money
But
what
was
crucial
were
my
friends
and
family
especially
at
the
beginning
because
I
just
asked
everyone
I
know
for
reviews
And
that
was
super
awkward
at
first
but
that's
what
has
helped
me
a
lot
Reviews
are
super
important
for
an
app
on
the
App
Store
to
get
ranked
at
the
top
So
I
also
made
sure
that
my
users
would
give
me
good
reviews
And
that's
why
I
show
these
in
app
reviews
at
an
appropriate
timing
So
for
me
I'm
just
showing
it
after
the
user
has
accomplished
something
for
example
has
added
a
wish
or
fulfilled
a
wish
So
when
the
user
feels
good
the
number
one
thing
for
me
was
I
always
build
for
users
because
if
they
like
it
they
will
share
it
and
they
will
also
leave
good
reviews
How
I
did
this
was
I
integrated
an
easy
support
system
from
very
early
on
I
saved
all
these
emails
and
all
these
feature
requests
for
my
users
from
the
very
beginning
And
every
time
I
shipped
a
feature
or
just
I
fixed
a
bug
for
some
specific
user
I
would
text
these
users
hi
John
I
just
fixed
your
issue
or
hi
John
I
just
implemented
the
feature
you
requested
Could
you
let
me
know
how
you
feel
about
it
Do
you
like
it
or
not
I
always
write
questions
in
the
support
emails
so
they
would
get
back
to
me
And
once
they
get
back
to
me
with
a
positive
answer
only
then
I
would
ask
them
to
review
my
app
That
turned
out
to
be
super
fun
to
this
day
OK
let's
I
want
to
have
you
break
down
some
of
the
numbers
behind
Wishlist
How's
this
business
doing
Can
you
break
down
some
of
the
numbers
So
the
monthly
revenue
average
is
6K
now
in
the
low
season
and
total
registered
users
are
currently
at
1
1
million
and
paying
customers
they
are
around
4K
plus
all
of
the
people
who
buy
the
products
through
the
app
and
110K
monthly
active
users
You
can
multiply
these
values
by
five
during
the
high
season
OK
and
on
another
note
I
want
to
understand
a
little
bit
more
about
how
you
built
this
What's
the
tech
stack
behind
Wishlist
Flutter
is
cross
platform
kit
as
free
Cursor
is
my
IDE
I
use
Chattributee
as
well
Firebase
as
my
as
my
back
end
also
for
auth
and
analytics
Revenue
kit
for
unit
purchase
Thrill
as
user
feedback
OneLink
for
deep
links
and
ZephDesk
for
accounting
I
would
say
99
margin
because
I
don't
really
have
the
costs
beside
my
server
costs
All
right
so
now
I
want
to
like
understand
actually
what
you
built
You
have
this
Wishlist
app
I'm
not
really
sure
exactly
what
Wishlist
are
Can
you
show
us
your
app
and
just
how
it
works
and
what
it
does
As
I
said
it's
a
super
simple
app
So
we
start
by
creating
a
wishlist
So
let's
just
create
a
wishlist
for
Christmas
and
we
can
also
add
a
couple
of
notes
and
change
visibility
But
for
now
we're
just
making
it
public
So
now
we
have
created
our
first
wishlist
and
now
it's
time
to
add
some
actual
wishes
We
can
do
this
manually
Just
say
OK
for
example
a
year
is
enter
How
I
make
money
is
through
in
app
purchases
For
example
if
you
want
to
have
a
custom
wishlist
image
you
get
into
this
paywall
Then
you
can
get
premium
membership
More
important
I
get
money
through
affiliate
links
So
if
I
were
to
add
a
wish
from
let's
say
Amazon
I
can
simply
auto
import
it
Once
I
open
this
link
from
within
Wishlist
I
get
money
because
I'm
changing
it
to
an
affiliate
affiliate
link
for
me
And
that's
how
I
make
money
All
right
Well
I
love
how
the
app
is
quite
simple
I
know
behind
the
scenes
it's
probably
more
complicated
than
that
but
it's
cool
to
see
that
an
app
like
this
can
you
know
make
a
living
for
you
That's
awesome
The
last
question
that
we
have
for
all
founders
who
come
on
Starter
Story
what
would
be
your
advice
to
anyone
watching
this
who
has
a
full
time
job
who
is
a
full
time
student
that
wants
to
do
this
or
not
ready
to
quit
and
go
all
in
yet
What
would
be
your
advice
to
someone
who's
watching
Do
not
overcomplicate
things
Not
everyone
has
to
fly
to
Mars
You
don't
have
to
build
the
next
Facebook
You
don't
need
VC
funding
Find
a
problem
you
can
solve
by
yourself
Find
an
actual
problem
you
or
someone
else
has
and
just
give
it
a
try
even
if
that
just
means
making
a
prettier
version
of
an
existing
app
Cool
Well
thank
you
Chris
for
coming
onto
the
channel
I
think
what
you
did
is
awesome
Building
a
side
project
turning
it
into
a
full
time
income
I
love
that
Thanks
for
sharing
with
the
world
Everything
you
did
Thanks
for
being
here
Big
thank
you
to
Chris
for
coming
onto
the
channel
and
sharing
all
that
I
love
his
story
because
it
proves
that
all
you
need
is
a
simple
idea
Chris
started
Wishlist
as
a
small
side
project
and
now
it
makes
150
000
a
year
and
it
gave
gave
him
the
freedom
to
quit
his
nine
to
five
job
And
that's
a
lesson
that
anyone
watching
this
can
take
Don't
overcomplicate
things
Start
small
keep
it
simple
and
keep
going
This
is
exactly
why
we
created
Starter
Story
Build
We'll
show
you
how
to
take
your
idea
build
it
with
AI
and
launch
it
in
just
a
couple
couple
weeks
even
if
you're
just
starting
it
on
the
side
just
like
Chris
did
So
if
you
want
to
finally
build
that
side
project
maybe
turn
it
into
a
full
time
thing
Just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
and
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
All
right
That's
it
for
this
episode
Thank
you
guys
for
watching
We'll
see
in
the
next
one
Peace
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