How Praycreen grows

After TikTok organic, ran Meta ads on Instagram using creatives that had already performed organically. Reasoning: on TikTok you don't control who sees a video, so if a general audience engages, the video itself is strong; putting spend behind it and targeting the exact audience you want should give very low CPIs. One organic video (out of 20-30 on the same angle) was repurposed and ended up taking ~70% of spend.

Install-to-paid conversion was unremarkable (~2.5% as an example), meaning 97.5% of paid installs were being turned away. Because 60% of users were still praying 4 times a day at day 30, they added a free version funded by ads: users watch an interstitial ad before each prayer, about 4 ads per user per day.

Tweeted about Praycreen (his audience knew he'd sold apps before; the app was easy to explain). Several buyers DMed. Sold to a buyer who had talked to him about BibleBuddy ~1.5-2 years earlier. His rule: since 90%+ of deals fall through, take even the third-highest price if that buyer can close in 4-5 days. Offer a 1-2 month transition/advising period to sweeten the deal. Show 3+ months of consistent revenue.

Noticed the screen-time/focus trend (Opal, One Sec, Screens), downloaded One Sec and saw it just makes you breathe for 3 seconds before opening Instagram yet makes ~$100K/month. Rebuilt the same mechanic for the faith niche he already worked in: block apps and make the user pray to unlock them. It was the only listing for 'Bible focus' at launch.

Invest in a nice splash animation (Praycreen's halo coming up) and use it in content. In each video show three things: the splash screen for half a second to a second (branding), the core action (the prayer screen), then the congratulations screen ('you've done your first prayer'). Skip onboarding entirely in the TikTok. Toxic Traits did the same: splash page, screenshot upload, then an example results page.

Worked with an agency running 10-12 TikTok accounts, testing different hooks. Optimized for comments and engagement ('comment farming'). Chose a shock-factor angle that felt like the opposite of religion itself; early comments were 'why would you do this?' before shifting to 'I really needed this app'. Made 20-30 videos on the winning angle. Pick the one emotion you want viewers to feel after each video.

Chose songs strategically: very Christian songs that the target audience recognizes, so viewers comment things like 'I love this song'.

He never localizes his apps into other languages himself. When selling, he frames the app as 'this content already works and we haven't tried X, Y, Z', giving the buyer clear levers; buyers typically localize first, since everyone competes for the US while other markets are large.

Rather than chasing a million-ARR hit, repeatedly build apps to around $5-10K MRR (or ~$100K ARR), sell them, and use the cash, skills and buyer/investor relationships for bigger swings. Build for cash flow, not legacy, and decide which before you start.