How I Built It: $40K/Month iPhone App

Started from his own problem (quitting vaping). Checked Sensor Tower for quit-drinking and quit-smoking apps (they were 'crushing it'), Google Trends (vaping on the rise), and, most importantly, TikTok, where vape videos were going very viral. Then committed to the idea through months of no revenue.

Brain-dump features and competitors into a Google Doc, noting competitors' features, onboarding and UI. Sketch the app with pencil and paper, upload the sketches with the premise and feature list to 99designs, and get 50-70+ UI designs submitted. Hire a developer on Upwork (he recommends only Eastern Europe for quality at a lower price) after a 15-minute call checking vibe, excitement and whether they bring ideas. Pay per completed project, not hourly: paid when the app is live on the store with no bugs. A simple app like Puff Count cost under $5K; a ThemeForest template can get it under $1K. Keep the MVP simple.

Searched TikTok for 'vaping', saved the most viral videos into a spreadsheet and broke down each one's hook, value and how it was shot. Found a 20M+ view video of a guy taking apart a vape and reused the concept: showing what is inside a vape, with a quick two-second call to action for Puff Count at the end. Videos are entertainment first, never sales videos about features.

Uses organic TikTok performance as a creative test: videos that do well organically go into Facebook and TikTok ads, letting the algorithm optimize around the proven creative. AppsFlyer as MMP sends conversion data back to the ad platforms; spend is governed by keeping CAC below LTV.

Paid influencers on TikTok and similar platforms to make content. Found they wanted a lot of cash and did not care how the videos performed. Better: find 'diamond in the rough' creators, reach out, get cheap content and scale with that.

The app is free to download; after onboarding the user hits an unskippable hard paywall and must commit to a free trial (leading to weekly/monthly/yearly subscription) before using any feature. Replaced a model where features were usable without paying.

A/B tested subscription prices starting at $4 and going up to $12 using Superwall, which configures paywalls remotely (no App Store update needed) and reports which price gives the best LTV. He picks the highest-LTV price point. RevenueCat adds LTV data used to set how much can be spent on ads, influencers or installs (CAC below LTV).

Puff Count's onboarding is extensive and asks users many questions about their vaping, walking them through the problem the app solves. Some users complain, but by the time they reach the paywall they have invested time and thought about their problem ('I actually really do need to quit'), so they convert more.

His early games (Wordle, Grid) were monetized with ads because users spent a lot of time in them. For tool apps like Puff Count, where sessions are short, ads don't work, so he uses in-app purchases and subscriptions.