I Built 3 Apps to $35K/Month With This Playbook (DropMagic AI Breakdown)

After an e-commerce store owner brought him a problem that turned out to be common, he took the lowest-risk path: a newsletter to validate initial traction, then a no-code app to validate product-market fit, then a real coded app to scale. Contrast: his first 5 years were spent shipping features on a SaaS with zero customers.

Core playbook across his successful apps: partner with YouTube creators as promoters (paid in cash and/or affiliate revenue) or as co-founders (paid in equity). Worked with 500+ YouTube creators for Minea and Dropmagic. Prefers YouTube over TikTok because (1) best ROI and more predictable: a video gets a minimum number of views you can count on, rather than hoping for virality; (2) long form lets the creator show how they use the app; (3) videos keep converting for years (still getting conversions from 3-year-old videos) and help organic traffic; (4) long-form videos can be cut into short-form clips and ads. Sees TikTok as brand awareness that doesn't convert.

Step 1, find: search YouTube by keyword, watch creators' videos, and study competitors' creator choices (micro vs big influencers, topics, long dedicated video vs integration). Step 2, vet: engagement rate (views / followers) should be over 10%, with at least ~100 comments per video; and check the creator's brand history: one-off deals suggest the brand wasn't profitable, so look for creators who worked with the same brand at least three times. Uses Blynd to detect creators and opportunities.

Outreach is a seven-email campaign; each email uses a different marketing angle. In parallel, 'blast' the creators on Instagram and Twitter. He says he shares the templates on his X account.

Deals are a fixed fee plus a commission. Always lowball the initial offer by 30%, then offer two packages: one with more upfront cash and a lower commission, one with less upfront cash and a higher commission. Start with one test video: check whether the audience responds and engages and whether it breaks even after a month. If all numbers are green, sign a package of 3-4 videos over the medium term for a lower price per video. Uses Tolls to track and pay creators.

Dropmagic co-founder Bastien is a YouTube creator paid in equity. Three benefits: (1) de-risks distribution: they knew his audience would secure ~10K MRR, which funds more creators and ads; (2) product insights: he is a power user and the one selling the product, so he relays his community's feedback; (3) marketing insights: iterate fast and for free on scripts, funnels, pricing and angles with many videos, learn the economics, then replicate with paid creators knowing how much you can spend per creator.

Every free Dropmagic user gets five AI-generated images. LLM/AI costs run about $1.5K and scale with free signups.