Starter Story · 2025-12-11

I make $10K/month from 28 apps

Max, a full-time iOS engineer and father of two, built 28 simple mobile apps in 8 months of off-hours work, now making ~$10K/month with 1,000+ subscribers and 4-5K daily users; four apps bring ~$1,500/month each. Inspired by Adam Lyttle, he picks App Store keywords in Astro (popularity 20+, difficulty up to 60-70, top competitor making $100-200+/month), copies the core feature of 2-3 competitors, plans with AI, reuses up to 90% of code (onboarding, paywall, settings), ships in hours to a week, moves on, and later returns to apps that hold up after the new-app boost to polish and add ads.

Play the episode

5 tactics

Max's portfolio of 28 mobile apps

Pick app ideas from App Store searches with popularity 20+ and rivals earning $100+/month

Source of all 28 apps; four now make ~$1,500/month each

Starts from search terms users type when they have a problem. In Astro, create a temporary app, pick a random category or something he wants to build, add a seed keyword (e.g. 'tree identifier'), pull related apps and their keywords, then filter: popularity at least 20 and difficulty at most ~60-70 (e.g. 'wood identification': decent popularity, very low difficulty). Select the target keywords, then check top competitors' monthly revenue in Sensor Tower, the App Store or similar; skip the market if they make less than $100-200/month.

Workedasomarket-selection

Starter Story · 2025-12-11

Max's portfolio of 28 mobile apps

After one app, build siblings for nearby searches, like physics AI then chemistry AI

Lets him launch the next app in little time; no separate numbers

Looks for closely related keywords that target the same user group with slightly different problems, e.g. for students: 'physics AI', 'chemistry AI', 'math AI'. After building one app, he can quickly ship the next for a neighboring keyword by reusing it.

Unknownasoportfolio

Starter Story · 2025-12-11

Max's portfolio of 28 mobile apps

Stop polishing one app; ship a one-feature app, then move to the next

28 apps in 8 months part-time, ~$10K/month; four apps make most of it

After years on one pet app that never grew despite trying many techniques, he switched in February 2025 (after an Adam Lyttle video) to building simple apps: one app, one core feature, bug-free MVP, ship, forget about it, start the next. Built outside his full-time job. No time spent polishing or adding a 'killer feature' before launch; users give feedback while he builds the next app.

Workedportfoliovalidation

Starter Story · 2025-12-11

Max's portfolio of 28 mobile apps

Copy a rival's main feature and reuse your old paywall, onboarding and settings screens

Apps ship in 2 hours to a week; up to 90% of code reused

Pick 2-3 top competitors and study only the main feature tied to the keyword. Ask ChatGPT/Gemini (or Cursor/Claude) for a detailed implementation plan listing all screens, features and flows, with specific UI/UX constraints, to see what must be built vs copied. Drag in reusable UI (custom buttons, views, settings, onboarding, paywall); some apps reuse ~90% of code. In Figma, copy screenshot and icon templates from an old project. Have ChatGPT write the description and fill all metadata around the original target keyword. Flutter for the app, Fastlane to ship.

Workedfeature-developmentaso

Starter Story · 2025-12-11

Max's portfolio of 28 mobile apps

Once the launch boost fades, polish and advertise the apps that hold steady

Four winning apps now make ~$1,500/month each; ad results not given

After launch, an app gets the App Store new-app boost, which fades. He watches whether it keeps falling, stabilizes or grows; an app that is not sinking has potential. Later he revisits apps showing organic traction or retention, polishes them, fixes bugs and adds ads to double down and grow them.

Unknownportfoliopaid-social

Starter Story · 2025-12-11

Numbers mentioned

Who	Metric	Value	Context	When
personMax's portfolio of 28 mobile apps	revenue	USD 10K/month approximate	Monthly revenue across all 28 apps	1:24
personMax's portfolio of 28 mobile apps	count	28 apps	Apps built and shipped in 8 months of off-work hours	1:24
personMax's portfolio of 28 mobile apps	time to milestone	8 months	Time to build 28 apps and reach ~$10K/month, part-time	0:00
personMax's portfolio of 28 mobile apps	paying users	1,000 subscribers approximate	'Over 1,000' subscribers across all apps	1:24
personMax's portfolio of 28 mobile apps	users	4,000–5,000 users/day approximate	Daily active users across all apps	1:24
personMax's four top-earning apps	revenue	USD 1,500per app /month approximate	Each of the top 4 apps makes ~$1,500/month (~$6K of ~$10K); the other 24 make very little	1:24
benchmarkMax's minimum Astro keyword popularity score for a new app	keyword popularity	20 score	Minimum popularity (Astro scale) for a target keyword	3:06
benchmarkMax's maximum Astro keyword difficulty score for a new app	keyword difficulty	60–70 score approximate	Difficulty ceiling (Astro scale); in the demo he filtered at difficulty 70 and liked a very-low-difficulty keyword	3:06
benchmarkMax's minimum monthly revenue of top competitors for a keyword to be worth entering	revenue	USD 100–200per competitor app /month	Checked with Sensor Tower or similar; below this he skips the market	3:06
personMax's fastest single app build	time to milestone	2 hours	Record: idea to App Store review submission; other apps take up to a week	6:29
personCode reused from Max's earlier apps in some new apps	share	90% approximate	Share of code copied from previous projects for some apps	6:29