The Superwall Podcast · 2026-01-06
Kyle Fowler - How I make $42k/mo passively with simple no-code apps (copy me)
Kyle Fowler, bootstrapped solo founder of Cardstock (sports card scanner) and Scanemon (Pokemon card scanner). Cardstock launched off a Reddit validation post and a founder launch post as a $4.99 paid app, grew after switching to subscriptions in 2021, then earned ~$9-10K MRR passively for ~2 years by ranking #1 for 'baseball card scanner' after 1-2 weeks of keyword research. After losing the ranking in May 2024 he hired a friend from Wendy's to find a repeatable TikTok hook-and-demo format, then scaled a slideshow format through the creator platform Nois at ~$1 CPM.
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Numbers mentioned
| Subject | Metric | Value | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardstock | count Replies to the pre-build validation post in r/baseballcards saying they'd use the app | 10–15 replies/one-time approximate | “But I got I don't know, I mean like f- like 12 people replied or something or like 15 maybe, and they were like, "Oh, I I'd love to use this."” |
| Cardstock | price Paid download price at launch | USD 4.99/one-time | “once I launched the app, after I like got back into it and made it, and it was $4.99 on the App Store.” |
| Cardstock | downloads Paid downloads on launch day, from the Reddit launch post (read from App Store Connect) | 12 downloads/day | “Here's the launch. [laughter] Launch day, we got 12. So, the Reddit post did its job.” |
| Cardstock | revenue Launch-day revenue, host's calculation of 12 x $5 | USD 60/day approximate | “so that was like 5 * 12, $60 on day one.” |
| Cardstock | price Monthly plan after switching to subscriptions | USD 5/month | “Uh 5 a month, 50 a year, and 99 lifetime.” |
| Cardstock | price Annual plan | USD 50/year | “Uh 5 a month, 50 a year, and 99 lifetime.” |
| Cardstock | price Lifetime plan | USD 99/one-time | “Uh 5 a month, 50 a year, and 99 lifetime.” |
| Cardstock | time to milestone Time spent researching keywords before the ASO update | 1–2 weeks approximate | “I spent like a week or two weeks like really researching and diving into what it meant, ASO. But then, the rewards we reaped were insane.” |
| Cardstock | rank App Store search rank for the keyword 'baseball card scanner', held for 2-3 years until May 2024 | 1 rank | “we optimized for "baseball card scanner" was the biggest one. We held the number one spot for that keyword for two or three years honestly” |
| Cardstock | mrr Passive recurring revenue from ASO search traffic for ~2 years with no marketing (monthly revenue ~14K incl. non-recurring) | USD 9,000–10K/month approximate | “I was making like 14K, I guess not recurring, like probably like 9 or 10K recurring revenue, but for a long time without any marketing for like a couple of years” |
| Cardstock | revenue Total monthly revenue (incl. non-recurring) during the passive ASO years | USD 14K/month approximate | “I was making like 14K, I guess not recurring, like probably like 9 or 10K recurring revenue” |
| Cardstock | revenue Lifetime revenue, read from the on-screen chart | USD 700K approximate | “There we go. 700K lifetime. That's crazy.” |
| Cardstock | views First TikTok that worked (app-in-hand format); later condensed into the card-show hook-demo format | 184K viewsper video approximate | “The first one that used that was 184K, went to the card shows and condensed that into like more of a hook-demo style.” |
| Cardstock | revenue After Christmas organic TikTok success plus adding a hard paywall (goal had been $20K/month) | USD 30K/month approximate | “And then we added a hard paywall, and I was like, "Oh, my god, we're making like like 30K a month? What is happening?"” |
| Scanemon | revenue Monthly revenue | USD 20K/month approximate | “Like 20K monthly rev, and it's around like 9K MRR right now.” |
| Scanemon | mrr Guest says retention still needs work | USD 9,000/month approximate | “Like 20K monthly rev, and it's around like 9K MRR right now. [laughter] Got to figure out the retention and stuff.” |
| Cardstock | mrr Combined MRR of Cardstock and Scanemon, per the host's intro | USD 41K/month approximate | “Currently, the apps make $41,000 in monthly recurring revenue.” |
| Cardstock | revenue Title figure, combined across both apps; body does not state it | USD 42K/month approximate | “Currently, the apps make $41,000 in monthly recurring revenue.” |
| Scanemon | views In-house slideshow account (Pokemay) had multiple posts above 100K views | 100K viewsper video approximate | “Our in-house one was able to get like multiple posts over like 100,000 views” |
| Nois | share Nois's cut of the CPM a brand pays; creators get the other half (e.g. $1 CPM -> ~$0.50 to the creator) | 50% | “So, you pay the creators like $1 CPM or whatever, or $2 CPM, and then Nois takes half of the CPM and the other half goes to creators.” |
| Cardstock | creator pay CPM paid through Nois for slideshow posts (half goes to Nois) | USD 1–2per 1000 views approximate | “So, you pay the creators like $1 CPM or whatever, or $2 CPM, and then Nois takes half of the CPM and the other half goes to creators.” |
| Cardstock | activity volume Slideshow posts generated by Nois creators in the last month (Cardstock and Scanemon campaigns) | 7,600–8,000 posts/month approximate | “we've generated like 8,000, like 7,600 posts in the last month.” |
| Cardstock | ad spend Paid to Nois creators for the views on the dashboard (roughly Oct-Nov); host reads it as ~$1 CPM | USD 2,600 approximate | “Like 27 views, and we paid 2,600 for this amount of views, you know? Like, that's not very much money.” |
| Cardstock | cpm Effective CPM on Nois slideshow campaign, host's reading of the dashboard | USD 1 approximate | “basically a dollar CPM, a dollar per thousand views. You have 9,000 over 9,000 posts” |
| Cardstock | count Total Nois slideshow posts, host's reading of the dashboard | 9,000 posts approximate | “basically a dollar CPM, a dollar per thousand views. You have 9,000 over 9,000 posts” |
| Nois | revenue What Nois earned from Kyle's campaigns (its half of the CPM) | USD 1,300 approximate | “You know, they made 1,300 off us” |
| Cardstock | ownership Kyle's equity; bootstrapped, no VC. Early developer friends were paid a revenue split instead | 100% | “But it was always my I always had 100% ownership, so it was always my thing.” |