Starter Story · 2026-05-24

I Built A $30K/Month in 35 Days

College student Cedric Roberge built Pep AI, an iOS peptide tracker (dose calculator, injection-site log, research library, quizzes), in ~2 weeks with Replit and Claude after spotting peptides trending on TikTok. Seven weeks after launch it had $51K total revenue, $33K in the last 28 days, $11K MRR and ~2,000 active subscriptions. Growth came from a 300-person pre-launch waitlist (influencer posts, Reddit) and niche influencers: one creator's post drove $10K+ in revenue. Also ranks organically in App Store search for the trend.

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8 tactics

Pep AI · B2C · peptide tracking app

Get trusted peptide influencers to post 'this is the tool I use' before rivals

One creator: $1K from a story, $4K the day of a 50K-view post, $10K+ total

“Step four, I would say, is to find influencers in that niche and get them posting about it before you even launch.”

Workedinfluencervalidation

Starter Story · 2026-05-24

Pep AI · B2C · peptide tracking app

Post on Reddit and through creators to fill a waitlist before launch

~300 people on the waitlist before launch

“We made some Reddit posts and we had a waitlist with like 300 people on it before we launched, so we knew that this was something people were really going to be interested in.”

Workedvalidationpr-launch

Starter Story · 2026-05-24

Pep AI · B2C · peptide tracking app

Build an app for a topic blowing up on TikTok with no winning app yet

$51K revenue in ~7 weeks; organic App Store search traffic from the trend

“There wasn't an actual peptide app out there to like really explain what all these peptides do and how to use them safely. And there were a couple that have been out for a couple years, but none of them were successfully yet.”

Workedmarket-selectionpositioning-niche

Starter Story · 2026-05-24

Pep AI · B2C · peptide tracking app

Read every review of rival apps, then have Claude plan your app

Founder says it gave a better app than existing ones; no numbers

“So then I went through every single existing app, looked through all the reviews of the things like: What do people like? What do they not like? What do they wish they had?”

Workedfeature-developmentvalidation

Starter Story · 2026-05-24

Pep AI · B2C · peptide tracking app

Rank first when people search a trending term after a viral post

Top result for 'Peptide AI' after a rival's viral X post; #3 for 'peptide tracker'

“People started looking up Peptide AI, but ours was the top search and we got like a bunch of like distraction from that.”

Workedaso

Starter Story · 2026-05-24

Pep AI · B2C · peptide tracking app

Ask Apple for an expedited review to fix rejections in hours, not days

Reviews in ~2 hours instead of ~2 days; approved after about a week

“So then I found out about this expedite review, which then they would review it in like 2 hours instead of 2 days, which kind of sped up our process.”

Workedpr-launch

Starter Story · 2026-05-24

A campus student marketplace app · B2C · guest's first app

Walk around campus telling students about a student marketplace app

~800 users but no revenue

“And we just went around campus, kind of told people about it, and got like 800 users.”

Mixedin-personword-of-mouth

Starter Story · 2026-05-24

A subscription app · founder Pat interviewed

Feed reviews, cancel reasons and support tickets into Claude, then rebrand

Grew ~350% after the rebrand, per the host

“they took all their reviews, they took all their cancellation reasons in Stripe, they took all their support requests, they pumped it into Claude, and they completely rebranded their app”

Workedpositioning-nichefeature-development

Starter Story · 2026-05-24

Numbers mentioned

Subject	Metric	Value	Quote
Pep AI	revenue Revenue in the last 28 days (RevenueCat dashboard)	USD 33K/month approximate	“This is in the last 28 days. We have 33 thousand revenue, almost 2,000 active subscriptions.”
Pep AI	paying users Active subscriptions ('almost 2,000')	2,000 subscriptions approximate	“This is in the last 28 days. We have 33 thousand revenue, almost 2,000 active subscriptions.”
Pep AI	mrr	USD 11K/month approximate	“Our MRR is 11k.”
Pep AI	revenue Total revenue about 7 weeks after launch	USD 51K approximate	“Total revenue: 51k.”
Pep AI	revenue Title/description headline: '$30K/month in 35 days'; description also claims 10,000 users in one month	USD 30K/month approximate	“This is in the last 28 days. We have 33 thousand revenue”
Pep AI	price Yearly subscription	USD 45/year	“We have a yearly subscription that's $45 and a monthly subscription for $10 with a 3-day free trial.”
Pep AI	price Monthly subscription with 3-day free trial	USD 10/month	“We have a yearly subscription that's $45 and a monthly subscription for $10 with a 3-day free trial.”
Pep AI	time to milestone Idea to built app using Replit + Claude	2 weeks approximate	“So using Claude and Replit, it took about 2 weeks to build out.”
Pep AI	time to milestone App Store approval after repeated rejections	1 weeks approximate	“To get it approved, probably like a week, just back and forth.”
Pep AI	time to milestone Expedited Apple review turnaround vs ~2 days normal	2 hours approximate	“they would review it in like 2 hours instead of 2 days”
Pep AI	count Pre-launch waitlist sign-ups	300 people approximate	“We made some Reddit posts and we had a waitlist with like 300 people on it before we launched”
Pep AI	revenue Revenue from one influencer's single Instagram story	USD 1,000/one-time approximate	“We had one guy that had made one story post, and from that we did $1,000 in revenue”
Pep AI	views Same influencer's first feed post about the app	50K viewsper post approximate	“when he made his actual first post, it got 50,000 views and we did like $4,000 in revenue just from that day”
Pep AI	revenue Revenue on the day of the influencer's first post	USD 4,000/day approximate	“when he made his actual first post, it got 50,000 views and we did like $4,000 in revenue just from that day”
Pep AI	revenue Total revenue attributed to that one influencer post ('over 10,000')	USD 10K estimate	“We think that we did in total over 10,000 revenue from that post.”
Pep AI	rank Position in App Store search for 'peptide tracker' (below ads), checked by host	3	“I was just searching peptide tracker on the App Store right here on my phone and looks like there's a couple ads, but you come up number three”
Pep AI	mrr Founder's goal: $1M/month	USD 1M/month goal	“I want to make this a $1 million a month app.”
University of Oregon student marketplace app	users Student marketplace app users from on-campus promotion; no revenue	800 users approximate	“And we just went around campus, kind of told people about it, and got like 800 users.”
App that rebranded from reviews and cancellation reasons	growth rate Growth after a rebrand driven by reviews, cancellation reasons and support requests fed into Claude ('like 350% or something')	+350% approximate	“after the rebrand, they grew like 350% or something like that”