The Superwall Podcast · 2026-06-11
Evan Yadegari - The 14-Year-Old Who Built a $14k/Month AI App
Ninth-grader Evan Yadegari (Zach Yadegari's younger brother) explains how Locked, a gamified self-improvement to-do app, reached $14K+/month through manual influencer outreach: 500 DMs/day from bought-follower verified accounts, a 'Paid promo?' opener, pushing to calls, four deal types (flat, capped CPM, minimum-view clause, view bonus), CPM kept under a $3-4 RPM, a seeded pinned 'What's the app called?' comment, and vetting creators on comment quality. One day-in-the-life video (~1M views) drove the first $1,000 day. Also: ProblemPal, and his new app builder 10x ($30K ARR in 30 days).
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Numbers mentioned
| Subject | Metric | Value | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Locked | revenue 'over $14,000 a month' | USD 14K/month approximate | “My app is Locked and I was able to scale it to over $14,000 a month.” |
| Locked | views Jeremiah Jones day-in-the-life video, across Instagram, Facebook and TikTok | 1M viewsper video approximate | “This video pulled around a million views across Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.” |
| Locked | revenue revenue attributed to the single Jeremiah Jones video ('at least') | USD 3,000 approximate | “And this video, in total, generated at least $3,000.” |
| Locked | revenue first $1,000 day, driven by the Jeremiah Jones video | USD 1,000/day approximate | “this video helped us hit our first $1,000 day and also our first 1,000-download day.” |
| Locked | downloads first 1,000-download day | 1,000 users/day approximate | “this video helped us hit our first $1,000 day and also our first 1,000-download day.” |
| Locked | conversion rate download -> subscription ('a bit over 10%', ~10 downloads per subscriber) | 10% approximate | “our conversion rate is a bit over 10%, so about 10 downloads that we're looking at.” |
| Locked | price main plan, alongside $7/week | USD 30/year | “Our main plan is $30 a $30 a year, or $7 a week.” |
| Locked | price | USD 7/week | “Our main plan is $30 a $30 a year, or $7 a week.” |
| Locked | rpm average revenue per 1,000 influencer-video views | USD 3–4per 1000 views approximate | “On average, our RPM is around $3 to $4. So I like to keep the CPM under that.” |
| Locked | cpm typical effective CPM paid to influencers | USD 1–2 approximate | “Typically, uh our CPMs range from around $1 to $2.” |
| Locked | conversion rate Instagram cold DM -> reply, from a verified account with 1,000+ followers | 3–4% approximate | “I would say, on average, I see around a 3% to 4% response rate on Instagram, and that's if you have at least 1,000 followers and a verified account.” |
| Locked | conversion rate TikTok cold DM -> reply | 2% approximate | “Then with TikTok, it's closer to 2%.” |
| Locked | activity volume influencers DMed in total ('at the very least') | 5,000–10K creators estimate | “I would say definitely at least 5 to 10,000 influencers at at the very least.” |
| Locked | activity volume team-wide at Locked's peak | 500 DMs/day approximate | “At- at the peak of Locked, when the whole team was locked in, we were sending over 500 DMs a day.” |
| benchmarkInstagram/TikTok DM rate limit per account observed by the guest | activity volume | 100 DMsper account /day approximate | “I typically see that we get hit with the rate limit around 100 DMs a day, and then of course they reset the next day.” |
| Locked | creator pay standard flat deal: $500 for one video (or $1,200 for four), only for creators who consistently pull big views | USD 500per video illustrative | “The first is a standard deal, where I offer something like $500 for one video or $1,200 for four videos.” |
| Locked | creator pay standard flat deal, four-video package | USD 1,200per 4 videos illustrative | “The first is a standard deal, where I offer something like $500 for one video or $1,200 for four videos.” |
| Locked | cpm CPM deal rate paid to creator, capped (e.g. at $500) | USD 1–2 illustrative | “The second is a CPM deal, where I pay something like $1 to $2 per 1,000 views. And I always add a cap.” |
| Locked | creator pay payout cap on CPM deals | USD 500per deal illustrative | “if they get an insane amount of views, it they get capped out at $500 or whatever we set from the start.” |
| Locked | creator pay minimum-view-clause deal: $1,000 with a 500,000-view minimum across posts | USD 1,000per post illustrative | “we pay the influencer something like $1,000 per post with a 500,000 minimum view clause.” |
| Locked | views minimum-view clause set for an $800 deal ($1-2 effective CPM) | 400K–800K viewsper deal illustrative | “if we were to pay $800, then we'd set the minimum view clause at 400 to 800,000 views.” |
| Locked | creator pay bonus deal: $250 base plus $250 more if the video reaches 250,000 views | USD 250per video illustrative | “Then the fourth deal is a bonus deal, where we pay something like $250. And if the video gets 250,000 views, we'll pay an additional $250.” |
| personEvan Yadegari, earnings making TikTok content for the FreezeNova owner's gaming site (age ~12) | revenue month 1; $2,000 in month 2 | USD 1,000/month approximate | “And my first month, I made $1,000 doing that; second month, $2,000.” |
| Totally Science | followers TikTok account grown by Evan from ~30K to almost 100K followers | 100K followers approximate | “because I was able to take the Totally Science account from about 30K followers to almost a 100K followers.” |
| ProblemPal | revenue | USD 2,000/month approximate | “I launched ProblemPal, one of the apps I launched, scaled to $2,000 a month.” |
| ProblemPal | views 'How to finish your homework very quickly' video on the founder's own TikTok account | 200K viewsper video approximate | “Oh, look at this. This is 200K views. What was this video?” |
| 10x | arr 30 days after launch | USD 30K approximate | “So far, we're at over 30,000 in ARR. We just hit that today.” |