Apollo · B2C · Reddit app for iPhone
Live cheaply with roommates and build full-time on savings until a set date
Made it to a launch that paid from day one; savings almost gone
Workedfinancing
What they did
After graduating, skipped a job offer path and built Apollo full-time on Apple internship savings, living with about six friends to keep costs low. Treated it like a startup with a burn rate and a date by which the app had to ship.
What happened
Burned through the savings but reached a launch that was financially viable from day one.
- Stage
- pre-launch
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · The Advantages of Working On an App You Care About — Christian Selig, Apollo“Apple paid pretty well even as an intern, and I was living with like six other friends, so like life was pretty cheap and I was kind of just like slowly chewing through that”
“I kind of had like this fund and I had almost like a burn rate, and I knew by a certain date I had to get this out”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Apollo: Post an early beta in a popular subreddit, then launch to the waiting crowdBeta filled up; lots of launch-day downloads and paid upgrades, profitable from day one
- Apollo: Build each month whatever your app's subreddit complains about mostFounder says it shaped the app and worked well for about 9 years; no numbers
- Apollo: Turn down popular feature requests by explaining why, not just saying noUsers mostly agreed once they heard the reasons
- Apollo: Charge the same $2.99 one-time price as the main rival appProfitable from day one, but founder calls the price too low in hindsight
- Apollo: Raise the lifetime price from $19.99 to $30-40Take rate didn't change at all
- Juno: Build the YouTube app YouTube skipped for Vision Pro, in two weeks, for launch dayStill earns about $100 on some days months after launch