Praycreen · B2C · pray-to-unlock phone app
Get apps to $5-10K a month, sell them, and take many shots
Several exits; buyers and funders now come back to him
What they did
What happened
In their words
Lotanna Ezeike - He Built a Simple $120k/Yr App, Then Sold It For Multiple 6 Figures!
Lotts… Blake Anderson, or Zach, and all that kind of stuff. I always tell people, "Yo, like get your first nut first." And I'm not saying you can't get there, but it's very hard for you to get there on your first try. And I'm just like, "Yo, if you can get something to like even 5 to 10k MRR, you can sell that thing, right? And it's kind of like, okay, this is my first win. I was able to learn things, whatever it is. Okay, now build the biggest thing."
LottsI'm very different like the Blakes of the world, like no disrespect to what they're doing, but like I'm very good at repeatably doing the same thing over and over again. Yes, my MRR doesn't get to the millions or ARR doesn't get to the millions, cuz I'm not scaling it itself, but it's like I get lots of shots on goal. So there are a lot of people kind of come to me, they're like, "I'm not hitting these huge, huge numbers." I'm like, "Bro, like right now, if you can sell that thing for half a million right now, look at that view for your life." And then then you're more comfortable then take more big swings in an educational way.
Host… though. I feel like a lot of people like they see the big success and they just want to have the same thing, but they don't see that it's kind of you need to have the skills to actually have that big win, and the best way to get the skills is to have like smaller wins to start out. And like it's not small, like 500k in your pocket is like pretty good, it's pretty good win, right? Plus you get the skills, like that's kind of the main thing.
LottsI think it's the skill and the people that you also meet. Because like now if I wanted to do this Bible game thing, like I know like 20 people who would fund the entire thing, because they've seen me do it over and over and over again. So for them on their end, it's kind of like it's a derisked thing, because, "Hey, you already knows what he's doing." It's kind of like the people you sell to, even the people that you chatted to that maybe you didn't end up selling to, for example, BibleBuddy, someone that chatted to didn't end up selling to them, they came at Praycreen like a year and a half later, and they closed that within 3 days, because they already knew me from before.
HostI guess one more question I just thought of: if you're going for an exit like that, I feel like people don't think about exits nearly enough, cuz they see the MRR, and in these days, it's like MRR is the thing that you flex. It's like, "Oh, I'm making 10k a month! Oh, I'm making 100k a month!" And then people think of that as like, "Okay, well, if I take home 50% of that after tax, like, okay, now I'm earning 50k a month in my bank account." But …
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More from this episode
- Copy a proven app idea and rebuild it for Christians~$120K ARR in 5-6 months; first 'Bible focus' app, then 70 copycats
- Post shock-value TikToks across 10-12 accounts to get people arguing in commentsEarly comments were angry, then turned to 'I needed this'; main driver of growth
- In videos, flash the app's opening animation, then the main screen and the success screenFounder says it brands the video without showing onboarding; no numbers
- Put well-loved Christian songs under the TikToksViewers commented on the songs; founder says it helped
- Run the TikToks that already went viral as Instagram ads$0.39 best-day CPI, $0.70-0.80 average in the US; one video took 70% of spend
- Give non-payers a free version with an ad before each daily prayer~$0.05 per user per day; ad spend paid back in 14-15 days
- Start as a WhatsApp bot before building the appGrew at first, but WhatsApp's ~$0.02 per conversation got too expensive
- Run X ads aimed at followers of the 20-25 most famous pastorsHost calls it an underpriced channel; no costs or results given
- Earn money only from banner ads, skipping full-screen adsCouldn't crack monetization; founder was wary of charging for faith content
- Build an app around a new AI tool within 4 days of its launch
- Show a text that's only arguably a red flag so viewers argue in commentsFounder says the formats worked; 330 videos ready, ads never tested
- Tweet that the app is for sale and take a fast close over top priceBuyers DMed; sold within a week (3 days) to a past BibleBuddy suitor
- Don't translate your apps yourself; leave it as upside for the buyerBuyers usually translate first; founder says it makes the app easier to sell
- Grow a simple first app with one TikTok and one Instagram account$8K MRR in about 4 months
Tags: shots-on-goal, build-and-flip