Prayerlock · B2C · phone blocker that prompts prayer
Find an app already earning in your niche and build a better version
Ended 3 months of apps nobody wanted; reached $21K/month in 6 months
Workedvalidationpositioning-niche
What they did
After ~3 months of building Christian apps nobody wanted, found PrayScreen (blocks your phone until you pray), studied its design, features and distribution, and built a better version. Start-over version: find niches with apps above $50K/month using Sensor Tower revenue estimates, pick an app you like and improve it substantially, and code it in under 2 weeks (hard limit).
What happened
Prayerlock reached $21K/month about 6 months after launch
- Stage
- Pre-launch (idea)
“I came across this app called PrayScreen that blocked your phone until you prayed. And with the new insights I had, I looked at the design, I looked at the features, the way they were executing their distribution, and I said, you know what, I can do a better job than them.”
“Step 2: Find an app you like and improve it substantially. Step 3: Code it out in less than 2 weeks.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Prayerlock: Collect the best onboarding screens from other apps and copy the best ones
- Prayerlock: Skip sign-up and keep all user data on the phoneFounder says less friction and lower costs; no numbers
- Prayerlock: Post about 40 videos a day across 12 accounts to find a format that worksFound the reaction-plus-demo format that got the first sales
- Prayerlock: Have your partner film reaction videos with an app demo, posted twice a day10K views a day, 200-300 downloads a day; first $1K/month
- Prayerlock: Hire a second creator to post the winning video format on her own accountTook 14 days to get a 20K-view video; revenue $1.5K (Jul) to $2.4K (Aug)
- Prayerlock: Pay an influencer to promote the appFlopped; one influencer tried, no details
- Prayerlock: Run paid ads optimized for downloads instead of free trialsCompletely failed; blamed on the download goal and a bad onboarding
- Prayerlock: Stretch the onboarding from 5 to 15 minutes, telling a storyOrganic conversion more than tripled, before any paid ads
- Prayerlock: Restart Meta ads at $20 a day, optimizing for free trials$10 per trial; 'respectable', later beaten by TikTok
- Prayerlock: Run broad US-only TikTok ads using your best reaction videos$4 per trial vs $10 on Meta; $4K of savings took revenue to $10K/month
- Prayerlock: Turn a hired teen creator's 10K-view TikToks into ads and raise spend weekly$3 per trial, then $1.88; revenue $10K to $21K/month in two months