She Built This $300K/Month App in 60 Days

I'm Sarah and I built Stella, a

manifesting app, which crossed over

$300,000

in MRR in 2 months.

>> This is Sarah Pearl. She launched her

very first app and today [music] that

app makes over $340,000

per month. When she told me about her

story, I was blown away because this

story is not really about the app she

built, but is rather the beginning of a

much bigger wave that is about to happen

on the App Store. [music]

>> Women are going to dominate this app

space and men should prepare for that.

>> So, I asked Sarah to come on to the

channel to break it all down and in this

episode we'll dive into the insanely

simple app she built that now makes

hundreds of thousands of dollars per

month, why she thinks everyone is

building apps backwards and the next

wave of app builders that nobody will

see coming. This is one that you cannot

[music] miss. So, let's dive in. I'm Pat

Walls and this is Starter Story.

Welcome Sarah. I'm super pumped to have

you on the channel. Tell me about who

you are, what app you built and what's

your story.

>> I'm Sarah, also known as Hot High

Priestess, and I built Stella, a

manifesting app, which crossed over

$300,000 [music]

in MRR in 2 months since launching. I'm

excited to share about the power of

personal brand and the power that comes

with being a woman in this space and how

it's actually an unfair advantage.

>> I will we're going to talk all about

that. But first of all, congrats.

$300,000 MRR in 2 to 3 months is insane.

I don't think I've ever seen anything

like it. So, let's talk about the app

that you built. Can you pull up the app

and also pull up some of your Stripe or

revenue screenshots to show that this is

legit?

>> So, this is Stella and basically you

tell it all of your dreams, all of your

desires, and it will create these custom

visualizations that you can listen to

from your future self who already

manifested it.

>> [music]

>> It also has affirmations every single

day completely custom to you. Things

like you'll get an affirmation every day

like, "Today I'm looking at the App

Store and seeing my app hit number one

on the App Store and things like that.

So, within the first two months since

launching, we hit 300k MRR. And I think

this is a little lower than it actually

is. We're like at about 350, 360 MRR. We

have 12,000 paying customers. We've had,

I believe, over 200,000 downloads, which

is super cool. Our conversion rate is

really high. That's part of the power of

having a personal brand is people are

already bought into you. So, this is my

Instagram. I have 1.2 million followers

on Instagram. Yeah, I post of

manifestation content. And this is my

TikTok with 2.8 million followers.

Combined views have generated over a

billion views on TikTok, which is crazy.

>> Okay, cool. The first thing, I just want

to nail this objection while the

audience is watching this right now.

They're going, "Hey, I don't have any

followers. Like, clearly it was so easy

for you because you had this massive

audience." What would you say to someone

like that who's probably watching this

right now?

>> Well, since launching Stella, I actually

created a brand new TikTok. And since

then, it's been a couple months now.

It's grown to over 40,000 followers. I

have another TikTok account with over

700,000 followers that I just like spam

post on and I have consistently going

viral on every account that I ever make,

right? I could start a new account today

and probably guarantee 50,000 followers

in the next three to four months. So,

it's not so much a question of like, do

you already have a personal brand as

much as it is, do you have the skill of

virality? And when you master the skill

of virality, then you can create a

personal brand very fast.

>> Okay, cool. Amazing. Obviously, you have

a huge social media following, which we

are going to talk about that in a

second. But before we do, let's talk

about how you get to this point where

you have now an app that is making over

$300,000 a month. What's your

background, and then how did you decide,

"Hey, I'm going to build an app"?

>> I've always been super entrepreneurial

and I've always had like a sixth sense

about virality and content. And so,

literally, the first [music]

three videos I ever posted on TikTok

went viral. And ever since, it's just

been like one viral video after the next

and I just immediately saw an

opportunity for building a personal

brand even though I was in college

studying to be a teacher. After that I

started monetizing my social media and

then I want to say about a year and a

half ago I launched a brand on TikTok

shop which also has been super

successful making like seven figures a

month. I've kind of dipped my toe in

every sort of business model that exists

that you could have with a personal

brand and then I saw the opportunity in

SAS and in [music] the consumer app

space. I saw the power of AI at the time

as well and how easy it was to vibe code

[music] an MVP of a product. I also saw

that there was a huge gap in the market

where there were all these apps that

weren't necessarily designed to solve

female issues because they were designed

by men.

>> I love this app that Sarah built because

[music] it's simple and it's crazy just

how fast you can build and ship apps

like this nowadays. [music] I know I've

said this a million times but this is

the year of building on iOS and if you

watch the channel you'll know that it's

one of the biggest opportunities on the

internet right [music] now which is why

we launched the iOS bootcamp. It is our

100% free [music] program where you will

learn exactly how to build and launch

your own iOS app from the tech stack to

use to the workflows to build. You'll

build your own app in just a few days

ready to ship to the app store. So if

you're ready to build your idea head to

the first link in the description and

you can get started 100% for free. All

right, let's get back to the episode.

Let's talk about how you came up with

the idea for this because you can have a

personal brand and you can launch an app

and you can do 10k a month, 20k a month

but you launched something and did 300k

per month pretty much right out of the

gate. So clearly this idea was good.

This manifestation app or how did you

come up with this idea and how'd you

know this is something that could be a

multi-million [music] dollar app? I'll

start off by saying I don't think most

men would have come up with this idea,

right? And so I think that's actually

the unfair advantage of being a woman in

this space is there's so many of these

problems that we experience as women

that we're like, I wish an app existed

like this, but a man would never think

to build an app like that, right? The

reason I was able to create this app

was, you know, I listen to meditations

and visualizations, and I saw that there

was nothing on the market that created

custom visualizations or meditations for

a person. And I was like, it would be

really cool if there was a way to like

customize these visualizations

specifically about the exact goal that I

want. And I was like, well, we now live

in a very [music]

unique time in human history where we

can literally create an app to do that

for you, right? You can use AI to

customize something like that. And so,

that's how the idea came to be.

>> That's super cool. Let's talk about what

you just mentioned there, which is like,

AI tools can do this thing. So, let's

talk about how you actually built this.

You had the idea, it was really

powerful, it almost made you emotional

when you saw, "Hey, this is what I can

do with AI." How did you then turn it

into an app? What tools did you use, and

how long did it take to build this?

>> I used, you know, Cloud Code, literally

just normal Cloud, to be honest, has

incredible design capabilities. Google

AI Studio was huge for me. I'd say my

biggest piece of advice around this is

like, speed is the number one ingredient

towards success in this industry. The

faster you can whip up an MVP and test

it, the sooner you will have a product

that actually performs. I think from

start to finish it took us 2-3 months to

build the entire app. In terms of how

fast I whipped up an MVP, I think it

might have been in 2 days.

>> All right, so, the next question that I

have for you is a little bit different

than I would typically ask on Starter

Story, but it's something that I've

noticed. When I look at my YouTube

analytics, it is literally 93-94%

men, like, actually. And if you look at

our channel, you'll notice that it's

always men, it's all men. When we talked

earlier, you had some interesting

opinions about this, the future of

entrepreneurship. Hopefully, there are a

lot of young girls or ladies watching

this that can get inspired. What do you

think the future of building apps, being

online, is for women?

>> I would say women are going to dominate

this app space, and men should prepare

for that because women dominate

distribution and the only thing that was

standing in the way of women building

the number one app on the App Store and

an app that makes 300k MRR is the fact

that many women just don't know how to

code and there was a technical barrier.

And now with AI and tools like Cloud

Code and Cursor, that technical barrier

has been eliminated to a large degree,

right? And it's only going to get better

from here and majority of influencers

are women. I also think it's important

to note like

>> [music]

>> biologically women command attention. We

also know how to have community. Like we

just have this sixth sense about it and

that's ultimately what's going to

determine the people who win in this

space as well as the fact that like the

best product doesn't win, the best known

one does. When I talk to women, there's

actually a huge demonization of AI

amongst women. I don't even know if men

know this and I think some men are

demonized for using AI, but like when

women use AI in their products or just

in general, they're like completely like

canceled online often times. For me,

when I was first getting hate online or

criticism, it really affected me and I

wanted to quit social media. However, I

love to reframe and so when I started

getting hate online, I actually started

viewing it as a good thing. I was like,

"This is boosting my videos in the

algorithm. My most successful videos are

the most controversial ones."

>> That's awesome. Well, you said something

earlier which I really loved which is

that women are going to build all these

hundred thousand dollar per month apps

because of one thing, women own

distribution. So it's just a matter of

time before the technical gets easy

enough and we live in this social media

world, anybody can build anything.

[music] So let's talk about that

distribution piece. Take this app, how

did you get tens of thousands of users

to see your app, download it, install it

and pay for it?

>> So if you have a personal brand and if

you have a following, if you can go

viral, you could sell anything. I mean,

I could sell air and it'll sell, right?

First piece is how do you create a viral

personal brand and it's actually [music]

so easy. You find a niche, you look up

the most viral content that's performing

in that niche. You study [music]

core human psychology of what gets

people to move and literally keep

[music] recreating viral content. If you

have a video that hits, like recreate it

to infinity. I've been recreating the

same viral content for years now and it

still continues to go viral and perform

and convert. And once you have a video

that really pops off, you want to like

work backwards and ask yourself, what is

a product that I could naturally insert

into this video that [music] would help

the virality and also solve a problem

that people are facing. Their first

thought would be like, I need to close

out of TikTok and go download this right

now.

>> Okay, cool. Let's go a little bit into

the specifics of this. You kind of

mentioned that there's one format you do

over and over and often times when I

talk to app founders that are crushing

it, there's usually like one video or

one format that has led to like the

majority of the sign-ups and the

revenue. Would you be able to walk me

through just one of those examples of a

video that has just crushed it for you?

>> So, this is one of the most viral pieces

of content that I ever put out. My mind

is worth millions. I don't work for

money, money works for me. I am always

at the right time. My name is spoken of

amongst the most successful people. I

get paid to exist and it is always

working out for me.

>> How can I remember all these?

>> You can actually get custom affirmations

on your lock screen every single day

using my app Stella.

>> Boom.

>> I say the affirmations and then the guy

asks me, how can I remember all of

these? And then I'm basically like, just

go use my app Stella. I would say the

first thing is typically when I make my

affirmation videos, I will start it with

like, repeat these affirmations for 7

days or listen three times. When you see

something like that, your first instinct

is, let me save this video because if

you have to repeat it for 7 days, like

you're going to have to come back to it.

When someone saves a video, then it

increases engagement. There you go. And

in general, this is very savable

content, right? People want to like

listen to an affirmation another day.

So, if you can make content that

naturally gets shares or saves, that's

going to make it go viral every time.

Another thing is, I would just say I'm

really good at creating affirmations, so

that also is why it goes viral. So, if

there's something that you are really

good at or you have like a unique spin

on, that contributes to it. Another

thing I really like to do on Instagram

specifically is use ManyChat, so I'll

tell people comment download and I'll

send you your custom [clears throat]

affirmations. And then they download the

app. And actually in the ManyChat, I

tell them I'm like, "Hey, if you review

the app, like let me know so I can thank

you personally." So, that also helps.

Some of the videos I mention Stella, but

I don't show the use case and then

that'll usually convert a little worse.

I would say some of the best converting

stuff is actually this, where this got

300k views, but it converted super well.

>> [music]

>> So, you know, they see that, they're

like, "What's the app?" There's this

fine balance you have to find between

videos that go viral, but then also

videos that'll specifically demo the app

or convert well.

>> That's awesome. I love simple apps. So,

the fact that you don't have a million

features, I think is super cool and

shows that you're solving a good problem

rather than building a bunch of things

that people don't need. Last question

that we ask everyone who comes on the

channel, if you could go back in time

before you're on social media or maybe

before you decided to actually build an

app even though you had no technical

experience, what would be your advice

that you would give to yourself or for

anybody watching this who wants to build

apps like you?

>> Mhm. Well, I would start by saying that

I think spite is the greatest motivation

that you could ever have. Peace and love

doesn't build empires, pain does, quite

frankly. And so, I truly believe that

usually the most successful people in

the world, the reason they started was

because someone didn't believe in them,

some system worked against them. I just

want you to know, if you're going

through a really difficult chapter,

you're actually in the luckiest season

of your life because you [music] have

the most amount of fuel that you will

ever have. Everyone works front to back

and I think the reason a lot of my

products have been so successful and so

fast is because I actually work

backwards. Create the content and the

distribution first and then I create the

product. And it becomes so obvious. When

you're creating content, it is so

obvious where the gap is, what you could

easily add into your content that would

perform well as an app. Create the

content, see what people are saying in

the comments. Oh, I wish this existed.

Oh, I'm struggling with this.

>> [music]

>> That is the blueprint, right? And also I

want to say one last thing. I think

there's so much copy paste in this

industry in the app space and I think

what made Stella so successful is an app

like this didn't exist. I innovated. I

pioneered something. I encourage app

founders, especially [music]

women, to invent something in this space

that solves a problem that hasn't been

solved before.

>> That's great advice, especially on

creating content [music] first. I have a

lot of people who come to me and they

say, "Hey, what app should I build?" And

I say, "Don't build an app. Go build

content. Then you can find your app idea

once you do that." So, I think that's

great advice. Thank you, Sarah, for

coming on and sharing your story and

inspiring hopefully a lot of young

ladies out there, a lot of people out

there. Thank you for coming on.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> All right, Gus, producer of Starter

Story, what did you think of Sarah and

the manifestation app, Stella?

>> Awesome. I mean, she's got her stuff

together and it was just cool to hear

how she talked about building and the

opportunity. I don't know how many women

will see this since our audience is like

93% male, but I hope that anyone who

watches this like will learn a lot from

what she said. The app itself, I mean,

it's manifestation, not my thing per se,

but it just goes to show like there's a

whole sort of market of probably

products and apps that because I'm a

dude, an old dude at that. I was looking

at my gray hair during the interview. I

was like, damn, that's not my niche. And

so, it's just a good reminder like

>> Yeah, no, I think we do have a very male

audience, but I'm hoping that this video

gets somehow algorithmic magic. Like it

gets showed to a bunch of women out

there who want to build, are building,

thinking about building cuz I have two

sisters, so I know they have all these

things they do, like that sounds sexist,

sorry to say that, but

>> [laughter]

>> It's not good.

>> I get canceled, I'm sorry.

>> All things they do.

>> My sisters love a couple things that

just remind me of this, like tarot card

reading. Horoscopes is a big one, too.

And I just think there's this huge

opportunity. So, yeah, if I get canceled

for this, uh I'm sorry, but this is this

is my final starter story video.

>> That's funny. And then, yeah, I just to

like the personal branding, I mean,

that's the number one thing people are

going to say, right? It's like, oh, of

course she made 300,000 because she has

millions of followers online. Of course

that's why she is making so much money,

it's because she has a big brand. But

also, on the back of that is years of

creating content and figuring out what

her audience wants and sort of aligning,

manifesting this into existence.

>> This is going to be the change.

Developers used to be kings because they

held the keys to the kingdom with their

development skills. But now this is

gone. The kings and queens are now

content creators. This is the future.

It's going to get even crazier over the

next couple years. So, if there's

anything if you're watching this right

now, create content. But you still got

to build an app. You still got to build

something. So, we're going to put a link

in the description, our iOS bootcamp,

where [music] you will come up with an

idea, you will build it, and you will

ship it to the world very, very fast.

Which again, is something that [music]

Sarah did. Shipped her V1 super fast.

So, check that out in the description.

It's 100% free. [music] Hope you guys

enjoyed this one. Let us know what you

thought in the comments. Otherwise,

we'll see you in the next one. Peace.