This Simple App Makes $18K/Month

I am obsessed with finding niche apps

that make money, and today I have one to

show you that will blow your mind.

>> With the help of AI, we built an app

that makes over 18K a month now.

>> Meet Ryan. He's a normal guy who quit

his designer job and decided to start

building apps.

>> I left my 200K job to build my own

business.

>> And the first one that he built already

crossed $18,000 a month. And when he

showed me what this app does, I knew I

had to bring him on to the channel. In

this episode, we're going to dive into

the ridiculously simple app idea that's

making him $18,000 [music]

a month, exactly how he found this idea

and built it 100% with AI, and his

advice for building apps that stand out

from the rest. All right, this is one

that you cannot miss. Let's dive in. I'm

Pat Walls, and this is Starter Story.

Ryan, welcome to the channel. I'm pumped

to have you on here and talk about this

super cool app that you built. So, tell

me who you are, what you built, and

what's your story.

>> Hi, I'm Ryan, a product designer turned

to indie developer. I left my 200K job

to build my own business. It took a few

years, but with the help of AI and my

girlfriend, we built an app that makes

over 18K a month now.

>> Okay, cool. You're a solopreneur with

the help of your girlfriend, you were

able to build an app that makes $18,000

a month. Let's see it. What is the app

that you built? And then also, if you

could pull up some of your Stripe

screenshots to show that this is legit.

>> So, the app is called Cat on Chair.

[music]

It's a Pomodoro timer for cat lovers. Uh

we didn't want to build another boring,

cold productivity app. We want to have

some fun. So, for this app, it's not

just a regular timer, but when you are

start focusing, the cat will jump on the

chair and just be there with you. And

once you are done, the cat will leave

you a gift. Overall, we crossed 127K

downloads. And for our sales, we made

close to 80K for span of 8-9 months. In

the last 30 days from April 13, we made

over 18K. That's our sale. And in terms

of first time downloads, it's around

[music]

24K downloads. It is a free app.

Everyone can download it, use it. And

but we have many pro features. And our

lifetime plan is $29.99. And our annual

is $19.99. We also have a family share,

which people can buy it and there is up

to six people. Most of sales come from

the lifetime. So at the peak, we hit

rank three for free productivity apps

and rank 11 for all free apps in Taiwan.

>> All right, cool. So one thing I love

about your app is it's super fun. It's

like designed really well. I can see why

it potentially went viral and you had

all this word of mouth. So we're going

to talk more about that. But before we

do, let's talk about your background.

Have you always been building apps? Were

you working a job before? How did you

get to this point where you have an app

that's doing almost $20,000 a month?

>> Yeah. So this is actually the first app

we released. So I was a product designer

at various tech startups. [music] But I

always felt like I'm wasting my

potential because I was only doing

design works. So I quit my job and tried

to build something on my own. And so

about a year ago, AI coding became a

viable option for building iOS apps. And

it [music] was always my dream to ship

one. So I just decided to try.

>> I love the app that Ryan built. I think

this is super cool. Why? Because it's

proof that you do not need a complicated

app to make [music] real money. All you

need is an idea and the right tools to

ship it. And this is why we launched the

iOS bootcamp, which is our free program

where we will help you come up with an

idea, build it with AI, and get it ready

to ship to the App Store. If you join

this bootcamp, within a few days, your

app idea could be live and ready to make

money. So if you are finally ready to

start building, just head to the first

link in the description, click that, and

you You started on your app for free.

All right, let's get back to the

episode. That's super cool because

hopefully there's a lot of product

designers on here watching this right

now that maybe two, three, five years

ago weren't able to build things cuz

they weren't technical. But you, because

of AI coding, you were able to take your

really great design skills and now

actually build stuff. So, let's talk

about this. Can you give me the timeline

of how long it took to build this and

exactly how you built it, what tools you

used?

>> I started around May 2025. It actually

took a while for us to get the first

version up and running. So, after a few

weeks, we finally got a simple Pomodoro

timer done. Then we started fleshing out

the concept and the mechanics, like how

to show the cat animations. By August,

we finally had the first version ready.

We invited dozens of people on RedNotes

to beta test it. We spent about a month

gathering feedback, fixing bug,

iterating on it. The app launched August

27th. We had about 3,000 downloads in

the first week, but wasn't really a

smooth sailing. There were so many bugs

[music] even after a month of testing.

Some of the bugs were pretty serious,

like data not syncing between devices.

It wasn't until around December or

January that we had a relatively stable

version. During that time, we had a few

small viral moments on RedNotes, but the

app truly took off when some Instagram

influencers started sharing app

collection posts featuring us. And one

of them exploded and hitting over 2

million views. From there, someone in

Taiwan saw it, shared our app on Threads

where it went viral all over again. That

chain of events essentially doubled our

downloads and revenue overnight.

>> That's super cool. And as I understand

it, this is mainly for Chinese and

Taiwanese markets. Is that where most of

your users come from?

>> That's correct as for now. It was mainly

because my girlfriend had a RedNotes of

before sharing her illustrations and so

she had some followers there already.

So, that's where we started in the

beginning, but now we are definitely

targeting more to the English audience

or pretty much worldwide.

>> That's super cool. You know, we talked

to a lot of founders who build apps for

US market or even just English market.

That shows just how big the world is in

building apps. We're going to get to

that, but before we do, I'm just curious

what tools you used to build this cuz

you were a designer. You didn't know all

the lay of the land in terms of

developer tools. What were the actual

tools that you used to build this and

turn it into something that's used by

hundreds of thousands of people?

>> Yeah, right now I'm mainly use ChatGPT

Pro plan for the coding part. I'm also

using other tools like RevenueCat which

is super popular paywall and

subscription management tool. It costs

around 200 to 300 depends on our revenue

of the month.

is an ASO optimization tool. It costs

uh, $10 a month. There's Droids, just a

user feedback board. It's free.

>> Okay, cool. One reason why seems like

your app blew up, you just built

something really cool. People loved it.

They shared it organically. They shared

it through word of mouth. You don't hear

about that as much anymore. So, I'd love

to talk about how did you actually come

up with the idea for this and how did

you know it could be something that

hundreds of thousands of people would

potentially use it. How did you have the

conviction to go all in on this cool cat

on chair Pomodoro timer idea?

>> The idea actually came from a necklace

my girlfriend made. It's a a little cat

sitting on a chair. I named it cat on

chair and I really loved the name. So, I

knew I had to use it to build something

around it and everyone knows cats love

curling up beside you while you work. As

cat owners, we especially know there are

something so calming, healing about

those moments. So, having a cat sit on

your chair while you focus just [music]

made the perfect sense. I girlfriend is

a big Animal Crossing fan. So, she

suggest we should add some customization

to the app like [music] different

furnitures, different cats, backgrounds.

So, the whole experience feels more

personal and it gave people more reasons

to keep coming back.

>> Okay, I think that's super cool cuz it's

just different. I mean, I'm a huge fan

of Animal Crossing as well. It's one of

my favorite games, played it as a kid.

And I can see why this is popular for a

certain sort of niche audience, right?

That kind of likes cats, they like cute

things, they

want to collect different furniture like

you do in Animal Crossing. So, it kind

of makes sense to me, but I'm still

trying to understand how this thing

actually makes almost $20,000 a month

when it's really just a Pomodoro Timer.

I'm curious why this does so well when

there are thousands of Pomodoro Timers

out there.

>> It's really hard to innovate on the

feature set of Pomodoro Timers. There

are already tons out there, but combined

with a cat theme and the customization

mechanics, we are able to add unique

features that motivate people to keep

using it. So, all our best features

coming from asking how do we replicate

the physical experience of having a cat

in a digital app. And the gift

collection system was just inspired by

the memes of cats bringing dead mice to

their owners. So, we thought why not

have the cat leave a gift after a

successful session and leave a trash if

the session fails. We have codes for

each cat based on their backstory and

personality. Our users push us even

further. So, they wanted to actually

interact with a cat. They pat the cat.

So, we added a meow animation that

triggers when you tap on the cat or just

say its name out loud. And Stephanie, my

girlfriend illustrations play a huge

role in this. Her style is truly unique

and there's nothing quite like it in the

market. So, when we put everything

together, Cat N App it has playfulness,

personality that the competition [music]

doesn't have. Some of users shared great

feedback with us. One user told us after

her cat passed away, she found a similar

looking cat in our app and it feel like

she could see her cat again. Wow.

>> There's something about this that I just

love it. Is this app, it feels like

handcrafted. It feels like a piece of

art. It feels unique, like no one else

could build this app other than you and

your girlfriend because of this idea

that you have. I just think this is so

cool. This feels like the future of

software. Yes, I can use my Pomodoro

timer and it gives me utility and I

could build that in, you know, two hours

with AI coding. But what AI can't do is

build this like handcrafted, this

experience. I don't know if you have any

thoughts on that, on other app ideas

that you want to build or for anyone

watching this that wants to build cool,

unique and simple apps and clearly it's

working for you. So, I don't know if you

have any advice or ideas on that.

>> I would say just start from finding a

app you already using or you are

generally interested in and then go

deeper on your competitions, like study

all the App Store reviews, social media,

everything and then think about how you

can remix features or mechanics from

other industries. The games are

definitely a good place to start because

they are full of elements designed to

motivate and retain users and of course

if you can't find a an illustrator to

collaborate or use AI to develop a

distinctive visual style, that

definitely would help to set your app

apart.

>> Okay, cool. Well, thanks for sharing

that. I think there's huge opportunities

in this space to build playful software.

I think it's super cool. So, on that

note, I'd love to see it. Could you give

us a demo of this cat on chair

productivity app that makes almost

$20,000 a month?

>> Yeah. So, here's the app. Once you open

the app, you will see the timer,

obviously, and like different background

furnitures. The gifts down there are the

ones you collect from doing the session

and you can play around with it. So,

once you start, the cat will show up and

jump on the chair. So, when you are

done, the cat will leave you a gift. You

can take a break like follow the

traditional Pomodoro Timer format, but

you can also like focus 10 more minutes

and then you can sell your gift. Again,

there's some cute animation here which

will give you a fish. You can go on shop

and switch to different cat. [music] We

also have different furnitures and

different backgrounds. We have animated

background as well. We have different

features like the timeline where you can

see where you focused history and you

can add a sticker here as well. We have

to-do list as well and a whole lot of

other features.

>> Okay, well, thanks for sharing that.

Super cool, super unique. I've never

seen anything like it. Hopefully, people

watching get some inspiration on what

you can do with software now and how

software is going to change, be more

playful, be more fun. Maybe that is the

future of apps. But anyways, the last

question that we have, ask everyone who

comes on to Starter Story is if you

could go back in time, you know, when

you were a product designer and you were

maybe thinking, could I build an app?

Could I not build an app? What would be

your advice you'd give to your younger

self or for anyone watching this that

maybe is a designer and wants to build

stuff like you?

>> Yeah, I would say just keep trying, be

consistent. It took me a few years to

really find what I love to do and what

I'm good at [music] and it took me a

couple tries to build this app. Like it

was not easy smooth sailing thing to

build app with AI. Yeah, so I would say

just keep trying and eventually you will

find something you love, you enjoy

doing.

>> All that's great advice. Thanks for Ryan

for coming on it and sharing. It's super

cool. It's going to inspire a lot of

people. Thanks for coming on.

>> Yeah, thank you for having me.

>> Gus from Starter Story, what do you

think of [music] this one?

>> Well, that was awesome. One of the

reasons I wanted to bring him on was

like, man, this is such a unique and

cool and sort of chill idea that's

making 10,000 20,000 a month.

>> [music]

>> Too cool of a story in my opinion."

>> Yeah. So, that's my first thought.

>> Yeah. If I could take anything away from

this, and it may not be what people are

expecting me to say, but is that if you

have some sort of skill, lean into that

skill for the business that you decide

to build or the app you decide to build.

So, for him, he was a designer. He was

able to make this app really cool and

unique from a design perspective, right?

>> Yeah.

>> But, let's say that you are maybe more

of a I don't know, data analyst, [music]

right? How can you make an app better

because of your skills that you already

have? Something unique that only you

could do. So, I think that's one thing.

And then, the other question I had for

you is

>> [music]

>> we didn't talk about the growth of his

business at all because it did seem like

it was almost random. What did you think

about that?

>> Yeah, I think this would be kind of a

guess, but I feel like what made it grow

was that handcrafted [music] custom,

doesn't look vibe coded, doesn't look

basic kind of app design. And I bet

that's what sort of went viral on Reddit

notes because I would imagine people saw

this and thought, "Wow, this is really

unique. This is different. [music]

I want to use it." And I imagine that's

what made a difference.

>> Yeah, no, I think a lot of people go,

"Hey, I want to build an app." And then,

they expect that it's going to blow up

like the people they watch on here,

right? But, what I like about Ryan and

>> [music]

>> the vibe that I got was like he wanted

to build this because he wanted to exist

in the world. He didn't have probably

any expectations of how much money it

would make. And because of that, because

it was cool, it was unique, and he put

care and love into the product, then it

did the exact opposite, which is that it

went viral. People were sharing it

organically. So, that's why I think this

is one of the most important interviews

[music] that we've ever done. So, on

that note, if you have an idea, if you

want to put care into something that you

build, or use your skills to build your

first iOS app, well, I'll put a link in

the description for you to access our

iOS bootcamp, which will take you from

idea to actually shipping a real iOS app

into the world. [music] It doesn't need

to be the perfect app, but if it's

something you can build, you should do

it. All right. Hope you guys enjoyed

this episode. Let us know what you

thought in the comments. We'll see you

in the next one. Peace.