This Insanely Simple App Makes $50K/Month

When I heard about this app idea, I could not believe my eyes. Hands down, one of the simplest ideas I've ever seen on this channel, and yet it makes over $50,000 a month. I launched at the end of 2025 and went from zero to $50,000 a month in 4 months.

4 months. This is Jake. He's 24, and he saw a problem that almost everyone has. So, he decided to build an app to solve it, and a few months later, that app has been downloaded over 200,000 times. Building doesn't really matter so much. What really matters is marketing. And

What really matters is marketing. And so, I prioritized that over everything. I asked Jake to come on the channel to break it all down. In this episode, we'll dive into the insanely simple app idea and why it works, how he went from zero to over $50,000 a month in just 4

months, and the only two things that matter if you want to build a successful app. All , let's dive in. I'm Bat Walls, and this is Starter Story. All , Jake, welcome to Starter Story. Tell me about who you are, what app you built, and what's your story. Hey Bat, thanks for having me on. My

Hey Bat, thanks for having me on. My name is Jake, and I built an app that does over $50,000 in revenue per month. I launched at the end of 2025 and went from zero to $50,000 a month in 4 months. I'm excited to share more about how I came up with and validated the idea, how I grew it to over $50,000 per

idea, how I grew it to over $50,000 per month, and share my overall framework for building and growing apps solo. Okay, cool. All , well, congratulations. This is amazing growth, and I'm super excited to get into what you built, how you got the idea, all that. But first, show me what app you built. Show me some of your revenue screenshots. I want to see this is

built. Show me some of your revenue screenshots. I want to see this is legit, and I want to see really I'm curious what you built. Yeah, so the app is called Early. It helps you wake up early. It's an alarm clock app, and the one liner is push-ups that turn off your alarm. It's that simple. That's the main thing that we push through all of our marketing. That's the novel

we push through all of our marketing. That's the novel aspect added on to the alarm app. This is the last 28 days of sales, done a little over $50,000. First-time downloads, a little over 50,000 downloads in the last 30 days. And in 2026, I've done a little over 200,000 downloads. Pretty standard

200,000 downloads. Pretty standard app pricing model, free trial, and then $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month. Okay, awesome. , this is amazing. It's an alarm clock app, super cool. I'm doing 50,000 a month really quickly. This is just crazy numbers. So, we're going to get all into that, how

quickly. This is just crazy numbers. So, we're going to get all into that, how you came up with this idea, how you built it, and how you grew it. I'm excited. But before we do, what's your background? Do you have a background coding up apps? How did you get to this place where you have a $50,000 per month iPhone app? I went to school for accounting. I did a 4 years undergrad

accounting. I did a 4 years undergrad and a year for my master's. I got my CPA and I worked in public accounting in a big four firm for a little over a year. But I've been coding, I'm self-taught the last 4 years or so. Had some other businesses in the past, nothing really worked. I realized through all these failures that marketing is the most important thing. I

marketing is the most important thing. I started focusing on building an app as quickly as possible that solved a painful problem in a simple way. And then following these models that a lot of these other apps were using influencer marketing is the one that I picked. It's proven to work. And yeah. Okay, Jake's app idea is so insanely

simple and this is why I love it. This is the real secret. He did not build something complicated. Instead, he found a painful problem and built a dead simple solution around it. These are my favorite kinds of app ideas and there are way more of them out there than you

are way more of them out there than you might think. And I want to prove this. This is why I put together this free database of over 30 successful mobile app ideas. Inside this database, you will find real revenue numbers, starting cost, tech stack, everything you want to know about what it takes to build these. The goal isn't that you just go and copy

The goal isn't that you just go and copy these. The goal is that you do your research, get inspired, and maybe even spark your next app idea. If you are ready to start building, just head to the first link in the description and you can grab this database 100% for free. All , let's get back to the episode. Okay, amazing. , what I

episode. Okay, amazing. , what I love about this is that you didn't have a crazy software technical background. You're hacking away at stuff, but what you went to school for was accounting. You were doing some accounting work, but now you have this app, it's crushing it. So, I think one important thing is just the idea itself.

important thing is just the idea itself. This idea that you had where it's an alarm clock that makes you do push-ups or makes you do something is a really cool idea. So, I'm curious, how did you find this idea? How did it was something that could potentially make $50,000 a month? So, I was having trouble myself waking

So, I was having trouble myself waking up early and I started texting my friend the night before "Hey, I'm going to send you a video of me doing push-ups by 6:00 a.m. tomorrow." And that was to hold me accountable. And so, every night I would send that text before. it just held me accountable, it was great. And at that time, a lot of other apps were doing well and I saw a lot of people on Twitter doing well

were doing well and I saw a lot of people on Twitter doing well with apps and I was at a point where I was brainstorming my next idea and decided this would probably be a great idea. the MVP, the initial scope of project was just an accountability app. So, there was no alarm feature whatsoever. I built the app in 3 weeks and then I realized I

app in 3 weeks and then I realized I didn't know how to market. I thought influencer marketing could maybe work with it, but it wasn't too viral of an idea. So, I took a whole day just to walk, think about it, write on the direction I was going to take and I had a few paths and decided on the alarm feature. this was before iOS 26

feature. this was before iOS 26 came out and iOS 26 allowed you to connect your app to the native alarm system on iPhone using alarm kit API so you could build a real alarm app. Up until this point, there were a lot of other alarm apps out there, but they were gimmicky and not reliable because they used different app

because they used different app sounds and workarounds to make the quote-unquote alarm. So, now this is possible with the alarm kit API, I figured it would be a good idea. I love this that you mentioned this here is that it's a little bit of luck and timing involved here is that before alarm apps couldn't be useful

before alarm apps couldn't be useful because they weren't 100% reliable. That's really important for an alarm app. But you had already shipped this thing, this fun accountability idea that was a little bit of a gimmick thing that you're doing with your friend. You didn't really have any reason to ship that other than hey, this could be cool if this existed as an app. You

if this existed as an app. You had that early app version and then you had this come-to-Jesus moment where you realized that , these alarm apps can get better. These two things came together. Let's talk about how you learned to build something this. I know it's not the most complex app in the world, but still it's pretty legit. Can you