Tibo, a 23-year-old former software engineer from Germany, built Chart Detector AI with his brother — an iOS app that uses AI to analyze stock and crypto charts from photos — and scaled it to $56K/month in revenue with 13–14K monthly downloads while working only ~20 hours/month, traveling full-time after quitting his job at the 6-month mark.
App overview and performance
Chart Detector AI lets users photograph a stock or crypto chart; AI analyzes it and predicts direction.
Launched ~13 months ago; reached 90K+ total downloads and $260K+ lifetime revenue.
Current run rate: $56K/month revenue, 13–14K downloads/month, 7.8M views in last 30 days.
Two subscription plans only: $12.99/week or $59.99/6 months; hard paywall, no free trials.
April profit: $43.7K revenue, ~$20K ad spend, ~15% Apple fees, 25% net margin ($11.5K profit).
Effective hourly rate ~$500/hr given minimal maintenance time.
Founder background and idea origin
Tibo and his brother both worked 9–5 software engineering jobs (Tibo at a major German car manufacturer) and had tried multiple business ideas before.
Breakthrough came when ChatGPT added image upload capability; they first built a Telegram bot for AI chart analysis, then wrapped it into a mobile app.
Timing mattered: they caught the wave of a new AI feature enabling a previously impossible product.
Distribution: paid TikTok ads as the primary engine
Core strategy: pay less per install than lifetime value per user (target 2x ROAS); once achieved, scale ad spend aggressively.
TikTok Smart+ campaigns: AI-driven targeting and budget allocation; broad targeting (country only), optimize for subscription events (not installs).
Minimum 6 creative videos to start; $50/day campaign budget minimum; 7-day learning phase — do not change settings during this window.
Track with AppsFlyer (MMP) integrated via freelancer; feed purchase signals back to TikTok for optimization.
Creative fatigue is real: maintain a constant pipeline of new videos; replace underperformers weekly.
Scaling rule: increase budget ≤20% every 3 days to avoid re-entering learning phase.
International markets often yield better ROI than US; test broadly.
Winning ad creative pattern
Best-performing ad: simple screen-recording demo of a user analyzing a chart in-app; generated $15K+ revenue and ~5M views.
Focus on showing the app in action and the outcome, not abstract branding.
Step-by-step playbook to replicate (2026)
Step 1: Prepare app for paid ads — optimize onboarding to sell the outcome, not features; add heavy social proof; use hard paywall (no trial) for immediate cash flow; study successful onboarding flows via tools like Screens Design.
Step 2: Set up TikTok Business Manager + AppsFlyer (MMP) for attribution; hire a freelancer for integration to avoid costly misconfiguration.
Step 3: Produce ≥6 distinct video creatives; launch Smart+ campaign optimizing for subscription events; $50/day budget; broad country-only targeting.
Step 4: Weekly monitoring — if ROAS stable/profitable, scale budget slowly (≤20%/3 days); if unprofitable, swap in new creatives; never edit campaigns during learning phase.
Tech stack (two-person team)
Frontend: React Native + Expo.
Backend: Supabase.
AI: OpenAI API for chart analysis.
Subscriptions/paywall: RevenueCat.
Attribution/tracking: AppsFlyer.
Video editing: CapCut.
Ad platform: TikTok Ads (~$18K/month spend).
Final advice from Tibo
Stop over-consuming content and start executing; momentum comes from building, not watching tutorials.
The “productive procrastination” of endless research delays real feedback loops.
Producer reflection (Pat & Gus)
Paid UGC ads represent the next evolution: creators already make organic content; the logical step is putting paid spend behind proven creatives.
Trade-off: lower margins (~25–30%) but buys back time and lifestyle freedom; expect this model to grow significantly.
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