My Two Apps Make $150K/Month Each

Starter Story • • 16min → 3 min • #154
My Two Apps Make $150K/Month Each
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Summary

  • Nicole

    • Built four consumer apps in the past two years, each reaching significant revenue milestones
    • Started building apps during college after a solo backpacking trip through Europe where she grew a TikTok podcast to 10K followers in 10 days
    • Moved to San Francisco, worked in marketing at a tech startup, and met her co-founder Aaron (a YC and HFZ alum)
    • Decided to start an app with Aaron during a 10-minute call, which later became GlamUp
    • Handles everything non-coding related: design, distribution, creator management, and growth strategy

  • Products and Offerings

    • GlamUp — A beauty and skincare app for women that scans users’ faces and provides color analysis, glow-up guides, makeup looks, and product recommendations
      • Reached 1 million users in 6 months and peaked at $150K MRR
      • Has around 2 million total downloads across iOS and Android
    • Sprout (formerly Prep AI) — A job search app for college and post-college students that matches users with job postings, auto-applies on their behalf, and generates tailored resumes
      • Grew to $250K MRR in 8 months
    • Two stealth apps — Built in the past 3 months, currently at around $200K MRR combined and growing using the same repeatable system
    • All apps use a hard paywall with weekly or monthly subscription models

  • Metrics and Financials

    • Each of her first two apps generates over $150,000 per month
    • Her two newest stealth apps are at approximately $200K MRR combined
    • At peak, GlamUp drove 40–50 million monthly views on TikTok and around 200 million on Instagram
    • Sprout averaged 100 million monthly views, with a 7-day stretch hitting 400 million views
    • Across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts, her content now reaches 400–500 million monthly views
    • Managed around 200+ active UGC creators simultaneously during peak scaling

  • Strategy and Growth

    • Core philosophy: treat app design as part of distribution by making the app innately viral for social media
    • Focuses on consumer app design principles like welcome pages, onboarding flows, and priming users to convert
    • Tests multiple viral distribution formats for 2–3 weeks each, milking every category before moving on
    • Distribution channels tested include Reddit marketing, TikTok and Instagram faceless content (slideshows, various CTAs), face UGC (both AI-generated and real creators), paid ads, and influencer marketing
    • Once a winning format is found, doubles down relentlessly and scales it

  • UGC Creator System

    • Sourcing — Finds creators who fit the specific content strategy (e.g., strong talkers for talking-head content, expressive creators for reaction videos)
      • Inbound: application forms posted in UGC group chats, Instagram, Reddit, and platforms like Syift
      • Outbound: hires VAs to do outreach to micro-influencers
    • Onboarding — Conducts interviews to vibe-check creators, then runs them through a custom-built creator course with video modules, content banks, and quizzes to ensure quality
      • Over 50% of creators who complete the course go viral within the first two weeks
    • Management — Uses bi-weekly or monthly feedback calls, Discord chats, and sometimes promotes top creators to full-time management roles
    • Optimization — At scale, implements referral systems for creators and builds dashboards for analytics and growth tracking
    • Believes virality can be systemized and that luck’s “surface area” can be maximized through process

  • Tech Stack and Infrastructure

    • React Native for app development
    • Revenue Cat for revenue tracking
    • Superwall for paywall management
    • PostHog for data analytics
    • Syift for recruiting UGC creators
    • Atio for CRM
    • Custom-built creator portals and courses tailored to each app

  • Lessons and Advice

    • Distribution and marketing matter more than features, especially now that AI has made building easier
    • Turn virality into a repeatable system rather than relying on one-off lucky breaks
    • Understand your app and your content more deeply than any creator you work with
    • Enjoy the journey and stay present rather than constantly chasing bigger numbers
    • When something works, keep doing it until it stops working — that is the hallmark of a true entrepreneur
    • Most successful founders break growth down into micro steps and follow a consistent system rather than posting ad hoc content
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