The app space is saturated is a complete myth. 95% of apps have no idea about distribution. The barrier to entry to BUILD apps has gone down to zero. But the barrier to MARKET apps is still high. If you know how to create viral TikToks, you can dominate. The building part is solved. The marketing part is wide open.

@StevenCravotta The part most people miss: distribution isn't just virality. The apps that compound are the ones where word-of-mouth activates after the first wave. That's the trust layer AI can't build for you.

@StevenCravotta I’ve seen this hold when distribution is actually repeatable and not just a one-off viral hit. Over time though, platforms shift and formats fatigue… and that’s where teams either adapt quickly or lose momentum fast

@StevenCravotta Feels like building used to be the moat. Now distribution is. The people who figure out attention will win, even with simple apps.

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100% stevem Building is basically solved now. The real edge is knowing what to build and how to distribute it. Most people are still guessing ideas and then trying to market them after. Feels like it should be the other way around — start with demand, then build. That’s actually what I’ve been focusing on with IdeaSaaS. ideasaas.xyz

@StevenCravotta the easy part. marketing's the real game. Building something people want? that's where it gets tricky.

@StevenCravotta 15 downloads on my free toolkit, conversion is solid but traffic is the whole game rn. building it was the easy part, month 2 of distribution and still figuring it out

@StevenCravotta Apps aren’t saturated. Attention is. The winners aren’t better builders. They’re better distributors.

@StevenCravotta TikTok is basically a shortcut to product-market fit if you know how to play it.

@StevenCravotta As an engineer, I'm now learning paid marketing (google/meta ads) because of this. Building was always the easy part, finding customers who pay is a completely different skill. And it can't be vibe-coded (yet)

@StevenCravotta Exactly. The real moat now is no longer building fast. It’s getting attention, earning trust, and creating distribution loops that compound.

@StevenCravotta I'm betting everything on exactly this...

Here's the uncomfortable truth: most 'app founders' are just copy-paste artists with a Stripe account. They build 10 mediocre clones, pray to the TikTok gods, and call it a strategy. Real distribution isn't about virality—it's about owning a channel. Email list? Check. Community? Check. SEO that actually works? Double check. TikTok is a lottery ticket, not a business model.

@StevenCravotta Building apps is solved. Distribution isn’t. Most “saturated” markets are just under-marketed ideas waiting for someone who understands attention economics.

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@StevenCravotta When we have 8 billion potential users, how can the app space be saturated already.

@StevenCravotta Partly true, but “just do TikTok” is oversold. Distribution matters, but retention decides everything. If the product doesn’t stick, viral just accelerates churn. The real edge is product that keeps users + distribution that brings them in.

@StevenCravotta If you dominate even 1% of a huge, billion-dollar industry, you can earn enough to sustain and scale.

@StevenCravotta agree that is the real hard truth and every app requires a different marketing strategy.

@StevenCravotta Everyone is shipping apps, but no one is distributing. That's the reality.

@StevenCravotta Building has always been easier part real business starts when marketing and sales comes in

@StevenCravotta true the distribution gap is bigger than the idea gap

@StevenCravotta "The building part is solved" is the most underrated sentence in the startup world rn 💀

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@StevenCravotta There's hundreds of thousands of apps. There's only a few ten thousand that are getting any visibility

@StevenCravotta app markets arent saturated distribution is most ppl are still shipping products into a vacuum and calling it competition

@StevenCravotta Building is easy, attention is hard.

@StevenCravotta So true …it’s life and death depending on how we marketing the app. I’m thinking of the best way for SaaS is to create a waitlist page first and start marketing on day one.

@StevenCravotta Agree. And a lot of people outside of tech twitter have no idea how easy it is to make apps now.

@StevenCravotta This is the reality check so many aspiring creators need to hear

@StevenCravotta most builders spend 95% of their time on the product and like 5% on getting it in front of people when it should probably be flipped

@StevenCravotta yeah spot on, tiktok virality crushes the marketing barrier!!

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@StevenCravotta distribution really is the moat

@StevenCravotta feels like the real skill now is packaging, not building

@StevenCravotta Building is easy, attention and distribution are the real challenges.

@StevenCravotta yes… everyone’s shipping apps now but no one knows how to get users, that’s the real gap

@StevenCravotta viral hooks open doors, reliable ops keeps em buying

@StevenCravotta Trying a real life approach. So far made a few bucks.

@StevenCravotta That is what separate successful apps from the rest