In the last 10 years, I generated over $3M with my apps. Here are 10 tips I could think of while sitting in an Uber:

1: Solve a Painful Problem PuffCount solved one problem: helping people quit vaping. Posted solves the pain of paying creators without getting results. For both, I was the first customer. I knew the pain personally. If you can't define your app in one sentence, rethink it.

2: Validate Before Building Before I wrote a single line of code for PuffCount, I went on TikTok and searched "quit vaping." Viral content everywhere showing clear demand. No market research = no app.

3: Simple is Better I studied an AI app making $700k/month. The WHOLE app had 14 screens. Clean UX beats useless features every time. Users want one thing done well.

4: Nail Your Onboarding The first screen in my onboarding said one word: Congratulations. That single screen set the tone for everything that followed. The first experience makes or breaks your app.

5: Marketing is King PuffCount wasn't the best quit-vaping app in the store. But it had the best marketing. Marketing is 95% of the game.

6: Iterate Like Crazy The first version of Posted was ugly, clunky, and full of bugs. We launched anyway. Then we iterated daily based on user feedback until it printed. Building never stops if you want to keep scaling.

7: Understand Your Metrics My PuffCount numbers before exit: CAC: $20-24. LTV: $55-70. That gap is how you scale. Know your numbers or you're flying blind.

8: Spy on Competitors Always check SensorTower and know which apps in your niche are printing. You can learn A LOT from them.

9: Don't Skip Testing I use SuperWall to track every step of my onboarding and see exactly where people drop off. Then I move things around until the completion rate climbs. Small changes lead to big conversion jumps.

10: Build for Retention You don’t need to get 10,000 new users every month. You want to get 10,000 users once, and keep them as long as possible. Because keeping them costs less than acquiring new ones.

Stick to these rules and you'll print eventually. Follow @stevencravotta if you're building a mobile app. RT here twitter.com/StevenCravotta… if it helped.