Mylo

I went from $0 to 10k MRR in 2 months at the age of 19. And lost it all just as quickly... This is how it happened.🧶

@vahebagdasar Thanks for the response, curious…did this lead to you guys being able to scale an already profitable funnel or did it turn the funnel profitable?

@breadsignal combination of both

We did all the paywalls for this app, ask me anything.

@brianshinsh congratulations, are most of your subs yearly or monthly?

we reached $7.5k/mo tiktok kinda imploded rn so I really need to fix my funnels so here’s the quick updates and lessons learned: - redesigning core ux flow improved payment conversion by 40.6% (so yes, good design works. stop slop) - current arpu is still quite low (sub dollar). lots of strategic work needed here but tl;dr build a product that users really love using - still need to find a more predictable marketing channel (literally can’t sleep at night without this). I see a lot of app founders succeeding with tiktok but it’s so fragile honestly. Unless you reach a big enough volume, it’ll be unpredictable. - who’s the best person on X to talk about mobile app ads? I really need some solid advice, willing to pay - customer support has increased significantly so I’m spending much more time taking to users - users are loving the product and the experience we give + our fast customer support ads to this experience At the end of the day if you ask me “what’s the secret?” honestly it’s just consistent testing+repetition. For the past few weeks many founders reached out to me for advice and there seemed to be a common underlying problem. These guys were more focused on copying other apps (ie cal ai, quittr, etc) than building what their users needed/wanted. “but cal ai did this, quittr did that” was the kind of responses I heard most. I’ve probably said this too many times but please talk to you customers Their users ≠ your users and plus if you play catch up, you’ll never win pave your own way

@andrew48x I’d really like to know more about paid ads, like: What roas did you scale at? Did you make improvements as you grew? Are you still dealing with higher cpms from seasonality etc.? Things you’ve learned that moved the lever for you or that you found to be counterintuitive?

I need your feedback I want to share how we got there But which way should I steer my content, what do you find the most interesting? and what do you want to know?

@andrew48x funnels within the app or strictly within the ad account/marketing?

Testing funnels I think I might've found gold Will see how this plays out

@david_attisaas Interesting if you don't mind sharing what was the highest roas you ever achieved on a horizon either 1 week or monthly? not on influencer videos but ads?

my apple developer account got terminated and stoppr got delisted from the app store 2 weeks ago. post 1 out of 2 i was in paris visiting my grandpa at the hospital when i read the message in app store connect. honestly, i laughed internally when i saw the accusations because of how vague and generic they were. and to be clear: after marketing spend + taxes, i wasn’t making crazy money with stoppr anyway - especially compared to my previous job coming from a professional trading background. sit tight… here’s the story. it all began in february 2025 when i watched a podcast with 3 teenagers making $200K a month with a very simple “stop porn” app. i thought: “if they can do it, i can do it too.” that’s how stoppr was born: a derivative of that concept but focused on quitting sugar instead. month 1: stoppr did around $5K revenue with almost 0% profit margin. for a first month, i thought it was insane. the marketing was all big influencers promoting stoppr once a week for a month. month 2: i completely changed the panic button flow to something more adapted to my niche. month 4: i revamped stoppr to be very different from the original “inspiration” because my last-30-days revenue was stuck at $5K due to low daily downloads and a bad conversion rate. i updated: •colors •wording •screen designs •revamped the panic button flow entirely •added calories tracker •fasting tracker •water tracker basically turned it into its own thing, focused on sugar and health. for the next few months, revenue stayed in the 5-6K USD range. then in september it hit $14K. but let’s be real: •around 40% marketing spend •15% apple fees •VAT + sales tax on top in comparison, i’m currently making more as a freelance developer for traders. so business-wise: yes, it was working. no, it wasn’t printing life-changing profit. about 3 weeks before the ban, i had actually started working with a founder from eastern europe who runs a recipes + calorie tracking app. he started creating content for stoppr and it was starting to gain traction. when the app got banned, we had to stop the partnership because there was literally nothing left to promote on iOS. anyway, that’s not the main point. the point is: i was spending a lot to not keep that much. month 8: apple sends me a “pending termination” message. i’m not going to post their emails word for word because that can be considered confidential and could technically create legal issues for me, so here’s what they said in plain language instead. here’s roughly what that first email said: •they claimed my developer account had been used for “dishonest or fraudulent” activity •they said information provided to apple about my account or app was false or misleading •they said this violated their license agreement and developer code of conduct •they mentioned things like copycat apps, confusing users, manipulating reviews, deceptive pricing, etc. as examples of behavior they don’t accept •they warned that my account was flagged for removal, payments would be paused, and app transfers were blocked •they told me i could appeal within 30 days by explaining the situation and giving more details, or else my membership would be terminated important detail: none of this came with a concrete example. they didn’t give me a single screenshot or specific screen or detail. no: •“this exact paywall is misleading because…” •“this exact text in app store connect is false because…” •“this exact feature is a copy of app X…” nothing. i appealed 10 minutes after reading the message. in my appeal i basically said: •the app started inspired by that niche but i moved it away over time with new features, design, trackers, etc. •my account info is my real name, real bank, real identity •my paywalls reflect the actual product and match the prices on apple’s payment sheet •users who get a trial actually get the trial •i never received any customer email saying they were deceived or scammed about a week later, apple replied to the appeal with a second email. again i won’t paste it word for word for the same confidentiality reasons, but here’s the gist in normal language: •they said they reviewed my appeal and still believe my account (or a related one) was used for dishonest or misleading activity •they repeated that this goes against their license agreement and developer code of conduct •they said the changes or explanations i gave were “not sufficient” to fix the issues they had identified •they confirmed that my apple developer membership would be terminated •they reminded me that i’m supposed to delete any apple confidential information after termination •they said payments stay paused and that i could later send a separate petition to ask for reinstatement, explaining what i would change to comply with their rules again: no specific screens, no examples, no user complaint shown. just generic text. so let’s address the main accusations one by one from my side. •“copycat” early on, stoppr was heavily inspired by a quit-porn app. same type of structure, different niche. this app target young men quitting porn. stoppr targeted young women struggling with sugar. over time i changed a lot: design, colors, wording, features, trackers. it moved away from that initial structure. •“false info on apple developer account” my account was created with my real name, real bank, real info. nothing fake there. •“misleading paywall / deceptive practices” again: they never showed me an example. everything my paywalls promised was actually delivered in the app. the prices on the paywall matched what users saw in the apple payment sheet. when a user subscribed to a trial, she got the trial. so what now? they refused my appeal. I consider this apple developer account dead. all the money from the last 1.5 months on iOS: frozen. all the future renewals i could have gotten: gone. their email also says they don’t want me to open another apple developer account. for now, i’m just accepting this account as over and focusing on other things. lessons learned? i got banned a few days after i publicly trolled some people in the same niche and publicly talked about the numbers and the “clone” angle. i want to be very clear: - i have no proof that anyone specifically targeted me - i have no proof of any special connection inside apple - all i know is: my account was terminated, and apple only provided generic justifications from my side, i can say this: my mistake wasn’t “being inspired” by an existing app. my mistake was doing it: - teasing and trolling famous apps founders that I can't name here who were already big in a different niche if i had built stoppr in public without poking some people publicly... ....i suspect nobody would have cared that much about one more app in a different niche. i’m not playing the victim. i take responsibility: i poked the bear, i built in public, i over-shared. i also tied too much of that project to a single gatekeeper: apple. and honestly? i’m kind of grateful it’s over. stoppr was eating a huge amount of my time for relatively low net reward. chapter closed. thank you Apple for playing it "fair and transparent" (lol) look out for the next post tomorrow. i’m about to drop a pretty insane gift for the community.

@david_attisaas so clutch

reminder to not pay again for a meta consultant or meta course desmond is giving a lot of actionable sauce for free

@blakeandersonw @MobileAppBro Fascinating why would you scale at break even? Why not optimize at maintenance, then scale currently in this position

Hey this is fair critique. With respect to profitability, sales continued coming in, but you’re right, I wasn’t very profitable. Two reasons 1) it was rushed so I wasn’t as dialed either controlling CPMs by nature of the challenge. I was working on other projects, probably put <40 hours into this 2) With any of my apps, I scale as hard as possible at break even, then let profit come in. IE Cal AI we scaled super hard break even, now we’re double digit % profitable. Thanks for the feedback 🙏

First of all this not a dig at Blake because I really respect these guys, I even defended app mafia on my feed when everybody was first hating on it and he is just a very all round wise guy even beyond the world of apps. But part of what I've tried to do on my page is to bring some grounding to the current app hype as someone who's been in the AppStore for while. So If I'm not mistaken, he's essentially realistically made no profit on this experiment? Made $4k and spent about as much. And actually $3.54k was the 'sales' figure he shows, so proceeds would be less. And because he's using the same account as his much higher revenue app Umax, I will safely assume he's not on the apple small business program so minus the apple 30% fee that number is going to be actually around $2478. So I'm confident that at least at the point of the experiment he showed, and the numbers he's said, he's actually lost money to the tune of $1 - $1.5k, not breakeven. He would get some margin back on the few monthlies he got but most of the "recurring" will come after a year. (and median retention rates for health and fitness apps is currently around ~25% (although at 15% apple fee in year 2), so do the math.) I assume perhaps with the doubling down on working formats he would maybe get this profitable if he continued, but in the scope of the experiment that hasn't been adequately demonstrated, its hypothetical. Also it's not really 10K MRR, because it seems that most of the sales came from the annual plan. I know in the video he puts it as 'Monthly Run Rate' but MRR is universally known as Monthly Recurring Revenue so its a little bit deceiving in my view to state it as that and unnecessary, just say what it is. You can just say I made an app with a no code tool that generated ~$4k in revenue in <2 weeks. That is impressive in itself, without having to fudge the numbers. Forget profit, many people never even touch that kind of revenue so it would still be a valuable video without the embellishment. I assume the main thing about this video is that it demonstrates is just being able to make a publishable app with a no code tool which I think it demonstrates well. Also the transparency to just show his dashboards and entire process I commend. But I just don't think for someone with concrete success that he has to back up what he's saying, that he needed to make this seem more than what it is.

@david_attisaas curious what was your roas for paid ads with quittr when you did 10k a month? and was your highest cost influencers or something else?

“the business isn’t profitable yet because all profits are reinvested.” yeah… that line hides the real problem. if profits are tiny, reinvesting them just turns the whole thing into a hamster-wheel operation. you keep running, nothing compounds, and at the end you’re basically working for free. this is why the ltv >> 3x cac rule matters. (>> means far greater than) but even 3x is honestly mid. at 3x, you can technically scale ads, yes… but the business itself still doesn’t make real money once you subtract infra, tools, taxes, rev-share, team, whatever. you actually need something like: ltv = 5–7x cac or cac payback < 30 days to feel the machine working for you instead of you working inside it. so for example: if you make $10k revenue, then a $3.3k ad spend fits the 3x rule. math checks out. but when you add real operating costs on top, you’re barely breaking even. and that’s exactly why most “reinvest everything” businesses never escape the treadmill. they don’t have a big enough gap between ltv and cac to create real leverage.

@GeorgeLampro20 📈👀 have u seen any drop of in roas or sales due to black friday week

I tweeted this talking about how we made $17k in the first month but we didn’t have any money to sustain this growth. I got scrappy and flipped $400 -> $6k within the first week and a half of month 2. I thought we were going to be able to make $15k with around 1k in spend in month 2 seeing only a drop of 2k in revenue. We’re going to do $19k this month seeing an increase in revenue with around ~1k in adspend Just wait till we get this Apple payout, WE ARE GOING TO THE MOON!!!

@lottsnomad curious, could you sell for 6 figures - if it’s 20% profit margin at 20k rev but mrr is 4x less than that?

get an app from 0 to $10k mrr keep costs sane show 3 months of upward trend suddenly you have a 6 figure asset you can actually exit why aren’t more people doing this?

@maubaron interesting does your app give users the end result before the onboarding/paywall? trying to figure it out

my app has a review rate 6x higher than the average, here's exactly how i did it - 1.5k reviews - 4.9 star rating - ONLY 25k downloads reviews are the second most important asset a paywalled app has and you only earn them when the user is at an emotional peak. not early not late at the climax most apps ask for reviews when the user barely cares or way after the dopamine is gone (like in a review screen at the end of the onboarding) terrible timing you should ask for it when the user is 8-10 minutes deep committed and ready and excited to start their journey that’s when people give 5 stars without thinking because they want to get started already that's what you should aim for when deciding where to place your review request so ask for the review right after your core experience lands

@BusDownBonnor right designer, left chat?

One of these App Icons was done by a world class designer, the other by ChatGPT. Can you tell which is which?

@cormachayden_ this is the truth

psa: nobody on here knows what they are talking about put your head down and build. you will end up a lot further

@sabino_sau14094 literally me now, first $300+ day and my natural instinct wants to expect this as the norm now…we shall see

I don’t know if this happens to anyone else, but as a founder it’s crazy how fast your brain adapts. When I started, hitting $1K/day felt unbelievable. Even $100/day was one of the best days of my life. Now I’m doing $1.5K–$2K/day and $1K suddenly feels like a “bad” day. It’s wild how your perception changes. If you’re in your first $100/day stage, enjoy it, you might never feel that excitement the same way again.

@kelechisp 🥵🙏🏾start sharing more please we appreciate it

i’m not your average consumer founder too many yappers on here, not enough doers 🥱

@zxsquids try now? i just changed my settings to accept

@breadsignal won't let me dm you bro

I don’t code i’m 100% a marketer and consider myself good at what i do. I pay a freelancer and sometimes I can’t move as fast or implement things i want No haptic touch in onboarding, down sell paywall, or trial Why do you think my conversion rate is so low? #buildinpublic

thanks man, save your time i’ll figure it out with gpt but i am curious have you implemented a down sell or trials for your app? i ask bc it seems like we’re at similar stages… in the last 10 days i’ve done $1060 rev but about 1.1 gross roas maybe we can help each other figure this out? feel free to ask me anything too

@alexculebras real btw do you have a link to the excel template

@singleclap1 yoo

If you used to be a: - sneaker reseller/botter - dropshipper - theme page owner - pro fortnite player (or other top comp game) I want to hire you to help start running ads at my company Minutes. Full time role, remote is ok, pay is great. we've grown to 1m+ downloads in the last year and you'll be helping us 10x that.