I vibe coded a $12K/month mobile app (Stoppr Breakdown)

David

• Built STOPPR after working eight years as a quant trader.
• Had no developer background before building the app.
• Got inspired by indie hackers such as Peter Levels, Thibault from Outrank, and Jack from Post Bridge.
• Discovered Quitter through a YouTube podcast with its three teenage founders.
• Felt motivated after hearing Quitter was making about $200,000 per month after three months.
• Built STOPPR about five months before the interview.

STOPPR

• Helps women stop sugar cravings.
• Targets mostly Gen Z women.
  • David described customers as around 13 to 25 years old.
• Offers weekly, monthly, and yearly subscriptions.
• Includes a trial on the yearly plan.
• Reused the onboarding structure from Quitter because David thought it was very strong.
• Changed the original app’s niche and visual presentation.
  • Replaced the original content with sugar-related content.
  • Changed black to pink.

Metrics and Financials

• Makes $12,000 per month.
• Made $5,000 in the first month of revenue.
• Reached 60,000 downloads in five months.
• Has around 900 paying customers.
• Reached about 35% profit margin after five months.
• Costs are relatively low.
  • Cursor Ultra costs $20 per month.
  • Mixpanel cost around $100 in the previous month.
  • TikTok Spark ads cost around $100 per month.

Idea Discovery and Validation

• Found the original app idea by watching YouTube.
• Validated Quitter’s revenue by seeing it had reached about $200,000 per month.
• Downloaded Quitter and studied its onboarding.
• Validated the sugar niche through keyword and content research.
  • Used Google Trends to check searches such as stop sugar.
  • Saw the keyword trend rising over the previous five years.
  • Checked TikTok and Instagram for women influencers discussing quitting sugar.
  • Noticed no one in France was doing a similar app for women cutting complex processed sugar.
• Worked mainly with French influencers after identifying the local opportunity.

App Cloning Playbook

• Find a successful app in a specific niche or region.
• Confirm revenue with Sensor Tower to estimate monthly recurring revenue.
• Research TikTok and Google Trends to see whether the new niche is worth building.
• Build the design from screenshots.
  • Download screenshots from the target app.
  • Use a Figma plugin to import JPEG screenshots into Figma.
  • Use resources like screen.design.com and mobbin.com to download app screenshots.
• Use Firebase for backend needs when authentication and app setup are required.
• Connect Figma MCP to Cursor to speed up implementation.
• David estimated the same MVP could now take about two weeks instead of one month.

Build Process and Tech Stack

• Took screenshots of each Quitter screen to understand the flow from screen to screen.
• Prompted Cursor to recreate screens with the same visual elements, colors, and images.
• Built a full copy of Quitter in about two and a half weeks.
• Took about one additional week to submit the first version and get Apple approval.
• Uses Cursor to vibe code.
• Uses RevenueCat to check app revenue.
• Uses Mixpanel for deeper user analytics.
• Uses top yappers.com to find influencers who worked with other apps.
• Feeds influencer emails into LinkedIn.ai.
• Uses Menta ads and TikTok Spark ads.

Lessons and Advice

• Copy a successful app one-to-one when trying to make money quickly.
• Copy the screen structure and wording, but change the niche and customer base.
• Avoid taking the same customers from the app being cloned.
• Use proven principles such as onboarding flows in a different niche.