SaaS •Entrepreneurship

My Niche Mobile App Makes $20K/Month

Starter Story • • 14 min • #149
My Niche Mobile App Makes $20K/Month

Ethan dropped out of college after realizing AI could build in a day what took him a week. 6 months later, his app makes $20K/month. This is his exact playbook for finding, building, and marketing a niche app.

Summary

  • Ethan

    • Built Cut Coach, a mobile app for combat sport athletes, and reached $20,000 per month.
    • Launched the app in September and grew from $0 to more than $60,000 in total revenue over 6 months.
    • Reached around 38,000 downloads, later noting about 39,000 downloads.
    • Dropped out of college after seeing how quickly AI tools were changing software development.
    • Started building his first app in summer 2024 before studying computer engineering.
    • Built an app for his mom’s workflow that took about 6 months.
    • Built another app with only AI tools while at university.
    • Built several apps in early 2025 but did not market them, which he later saw as a mistake.
    • Discovered Cursor and shifted more focus toward sales and marketing instead of only development.

  • Cut Coach

    • Helps combat sport athletes cut weight for competitions or fights.
    • Creates science-based weight-cutting protocols.
    • Shows daily nutrition values users need to stay within.
    • Lets users log meals and extracts nutritional values from entries.
    • Lets users track daily weight progress.
    • Recommends meals for each day to help users stay within their limits and make weight.

  • Origin And Validation

    • Found the idea through his own experience in combat sports.
    • Competed as a provincial judo champion and national wrestling champion.
    • Often had to cut significant weight in a short period of time.
    • Learned proper weight-cutting from a coach who gave him a combat sport weight-cutting plan.
    • Connected his passion for wrestling with his interest in building apps after leaving college.
    • Built the app quickly so he could ship and iterate based on what users wanted.
    • Gave the MVP to his wrestling club for beta testing.
    • Changed the concept after realizing the original coach-led workflow created too much friction.
    • Redesigned the app so it gave weight-cutting plans directly to athletes.
    • Tested the app’s weight cuts on himself before release.

  • Build Process And Stack

    • Started building Cut Coach in June using Cursor and ChatGPT.
    • Built the MVP in about a month.
    • Redesigned and rebuilt the concept during July and August.
    • Released the redesigned version in September.
    • Starts new app ideas by asking ChatGPT for app ideas inside a chosen niche.
    • Designs wireframes in Figma after choosing an idea.
    • Studies popular or similar apps in the same niche and adapts proven layout elements.
    • Uses Cursor and ChatGPT for development.
    • Uses Supabase for database storage.
    • Uses Vercel to host the landing page and JavaScript files.
    • Uses the OpenAI API for AI functionality.
    • Uses RevenueCat, Mixpanel, and Superwall for paywalls and analytics.
    • Uses cron jobs for scheduled automations when needed.

  • Marketing Strategy

    • Started with organic posts inspired by social media pages in the same niche.
    • Adapted niche content ideas to the app instead of trying to go broad.
    • Posted an early video showing a UFC fighter before and after a weight cut.
    • Added a call to action at the end of videos to encourage downloads.
    • Saw 10 to 15 downloads per day from posts with only 200 to 500 views.
    • Believes the app converted well because it solved a specific pain point that no other app solved.
    • Moved into influencer marketing after organic posts showed high-intent demand.
    • Started with small creators because the niche did not have many large influencers.
    • Found creators by scrolling TikTok and Instagram Reels and sending DMs.
    • Began with creators getting around 1,000 to 10,000 views per video.
    • Later moved to creators getting more than 20,000 views per video.
    • Turned influencer videos into paid ads and saw extra revenue and faster scaling.

  • Niche App Playbook

    • Solve a problem inside a hobby the founder already understands and enjoys.
    • Use AI brainstorming to find app ideas within a specific niche.
    • Avoid reinventing the wheel by adapting proven patterns from larger apps.
    • Ship quickly and learn marketing after the product is usable.
    • Look for small but painful problems where viewers have high purchase intent.

  • Lessons And Advice

    • Says his advice to himself would be to follow his own advice.
    • Realized in high school that he often made decisions based on other people’s opinions.
    • Now seeks advice but adapts it to his own life instead of letting it control him.
    • Says that approach has made him feel more fulfilled and given him a stronger sense of purpose.
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