This App Makes $25,000/Month

Lucas Herman

• Background and Origin Story
  • Started his first development job in 2007 while still in high school, riding his bicycle to work and building HTML pages.
  • Began studying in 2017 because his father wanted him to have a degree.
  • Freelanced while studying because he wanted to understand what it felt like to run his own developer business.
  • Joined a startup after finishing his degree in 2020.
  • Made the first commit for Stage Timer in November 2020, shortly after COVID hit.
  • Quit his job in 2022 after his wife encouraged him and Stage Timer reached about $3,000 per month.
• Pivotal Moments and Turning Points
  • Found the idea by watching a friend use an old Flash app on an old laptop to run timers in a studio.
  • Realized the workflow was awkward because his friend had to walk into another room to start a timer.
  • Shipped the MVP in three days by using technologies he already knew.
  • Took 224 days to earn the first dollar because Stage Timer was still a side project.
  • Reached $10,000 in monthly revenue by September 2023.

Products and Offerings

• Stage Timer
  • Built Stage Timer as a simple timer for live events, presentations, and video productions.
  • Let one person control a timer while multiple people view it on other screens.
  • Helped event teams communicate with people on stage more easily than holding up paper signs.
  • Supported use cases such as TED-style talks, TV broadcasts, election coverage, and horse races.
  • Included messaging so operators could show notes such as asking a speaker to hold a microphone closer.
• MVP
  • Started with one core feature: clicking a button in one place to start a timer somewhere else.
  • Launched as a free tool before monetization.

Metrics and Financials

• Revenue and Users
  • Reached $25,000 in revenue per month.
  • Served 20,000 total users.
  • Had 4,400 users who were paying or had paid at some point.
  • Received 86,000 unique visitors per month.
• Costs and Profitability
  • Spent about $280 per month on servers and infrastructure.
  • Spent about $250 per month on tools and services.
  • Spent about $1,400 per month on paid ads.
  • Ran the business at an 80% to 90% profit margin.

Strategy and Growth

• Reddit Validation
  • Found niche subreddits where video production people gathered.
  • Posted once per subreddit with a link and asked people to try the tool and give feedback.
  • Kept the early website free so users treated the post as a feedback request rather than a sales pitch.
  • Received detailed feedback from people who wanted the app and suggested improvements.
• Search and Niche Content
  • Generated about 50% of traffic from Google.
  • Created documentation pages and videos for specific niche workflows and integrations.
  • Targeted high-intent keywords from people looking for concrete answers.
  • Found useful keyword opportunities by publishing documentation and articles, then doubling down on what people clicked.
• Word of Mouth and Product-Led Growth
  • Generated about one-third of traffic from people recommending Stage Timer to others.
  • Put the Stage Timer logo and name on every shared link.
  • Used a memorable domain in the logo so people could recall it after seeing it at events.
  • Kept a free tier so freelancers could bring Stage Timer to events and expose new customers to the product.
• Family Business
  • Invited his wife to join after the first customers arrived and marketing and support needs grew.
  • Had his wife handle Google ads, sales emails, and customer support.
  • Focused himself on product, finances, development, and overall direction.

Tech Stack and Infrastructure

• Development
  • Built the MVP with JavaScript, Vue.js, and NodeJS.
  • Avoided unfamiliar technologies so he could ship quickly and keep working in one-hour evening sessions.
  • Used Sublime Text and Sublime Merge as his development tools.
• Business Operations
  • Used Airtable as a CRM with automations on top of customer data.
  • Used Postmark to send emails.

Lessons and Advice

• Simple Ideas
  • Learned that many businesses still use awkward, outdated tools that developers could improve.
  • Recommended observing people outside the developer bubble to find simple workflows worth automating.
  • Believed there are many small niches that can support million-dollar app businesses.
• Founder Advice
  • Encouraged builders to get started even if regulations, taxes, or bureaucracy feel intimidating.
  • Said people can build and scale simple businesses even in Germany.
  • Treated the key challenge as finding the right small opportunity rather than building something technically complex.