SaaS •Entrepreneurship

How I built a $30K/month mobile app

Starter Story • • 12 min • #103
How I built a $30K/month mobile app

John McEvoy was a graphic designer who taught himself to code. He built Momego and grew it to $30K MRR – all by himself. The biggest unlock? John uses hyper-local app store optimization and SEO. This video breaks down exactly how he built Momego and grew it to 5M downloads, 400K monthly users, and $30K MRR.

Summary

  • John Makavoy

    • Is a solo founder from Scotland.
    • Built Mumigo without previous smartphone app development experience.
    • Started his career in graphic design.
    • Became curious about development, JavaScript, backend systems, and databases.
    • Built the app because he wanted a better way to see buses on a map.
    • Got the idea while working for a bus company in Edinburgh.
    • Wanted the same map-based arrival experience that Uber provided for taxis.
    • Wanted to finish his morning coffee instead of waiting 10 or 20 minutes at a rainy bus stop.

  • Mumigo

    • Is a bus and train tracking app.
    • Covers over 160 cities.
    • Shows live buses and trains on a map.
    • Helps users plan trips and avoid missed connections.
    • Includes Trip Assist, which tracks a journey and uses server-side machine learning to watch for delays or missed connections.
    • Can notify users and suggest alternative routes when problems appear ahead.
    • Uses an onboarding flow designed for people installing the app at a bus stop or train station.
    • Quickly asks for location permission because it is critical to the app.
    • Shows value, social proof, and premium features before the paywall.
    • Offers a yearly plan with a seven-day free trial, a weekly plan, and a lifetime plan.
    • Uses a reverse trial when users close the paywall, giving one week of Pro without payment or commitment.

  • Metrics and Financials

    • Has been downloaded about 5.2 million times since 2017.
    • Makes around $30,000 in monthly recurring revenue.
    • Has about 400,000 monthly active users.
    • Has around 75,000 ratings.
    • Previously made around $8,000 per month from banner ads before the pandemic hit ad revenue.
    • Rebuilt around subscriptions in August 2020.
    • Used paywall and onboarding A/B tests in 2021 to increase conversion from 0.5% to 8%.
    • Grew from around $8,000 per month to over $30,000 after optimizing conversion.
    • Runs about 20 dedicated servers costing around $2,500 per month.
    • Spends about $1,000 per month on third-party APIs such as mapping.

  • Build Journey

    • Started by creating designs in Illustrator.
    • Built the first versions in Xamarin using C# and .NET because that matched his existing comfort zone.
    • Spent months building, failing, and tweaking because mobile app development differed from web development.
    • Improved the messy code after launch.
    • Rebuilt the iOS app in native Swift after Swift had matured.
    • Rebuilt quickly with Flutter because the app uses maps and sliding panels.
    • Completed the rebuild in roughly two or three months.

  • App Store Optimization Playbook

    • Finds specific phrases people search for and adds them to the app title, subtitle, and keyword list.
    • Uses location-specific keywords such as New York subway and Chicago train.
    • Adapts metadata to local terminology.
      • Uses terms like MTA subway for New York.
      • Uses terms like CTA L train for Chicago.
    • Updates screenshots for each localization so users immediately see the app works in their city.
    • Uses additional localizations to index more keywords in the US App Store.
    • Finds more keywords through Apple Search Ads or App Store autocomplete.
    • Targets specific lower-popularity phrases where it is easier to reach the top five.
    • Asks for ratings at golden moments inside the app.
      • Uses moments when users see a live bus or train moving on the map.
      • Relies on continuous ratings to rise organically for target keywords.

  • Tech Stack and Tools

    • Uses Laravel and PHP for the backend.
    • Uses Adobe Creative Suite for marketing materials, UI graphics, and app graphics.
    • Uses Lottie for animations created in After Effects.
    • Uses Appfigures for ASO research.
    • Uses RevenueCat for subscription management.
    • Uses Mixpanel for event analytics.
    • Uses Cloudflare as a geographic load balancer for about $90 per month.
    • Uses ChatGPT for many tasks at about $20 per month.

  • Lessons and Advice

    • Solve a problem you personally have.
    • Use your own problem as motivation when working nights and weekends gets difficult.
    • Avoid relying only on vanity metrics such as monthly active users.
    • Move to event-based analytics when trying to grow.
    • Use A/B testing and data to understand customers and improve conversion.
Back to Starter Story