How we scaled Cal AI to $50M ARR with influencers
PLUS links to a bunch more articles and threads I've written on this subject so you can run this same playbook to scale your own consumer app.
#Paywall
41 articles
I manually studied 30,600 iOS apps making $20k-100k/mo+, the recipe is stupidly easy
Only around 1.7% of apps in the iOS App Store make $20k/mo+.
How to literally print money with paid ads
My first 9 months in the app industry, I told everyone that paid ads were a trap for app founders. Influencers were cheaper, the attribution was cleaner, and I could run the whole thing from a spread…
34 Truths Nobody Tells You About Scaling a Consumer App
I ran marketing and day-to-day operations for Cal AI as we scaled from nothing to $50M ARR in roughly 18 months.
How to turn attention into consumer-app customers who don’t churn
That playbook worked when building the product was hard and distribution was cheap, but the opposite is true in 2026.
How to create AI ads for apps that make $10,000/mo (EASY MODE)
The AI revolution is here, and it has completely changed the way I grow apps.
I studied 30,600 apps making $20k-100k/mo+, the method is stupidly easy
only 1.7% of apps in the iOS App Store make $20k/mo+ that's over 30,000 apps (i researched all manually, no ai)
How to go from 0-50k/month in 42 days (I did this 4 times)
hey! absolutely LOVE your content and think your authentic voice would align perfectly with our revolutionary brand...
HOW TO ONE-SHOT A HIGH CVR ONBOARDING FOR YOUR APP
Appkittie has data of all apps, their revenues & downloads
The $1M App Design Playbook - Fix Your App Design In 24 Hours
If you take one thing away from this article, it’s that design is a trust signal, and trust is what converts.
The Onboarding Structure Behind a 94% Paywall View Rate (Full Breakdown)
Most onboarding flows lose people before they ever see the offer.
Financial freedom from mobile apps.
This paywall structure made me $10,578 in 62 days.
How to make your Onboarding 10x better (7 Practical Tips)
We’ve designed hundreds of app experiences, and one thing we’ve learned is that good onboarding isn’t about explaining every feature.
How to go from 0-10k a month in under 30 days (I've done this 3 times)
"Paid promo for Arc? Hey, I run an app that limits your screen time and unlocks usage once you complete your goals. Love your content and would love to sponsor you. Let me know if you're interested."
The Cal AI Distribution and Scaling Blueprint
But because we out-distributed every major competitor, we shot to the #1 app in Health & Fitness in 18 months and eventually were acquired by MyFitnessPal.
The Ultimate Paywall & Onboarding Playbook
Reduce “friction” by shortening your onboarding by cutting steps to get users into the app as fast as possible.
From 0 to $10K MRR in 2 Weeks
We found an untapped niche inside the AI image & video category, built the app in 3 days, launched it in another 3, and crossed $10K MRR in 2 weeks.
There are 3 ways solo devs quietly make $60K+/year with AI. Nobody talks about two of them.
If you don't have time to read the entire article right now, be sure to bookmark it so you don't lose it.
Optimaxxing Paid Ads: Test Your Creative for $0 Before You Spend a Dollar
*CPM * link CTR * post-click conversion = your CPA*
9 mistakes that kill your AI startup before the first customer
The product is not the problem. The order of operations is.
I scaled My App to 15K/Month in 2 Months (FULL GUIDE)
My apps made 18K this month at 18 years old....
The Paywall Structure That Prints $$$ (And the Pricing Psychology Behind It)
Most indie devs build a paywall, pick a price that feels "fair," and wonder why nobody converts.
How to Make a Highly Successful Mobile App ($0 to $3k in 45 days)
The product ain't special, but it's important.
The $3B Microdrama Heist: The Growth Engineer’s Playbook for Liquidating User Acquisition
If you are running a microdrama app right now, your unit economics are likely bleeding out on paid social.
Copy Claude Fable 5’s Thinking Before It’s Gone
You Have a Few Days to Copy Fable 5’s Brain Into a Cheaper Model. Here Is How. July 12 is the last day Claude Fable 5 sits inside your plan for free. After that, it moves to pay-per-use credits, and…
How to Start TikTok Ads With Completely Untested Creatives (Print $$$ in Weeks)
This is part 3 of my TikTok ads series for indie iOS developers. If you haven't read the first two, start there — this article builds directly on them:
The ULTIMATE Organic Marketing Guide for App Founders...
the founders doing $100k to $400k mrr on organic are not smarter than you, they are just running a system thats working, which is NOT outdated.
27 Principles of a Viral App
How to Build an iOS App: From Idea to $30,000/Month (A Guide for NOOBS)
An who grew his couples app from $3K to $10K MRR in under 8 months, says going viral is worthless if the comments aren't asking about your product.
The Official Apple Admaxxing Method ($0 to $1k mrr in 25 days).
*You get $100 free in ad credits from apple to try this.
I've Shipped 5 iOS Apps. Here's the Exact Checklist I Use Every Time (Steal It)
The first app I shipped took months longer than it should have. So I wrote it all down. This is the checklist I now run for every single app, empty repo to App Store, nothing skipped. It's built for…
How $100k/month apps make users beg to pay
There is one thing that will make or break your app's revenue, and it's not your idea, your design, or even your marketing.
The TikTok Ads Setup to Actually Print Money - It Took Me 6 Months to Get Right (Skip the Pain)
I run a bootstrapped iOS subscription app. For months I was burning ad budget into TikTok and getting back garbage: 0 conversions in Ads Manager while my payment processor clearly showed people subsc…
the goated onboarding guide for hard paywall. $300k MRR app
ill try to keep the yapping to a minimum, cause my attention span is also that of a goldfish. but a few things before i go through each section.
$100k MRR and 25M Push-Ups with a mobile app (Complete Guide)
Over the course of roughly 12 months Mario (@null_deref ) and me scaled our app Pushscroll to $100k+ MRR and 1M+ Users across Android and iOS.
The Lazy Way to Make $10K+/Month With Mobile Apps (The Complete Guide)
In this article, I’m going to break down the lazy way to scale your app to $10K/month.
I Built 40 Apps With Claude Code and Now Make $36,000/Month. (Exact playbook)
No coding degree. No team. No VC funding. Just Claude Code, a keyword research tool, and a repeatable system I run from my laptop.
How to Run TikTok Ads for Mobile Apps: The Complete No-BS Guide
*Are you a brokie? Do you want to escape the permanent underclass?*
I studied more than 200 app onboardings flows. Here's what I learned
For the past 3 months, I have been studying the onboardings of the top mobile apps.
iOS Apps: The Lazymaxxers Guide to $10K MRR
$12.99/week + $59.99/year.
I built 10 apps in 10 months and make $800,000/yr ( full guide )
My first app made $20,000 in the first 30 days of launching