I Built A $30K/Month App: Here's My Exact Process

Benji

• Built over 45 apps in the past year, with his latest app Snag reaching $30,000 in monthly recurring revenue within four months
• Grew up in Asia, followed a traditional academic path with a 4.0 GPA, then sold his first media company for six figures
• Worked in Congress investment firms, did quant research, and worked in media companies before pivoting to software products
• Experienced shiny object syndrome early on, launching apps like Pillar and HighGBT but not focusing long enough to scale them
• Decided to lock in on one product (Snag) and build it with a dedicated team at 10X Studio

Products and Offerings

• Snag is an app that helps people find free items near them
  • Users can search or filter for free items in their area
  • Includes a favorites section to save items
  • Offers weekly, monthly, yearly, and one-time subscription plans
  • Has over 100,000 authenticated users, 9,000 conversions, and over $80,000 in total proceeds
  • Has around 3,300 ratings on the App Store, providing strong social proof

Metrics and Financials

• Snag generates approximately $30,000 USD in monthly recurring revenue
• For every 100,000 views on a UGC video, the team makes around $1,000 to $2,000 in direct subscription profit
• One specific UGC video garnered 240,000 views
• A single paid ad campaign had $3,000 spent before ROAS turned negative
• UGC creator conversion rate is about 10% (9 to 10 good creators out of every 100 interviewed)

Strategy and Growth

• Overall vision is to build a scalable product with a clear value proposition so that marketing becomes almost secondary
• Primary growth engine is UGC (user-generated content) campaigns at scale, then converting top-performing creatives into paid ads on Meta
  • Reach out to many creators, interview and filter them, then put the best on a monthly retainer plus CPM structure
  • Test creators and only scale those whose videos get over 50,000 views
  • Run test campaigns on Meta ads at $50 per day to validate creatives before scaling
  • Gradually scale ad spend (e.g., $50 to $100 to $200 to $300 per day) if ROAS is greater than 1
  • Monitor for ad fatigue and continuously pump out new creatives to maintain performance
• Key insight is that Meta ads have diminishing marginal returns, so scaling is not linear
• Distribution strategy emphasizes that content creation and knowing how to get algorithmic views on TikTok is the most valuable skill right now
• If budget is limited, founders should film content themselves and hire an editor to scale

Tech Stack and Infrastructure

• Uses Cursor as the IDE and Claude Code Max to code the entire app
• Uses GoDaddy for domain hosting
• Uses Loops to send emails to churned users to convert them back
• Uses Superwall to A/B test paywalls
• Uses Mixpanel to evaluate onboarding effectiveness
• Has an Apple Developer account and Figma subscription
• Hosts everything on Supabase as the backend

Build Process

• The entire build process takes around four to five hours for a working app (without backend)
• Step one is finding a scalable, implementable idea by reverse engineering the value proposition from the marketing side first
• Step two is wireframing and designing in Figma, then feeding designs to Claude Code in the IDE
• Step three is distribution through UGC or self-filmed content
• Step four is iterating on the product to increase LTV and lower CAC by delivering real value to users
• Ideas are sourced from YouTube, Twitter, and Sensor Tower, where successful apps are identified and improved by 10%
• Believes ideas are worthless unless you can deliver the product to the end user in a better way

Lessons and Advice

• Create your own luck by consistently iterating, learning from mistakes, and putting yourself in a position to meet great people
• Surround yourself with ambitious, high-performing people because you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with
• A good product with a strong value proposition converts at a higher rate and retains users naturally, reducing the need for heavy marketing
• Do not overcomplicate the process; focus on building fast, testing, and iterating
• Shiny object syndrome is common but the key is to lock in on one product and commit to scaling it