I made $1M flipping apps

Domenico (Dom)

• Background and origin story
  • Studied economics at university between 2017 and 2019 while launching small startups on the side
  • Launched a physical micromobility business in 2019, had a co-founder, then left
  • Worked full-time as an analyst at various companies while pursuing side projects to escape the 9-to-5
• Pivotal moments and turning points
  • Started a “build and sell” challenge with the rule of launching, validating, and selling a micro-business in 30 days
  • Quit his 9-to-5 job once he realized Subgen had strong potential
  • In 2024, a signed job offer fell through due to the company’s financial problems, which he reframed as the opportunity to go all-in on his own projects
• Business growth, current status, or exit details
  • Built and sold six micro SaaS projects while working full-time
  • Grew Subgen from $20K MRR to $500K MRR in 3 months and sold it for nearly a 3x multiple of ARR (over seven figures)
  • Currently working on Cortex.ai, focused on migrating companies from human to AI workforce by automating up to 80% of manual tasks

Products and Offerings

• Core products from the build and sell challenge
  • Pitch 2.0 — AI pitch deck generator; made $300, sold for $2,500 after 45 days
  • OneTap.ai — Excel formula generator using plain English; made ~$7,000, sold for ~$25,000 after 3 months
  • YourCoverLetter.com — AI cover letter generator based on job applications; sold for $7,000 after 40 days
  • RecapG.com — AI summarizer for YouTube videos, presentations, and docs; sold for $34,000 after 6 months
  • QuitsBot.io — AI tool to generate content from docs or websites; made $1,000, sold for $5,000 after 3 months
  • WebDesigner.io — AI landing page generator via prompts; made $1,200, sold for $12,000 after 3 months
  • Subgen.ai — AI no-code app builder; scaled to $500K MRR and sold for nearly 3x ARR multiple
• Current project
  • Cortex.ai — Enables migration from human to AI workforce, targeting automation of 80% of manual, mundane tasks in companies

Metrics and Financials

• Revenue figures and financial milestones
  • Subgen grew from $20K MRR to $500K MRR in 3 months
  • Subgen sold for nearly a 3x multiple of ARR (over seven figures)
  • Combined, Dom sold seven apps with individual sale prices ranging from $2,500 to over seven figures
• Exit or acquisition specifics
  • Subgen was the largest exit, sold after 3 months of growth for nearly 3x ARR multiple

Strategy and Growth

• Overall vision and positioning
  • Build micro SaaS products quickly, validate demand before building, and sell within 30 days to a few months
  • Focus on riding trends and timing as the primary differentiator between successful and unsuccessful products
• Primary growth engine or method
  • “Building in public” strategy as the core organic growth driver
  • Validated ideas using a single landing page (yep.so) and collected emails before writing code
  • Considered a 15% landing page conversion rate as a good benchmark for validation
• Key tactics, channels, or strategic steps
  • Five-step framework: (1) Set goals and timeline, (2) Validate with a landing page, (3) Build using a feedback loop approach, (4) Grow organically through building in public, (5) Package the business as a sellable asset
  • When selling, emphasized key metrics buyers care about: ARR, gross margins, average revenue per user, lifetime value, customer acquisition cost, and churn rate
  • Used the Pomodoro technique (25-minute focused intervals with short breaks) to manage side projects alongside a full-time job

**Tech Stack and Infrastructure

• Tools and platforms used
  • Bubble — No-code development for early projects
  • Cursor — AI-powered coding tool
  • Store — For coding-related tasks
  • Mailtrap — Email marketing
  • Featurebase — Public roadmap management
  • Hunter.io — Outreach strategy
  • Make UGC.ai — UGC creator management
  • Hatio.com — CRM
  • Stripe — Payment processing
  • TinyAdz.com — Smart advertising campaigns
  • Creator.io — Influencer marketing campaigns
  • Lait.co — Reddit marketing
  • Suna.so — General AI agent tasks
• Notable technical decisions
  • Started with Bubble for rapid no-code development, then incorporated AI coding tools like Cursor as the stack evolved
  • Relied on a broad no-code and AI tool ecosystem to build and ship products without a large engineering team

Lessons and Advice

• Direct advice to other founders
  • Adapt to different situations and change perspective when necessary — a negative event can become a positive turning point
  • Ship fast and validate before building; use a landing page to test demand before writing code
  • Organize your time rigorously (e.g., Pomodoro technique) to make progress on side projects while working full-time
• Hard-won insights and key takeaways
  • The main difference between successful and unsuccessful projects was the trend being ridden and the timing of launch
  • Building in public is a powerful organic growth strategy that doubles as validation
  • Setting a clear timeline (3 months, 6 months, etc.) defines your product roadmap and development pace
  • The feedback loop approach — build one key feature, get user feedback, iterate — is more effective than building a full product in isolation