Play app development: ship a niche app, fight the store lottery
Engineers who can ship fast and iterate on ASO and retention, not just write code.
First dollar: Weeks after launch with paid UA or a viral loop; most solo apps never clear $1,000/mo.
Exact steps. Ship the smallest unit of paid value before you gold-plate.
Chase one underserved use case, not a broad everything-app. Subscriptions need obvious recurring value.
One core loop, a working paywall on day one. Flutter/React Native/Swift, whichever you can ship fastest.
Title, screenshots, keywords, and reviews decide if anyone finds you before you write a line of ad copy.
TikTok/Meta ads to find a payback period that works before scaling spend. Kill what doesn't convert.
Most solo apps die from churn, not lack of downloads. A/B test onboarding and the paywall relentlessly.
Not the median. These are rare winners so you can study a real decklist.
Related decks if this one is working or if you need a stronger wincon.
What you do on paper: Build and ship a mobile app, monetize via subscriptions, IAP, or ads, and fight for visibility in a store of millions. Apple/Google take 15-30%. Brutal power-law: a tiny number of apps capture almost all revenue; most never get downloaded.
Frequency: Millions of developers and apps; livable income confined to a small top slice