I Built A $14K/Month App In 4 Months
Evan scaled his gamified health app 'Locked' to $14,000 monthly revenue in 4 months using influencer partnerships as his primary growth strategy. He built the app in 6 weeks using Figma, Xcode, and Claude AI, then systematically partnered with creators who had audiences aligned with his app's focus on productivity and staying 'locked in'.
Summary
Evan, a young entrepreneur still in school, created a gamified productivity app called Locked that generates $14,000 per month in revenue just four months after launch. The app helps users stay on task through gaming elements like XP points, leaderboards, character selection, and badges, charging $40 annually or $7 weekly with a 3-day free trial. Evan's entrepreneurial journey began at age 9 developing Roblox games and included failed attempts at dropshipping and vending machines before his brother suggested the app space. His first app, Problem Pal, peaked at $2,000 monthly before he sold it. Building Locked took about 6 weeks total - 2 weeks for design in Figma and 4.5 weeks for development using Xcode, YouTube tutorials, and Claude AI assistance. His growth strategy centered entirely on influencer partnerships, targeting creators whose content aligned with productivity and 'staying locked in.' He identifies creators through social media searches, reaches out with 'paid promo?' messages, and structures deals around CPM rates lower than his $2-3 RPM. His deal structures include flat rates, CPM deals with caps, minimum view clauses (his preferred method), and bonus deals. One partnership with creator Jeremiah Jones generated approximately $3,000 in revenue and 1,800 downloads from 1 million views across platforms, costing $800 with a 600,000 minimum view clause. His tech stack includes Figma for design, Claude AI for development assistance ($200/month), Superwall for paywall A/B testing (1% of earnings), and Supabase for the database (free). Evan advocates for questioning traditional educational paths and focusing on building businesses from a young age rather than following the conventional school-to-job trajectory.
Key Insights
- Evan achieved his $2-3 RPM by structuring influencer deals with CPMs between $1-1.50, ensuring profitability on every partnership
- A single video from influencer Jeremiah Jones generated approximately $3,000 in revenue and 1,800 downloads from 1 million views, demonstrating the power of aligned audience partnerships
- Evan built his entire app in just 6 weeks using modern tools - 2 weeks for Figma design and 4.5 weeks for Xcode development with Claude AI assistance
- Evan's preferred deal structure is the minimum view clause model, where he pays creators like $500 with a 500,000 view requirement, helping keep CPM under his RPM
- Evan argues that people are conditioned to follow a single path of school, college, and stable jobs without questioning it, and seeing through this early provides a huge entrepreneurial advantage
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] My name is Evan and I scaled an app called Locked to $14,000 per month in only a few months. >> Meet Evan. He just launched a mobile app and four months later it's doing $14,000 a month. But here's what makes the story different. He didn't launch with a huge audience or run paid ads. He only had one strategy and it worked from day one. >> The big advantage here is that it feels way more authentic. Most founders spend months trying to figure out how to get their first user, but Evan figured it [0:30] out fast. >> This would be my playbook if I wanted to nail [music] starting out on a new app. >>ā¦
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