Today, we'll break down how you can almost run out of savings, go back to your day job in defeat, and still grow to $50K/month by getting one specific App Store move right that 90% of app makers miss out.
Background
Meet Sebastian, a solo indie dev from Moers, a small town in Germany.
Today, he runs two apps, HabitKit (a habit tracker) and FocusKit (a Pomodoro timer).
Together, they do over $50K per month. HabitKit alone has crossed $600K in lifetime revenue and 500K+ downloads.
But just a couple of years ago, he was close to giving up.
In April 2022, Sebastian quit his corporate programming job to go full-time indie. His first app, Liftbear (a workout tracker), failed.
He spent a year burning through savings with nothing to show for it.
In November 2022, he shipped HabitKit as a "let me try one more thing" experiment. The first 6 months made $1K-$2K total.
By April 2023, his runway was gone, and he went back to his old programming job. He thought it was over.
Then, in May 2023, something clicked. The App Store algorithm finally noticed.
Today, he's at $40-50K/month, top 5 in five countries for "habit tracker," with zero paid acquisition.
In this email, we'll break down the exact strategy that got him there.
Marketing Breakdown
Step 1: Build the one specific thing YOU want
Sebastian had tried every habit tracker on the App Store. None of them had the one thing he wanted: a simple visual grid (like the GitHub contribution chart) where you tap a tile to mark a habit done.
So he just built it!
My rule for finding ideas is super boring: build something you personally want to use. You'll be your own QA, your own user research and your own marketing voice.
After a few iterations, the first version of the app was ready:
Step 2: Charge money from day one
Sebastian's biggest regret about Liftbear was that it was free for way too long. He had hundreds of downloads but no idea whether anyone actually valued the thing.
So when he launched HabitKit, he shipped it with a paid Pro plan from day one, even though the product wasn't great yet.
If I had launched HabitKit as a free app, I would have had a couple thousand users and absolutely no idea if anyone valued the thing enough to pay for it.
And he kept the launch version embarrassingly small. The first HabitKit was literally tile grid + add habit + tap to complete. Everything else was added later based on the requests of paying users.
Step 3: App Store Optimization (ASO)
This is the move Sebastian calls the single biggest difference-maker of his entire business.
His app isn't listed on the stores as "HabitKit." It's listed as "Habit Tracker — HabitKit". Primary keyword first, brand second.
98% of my users find my app through App Store search, and the app name is by far the most heavily weighted ranking factor in there. If your primary keyword isn't in your name, you're fighting the algorithm with one hand tied behind your back.
His ASO stack:
App name: [Primary keyword] — [Brand] (the heaviest ranking factor)
Subtitle: secondary keywords ("Streaks & Accountability")
Hidden 100-character keyword field: related terms
Tool: Astro for keyword research (search volume + difficulty + relevance)
Most beginners get scared of competing on a hard keyword like "habit tracker" and chase obscure long-tails instead, here is what Sebastian thinks about it:
Ranking #1 for 'gamified daily habit reinforcement system' gets you exactly nothing. Slowly climbing for the keyword everyone is actually searching for is way more worth it in the long run, even if it takes a couple of years.
This is the Sebastian’s meta play. He built a habit tracker and put "habit tracker" right where customers search for it.
The lesson: Don't be where it's easy. Be where your customers are already searching.
Step 4: Work with reviews and localise your app
HabitKit's first 6 months made $1K-$2K total revenue. In April 2023, Sebastian went back to his old programming job because his savings were running out.
He kept shipping after work anyway. And the small wins kept coming:
While he was at the day job, two compounding moves did the quiet work:
- Localization. He localized HabitKit's name + subtitle into ~10 languages, with help from his X audience who volunteered to translate for free. Localised name and subtitle, drove ranking in non-English stores. "Habit tracker" is a different word in German, French, Japanese. With English-only metadata you're invisible in those stores. HabitKit ranked well in Germany, France, UK.
- Reply to every review and email. Sebastian personally replied to every App Store review and every support email, ending with one specific line:
PS: if you're enjoying the app, I'd be super grateful if you could leave a review on the App Store. It really helps others discover it.
That tiny PS line has generated hundreds of reviews over the years, which feeds straight back into ASO because the rating count is also a ranking factor.
Reviews → rankings → downloads → more reviews.
Then, in May 2023, the algorithm finally noticed. HabitKit cracked the top 10 for "habit tracker" in the UK and Germany. By the end of 2023, $3K MRR. By end of 2024, $15K MRR.
In February 2024, he quit the day job again, for good this time:
In November 2024, he hit his $10K MRR goal:
The lesson: Plan runway for 6 months of nothing. Use the dead time to build the compounding moves (reviews, localization), not to invent new features.
Step 5: Everything is content
Sebastian almost never posts "marketing." His X feed is just milestones.
He also makes goals public to create accountability AND content:
Every download badge, every revenue crossing, every app birthday becomes a post he doesn't have to invent. The milestone tweets keep working forever, it’s his highest-engagement posts.
Bonus: Be polished enough that someone like MKBHD picks you organically
Sebastian's biggest single month was January 2025, $112K in revenue. The cause?
An Marques Brownlee YouTube channel ("The Studio") featured HabitKit in December 2024.
He didn't pitch them. He noticed a sales spike and started wondering why it happened.
His honest framing:
I didn't pitch them, and I don't have a clever outreach story. Posting about your app publicly for years quietly puts it on people's radar. By then HabitKit had a lot of reviews and a real story behind it, so it was an easy app to pick. You can't force that, you can only try to be an obvious option when someone goes looking.
The feature flooded the US with branded "HabitKit" searches, and that signal finally cracked his US rankings, a market he'd struggled with for 2 years:
Action Plan
If you want to adapt Sebastian's success framework, here's the step-by-step plan you can use today.
Step 1: Pick a product where you ARE the user
Sebastian built HabitKit because no other habit tracker had the feature he personally wanted. He didn't run customer interviews, he was the customer.
This sounds obvious, but most founders ignore it. They pick a niche they've read is "hot" or "underserved," then have to do user research to figure out what to even build. If you are the user, you skip all of that. You know what's missing.
That comes with it’s own risk, as sometimes your idea might not meet PMF.
It worked well for Sebastian, as “habit tracking” by itself is a validate idea that has a demand, he just added his own UX vision on it on top.
Step 2: Cut your scope in half, then in half again and charge money
The first version of HabitKit was tile grid + add habit + tap to complete.
Sebastian called it "embarrassingly small."
You don't need a complete app to start charging. You need one feature done well, with a price tag on it.
Step 3: Put your primary keyword in your store name (and don't change it)
This is the single highest-leverage move in the entire playbook.
App name: [Primary keyword] — [Brand name]. Not just [Brand].
Subtitle: secondary keywords describing the value
Hidden 100-char keyword field: related terms
Tool: Astro (or appfigures) for keyword research
Go for the hard keyword everyone in your space is searching, not the obscure long-tail.
Top 10 for "habit tracker" beats top 1 for "gamified habit reinforcement system" by 100x.
Step 4: Plan runway for 6 months of nothing and use the time to compound
The first 6 months will probably look like nothing. Sebastian made $1–2K total in his first 6 months. Most founders quit here. The ones who don't, win.
While the algorithm is figuring out you exist, use the dead time to compound:
Reply to every review and every email personally, ending with the PS asking for a review.
Localize your name + subtitle into your top 3–5 non-English markets.
Ship small updates on a regular cadence. The store algorithms reward apps that are actively maintained.
Your goal: Make sure you can survive 6–12 months without revenue. Use that time to build the compounding moves.
Step 5: Turn every business milestone into a public post
Sebastian almost never posts "marketing." His feed is just milestones with exact numbers. The business generates its own content.
Every one of these is a post you don't have to invent:
Revenue milestones (be specific: "$33,201", not "great month")
Download / subscriber milestones (100, 500, 1K, 10K, 100K, 500K)
Ranking milestones (top 10, top 5, #1 in country X)
Public goals with checklist progress (✅✅✅⬜️⬜️)
App birthdays ("Exactly 2 years ago I launched…")
Job-quitting / full-time announcements
Pair these with one platform you'll actually stick with for 3 years. Sebastian tried Instagram (quit) and TikTok (quit), X stuck because he genuinely enjoyed it. The "best" channel is the one you'll still be posting to when you have just 100 views.
That's it for today! If you have some feedback, questions or future article requests, just reply to this email. We read every message.
See you next week!
