I Built A $14K/Month App In 4 Months
Starter Story
Apr 2, 2026
Evan built a mobile app and scaled it to $14K/month in just 4 months. And he did it with just ONE strategy. This is his exact playbook for building a successful mobile app in 2026.
Get our free Organic Short Form Playbook: https://clickhubspot.com/sml
Follow Evan: https://x.com/EvanYadegari
Check out Locked: https://trylocked.app/
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🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.
We received signed permission from Evan's parent/guardian for him to appear on this channel.
Chapters:
0:00 - Meet the kid making $14K/month
1:29 - What’s your story?
1:45 - App overview and metrics
2:39 - Founder background
3:36 - Build timeline
4:05 - Growth strategy overview
4:43 - Influencer content example
5:30 - Data behind the content
6:27 - Organic Short Form Playbook
7:19 - The Influencer Playbook
9:17 - How the app works (Locked demo)
10:01 - App tech stack
10:32 - Advice to other founders
11:24 - Pat and Gus: what did you think?
Chapters
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
Stack
No tools listed for this business.
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
this
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
out
fast
This
would
be
my
playbook
if
I
wanted
to
nail
starting
out
on
a
new
app
So
I
brought
him
out
of
the
channel
to
walk
through
his
entire
playbook
and
in
this
episode
we'll
dive
into
the
one
growth
channel
that
helped
him
grow
very
very
fast
how
he
got
thousands
of
users
from
a
single
piece
of
content
and
the
step
by
step
strategy
he'd
use
if
he
had
to
start
over
tomorrow
with
a
brand
new
app
If
you're
thinking
about
building
an
app
in
2026
this
is
the
episode
that
you
must
watch
All
right
let's
dive
in
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
real
quick
before
we
dive
in
Evan
is
about
to
break
down
his
exact
distribution
strategy
that
took
his
app
to
14
000
a
month
and
this
is
actually
something
that
we
have
studied
a
lot
here
at
Starter
Story
So
I
put
together
a
full
playbook
on
how
the
best
founders
grow
and
market
their
apps
The
link
is
right
down
there
in
the
description
but
I'll
be
talking
a
little
bit
more
about
that
later
For
now
let's
get
into
the
episode
Evan
welcome
my
man
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Hey
my
name
is
Evan
and
I
scaled
an
app
called
Locked
to
14
000
per
month
in
only
a
few
months
Today
I'm
excited
to
talk
about
the
strategies
in
place
that
I'm
using
to
scale
Locked
Well
I'm
excited
to
talk
about
how
you
grew
this
app
to
14
000
a
month
and
growing
It's
amazing
But
before
we
do
what
is
this
app
What's
the
business
model
And
if
you
could
walk
through
some
of
your
dashboards
and
metrics
to
show
that
this
thing
is
legit
would
you
be
able
to
do
that
Sure
Locked
is
a
gamified
health
fitness
app
and
the
whole
point
of
it
is
to
help
our
users
stay
on
task
while
gamifying
the
whole
experience
From
the
start
of
the
onboarding
you
have
to
choose
your
character
to
get
started
There
are
leaderboards
motivational
features
and
even
badges
and
levels
to
keep
people
on
task
and
stay
motivated
For
our
paywall
we
charge
40
a
year
or
7
a
week
and
the
yearly
option
includes
a
three
day
free
trial
On
top
of
that
if
they
X
out
of
this
paywall
or
escape
it
will
take
them
to
a
transaction
abandoned
paywall
which
is
basically
just
a
discounted
offer
for
only
20
a
year
All
right
Well
thank
you
for
sharing
that
Thanks
for
sharing
all
the
numbers
How
do
you
get
to
this
point
where
you
have
an
app
that's
doing
over
14
000
a
month
What's
your
background
Sure
So
I've
been
obsessed
with
entrepreneurship
ever
since
I
was
a
kid
At
nine
years
old
my
friends
would
all
play
Roblox
but
instead
I
decided
to
develop
the
Roblox
games
I
didn't
make
money
from
those
games
but
that
marked
the
start
of
my
journey
After
that
I
tested
a
bunch
of
business
models
Dropshipping
reselling
clipping
vending
machines
They
all
failed
until
eventually
my
older
brother
Zach
suggested
I
get
into
the
app
space
My
first
app
was
Problem
Pal
It
peaked
at
about
2
000
per
month
and
I
recently
sold
that
Next
I
built
Clear
AI
in
a
few
weeks
but
it
didn't
really
go
anywhere
Then
a
friend
told
me
about
how
he
was
struggling
to
stay
on
task
and
motivated
So
that
sparked
an
idea
I
didn't
want
another
boring
habit
tracker
so
I
gamified
the
whole
experience
with
leaderboards
XP
badges
and
even
characters
So
let's
dive
into
that
a
little
bit
Can
you
just
walk
me
through
how
did
you
build
it
and
how
long
did
it
take
Our
designs
took
us
about
two
weeks
We
went
in
a
Figma
file
did
everything
from
scratch
and
once
that
was
done
we
began
transferring
it
over
to
Xcode
To
do
this
we
use
YouTube
tutorials
some
of
our
own
knowledge
and
also
of
course
we
use
Cloud
Code
to
help
us
From
start
to
finish
idea
to
live
in
the
app
store
it
took
about
a
month
and
a
half
A
month
and
a
half
to
build
an
app
is
amazing
That's
I
guess
how
things
are
going
these
days
Why
I
wanted
to
bring
you
on
is
to
talk
about
growth
You
grew
it
to
over
14
000
per
month
in
revenue
How
did
you
do
that
What
was
the
growth
strategy
or
tactic
and
how
did
you
get
all
these
users
Yeah
sure
I
partner
with
influencers
to
promote
my
app
Going
into
this
channel
I
realized
my
RPM
was
around
2
to
3
so
I
knew
I
had
to
close
creators
at
a
CPM
lower
than
that
Typically
it
would
be
between
the
1
and
1
50
range
The
big
advantage
here
is
that
most
influencers
already
have
trust
with
their
audience
and
when
they
recommend
an
app
it
feels
way
more
authentic
than
a
traditional
ad
which
usually
leads
to
much
stronger
results
Would
you
be
able
to
show
me
one
of
the
influencers
you
worked
with
and
the
type
of
content
that
was
created
and
share
how
much
revenue
and
installs
this
content
led
to
So
here
if
we
click
on
Jeremiah's
video
which
was
basically
explaining
how
to
stay
locked
in
and
on
task
Right
here
he
shows
the
app
within
the
first
15
seconds
That's
always
something
that
you
should
require
influencers
to
do
This
piece
of
content
worked
for
multiple
reasons
Number
one
Jeremiah
Jones
has
great
engagement
and
his
videos
are
filled
with
high
quality
comments
That's
how
I
know
he
has
an
amazing
audience
which
is
arguably
the
most
important
factor
Number
two
his
content
focuses
on
staying
locked
in
and
on
task
which
perfectly
aligns
with
locked
Number
three
it
was
a
seamless
integration
with
the
app
It
made
sense
to
add
it
and
it
fit
in
perfectly
Could
you
share
any
of
the
numbers
Just
give
a
sense
of
how
many
views
did
this
piece
of
content
get
and
how
many
installs
did
it
lead
to
or
revenue
impact
I
think
the
audience
would
be
curious
about
how
this
actually
leads
to
installs
and
revenue
You
can
see
that
he
posted
the
video
right
around
February
6th
which
is
when
we
had
a
huge
spike
As
you
can
see
we
were
doing
about
300
a
day
and
then
it
just
spiked
up
728
600
700
600
78
600
even
almost
1
000
000
So
I
would
say
across
this
video
probably
generated
around
3
000
and
about
1
800
downloads
at
approximately
1
million
views
across
all
platforms
We
pay
them
something
like
800
with
a
600
000
minimum
view
clause
And
if
they
hit
the
minimum
view
clause
awesome
they're
done
And
we
can
move
on
to
an
even
bigger
deal
considering
that
it
converted
But
if
not
they
have
the
option
to
post
a
few
more
videos
hit
that
MVC
and
still
get
paid
out
What
Evan
is
showing
us
right
now
is
that
distribution
is
everything
He
figured
out
how
to
work
with
influencers
and
this
is
one
of
the
strategies
I'm
seeing
work
over
and
over
and
over
Organic
short
form
on
TikTok
Instagram
and
YouTube
Shorts
If
you
watch
this
channel
you'll
notice
that
many
of
the
founders
we
bring
on
have
talked
at
length
about
this
exact
strategy
That's
why
we
put
together
the
Organic
Short
Form
Playbook
inside
Starter
Story
Build
It
is
a
step
by
step
system
for
finding
viral
ideas
reverse
engineering
what's
working
on
short
form
and
getting
millions
of
views
on
your
app
We
break
down
the
exact
content
formats
that
make
money
and
we
give
you
real
world
examples
you
can
try
for
free
with
your
app
If
you
wanna
get
this
resource
right
now
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
grab
it
It
is
100
free
I'm
excited
to
see
you
all
put
this
into
action
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
episode
Okay
cool
I
mean
thanks
for
showing
that
example
If
you
were
to
start
over
with
a
new
app
right
now
how
would
you
get
started
right
now
in
2026
What
would
be
your
step
by
step
to
find
influencers
book
them
and
make
sure
that
they
lead
to
actual
sales
and
revenue
for
your
app
For
the
first
step
you
have
to
find
creators
in
your
niche
You
look
up
something
related
to
your
niche
niche
on
Instagram
or
TikTok
Then
you
scroll
through
the
videos
click
on
their
accounts
and
send
each
creator
the
same
message
every
time
which
should
always
start
with
paid
promo
question
mark
The
second
step
is
getting
them
on
a
call
Step
three
you
want
to
close
them
on
a
profitable
deal
So
once
you
have
them
on
a
call
keep
in
mind
that
you
need
to
close
them
on
a
profitable
deal
This
is
achieved
by
closing
them
on
a
CPM
lower
than
your
RPM
Step
number
four
is
structuring
the
deal
Now
that
you
have
them
on
a
call
you
should
offer
them
one
of
four
deals
The
first
deal
is
a
flat
rate
where
you
pay
them
500
for
a
reel
or
1
200
for
four
reels
You
should
only
use
this
deal
when
working
with
creators
that
consistently
get
a
lot
of
views
and
you're
confident
that
they'll
be
able
to
match
match
your
target
CPM
without
a
minimum
view
clause
or
something
of
that
nature
The
second
deal
is
a
CPM
deal
where
you
offer
1
per
every
1
000
views
or
2
for
every
1
000
views
and
you
should
always
have
a
cap
For
example
if
the
creator
were
to
get
10
million
views
but
your
cap
was
500
then
you
only
have
to
pay
them
500
The
third
deal
is
a
minimum
view
clause
deal
where
you
offer
something
like
500
with
a
500
000
minimum
view
clause
This
is
the
deal
I
almost
always
go
with
and
it
helps
keep
the
CPM
under
your
RPM
The
fourth
and
final
deal
is
a
bonus
deal
where
you
say
look
we'll
pay
you
500
for
a
video
and
if
it
gets
a
million
views
then
we'll
pay
you
an
additional
500
And
then
the
fifth
and
final
step
is
of
course
launching
the
partnership
Next
you
want
to
send
them
the
video
requirements
and
a
contract
then
give
them
a
one
week
deadline
to
get
the
first
video
out
If
they
perform
well
and
generate
a
lot
of
revenue
then
keep
working
with
them
Okay
cool
Influencer
Playbook
that
was
amazing
Thank
you
for
sharing
all
that
Would
you
be
able
to
give
me
a
demo
of
this
app
How
does
it
work
What
does
it
do
Yeah
when
you
enter
the
app
you
are
on
the
main
screen
Of
course
you
have
your
level
your
XP
and
you
can
scroll
through
add
custom
tasks
We
also
give
users
some
basic
tasks
to
start
Check
one
off
you
get
100
XP
Then
you
have
all
the
different
levels
along
with
your
progress
on
one
tab
You
have
every
single
user
on
here
all
time
ranking
last
seven
days
and
today's
rankings
and
of
course
your
profile
And
finally
a
motivational
screen
where
you're
basically
just
getting
yelled
at
by
Jeremiah
Thanks
for
sharing
that
Super
cool
app
Let's
talk
about
TechStack
What
is
this
app
built
on
How
do
you
do
development
What
comprises
this
app
that's
doing
14
000
a
month
Sure
So
of
course
first
for
designing
we
use
Figma
Second
we
use
Cloud
Code
to
help
us
out
with
development
development
We
use
the
200
a
month
subscription
Then
there
is
Superwall
which
helps
you
A
B
test
your
paywalls
That
takes
1
of
your
earnings
And
finally
there
is
Supabase
for
our
database
which
is
again
free
Thanks
for
sharing
Last
question
that
we
ask
all
founders
founders
who
come
on
Star
Story
What
would
be
your
advice
to
younger
Evan
or
to
anyone
watching
this
who
are
inspired
by
what
you
do
Sure
I
would
tell
myself
to
worry
less
about
school
and
put
more
time
into
building
my
business
From
a
young
age
you
are
psyoped
into
thinking
there's
only
one
path
Go
to
school
get
good
grades
go
to
a
good
college
then
get
a
stable
job
and
you'll
be
happy
Most
people
are
very
hive
minded
and
follow
that
path
without
even
questioning
it
If
you
can
see
through
that
early
you
gain
a
huge
advantage
Well
thanks
That's
great
advice
Evan
Congratulations
to
what
you
built
especially
at
such
a
young
age
and
still
in
school
crushing
it
I
can't
imagine
where
it's
going
to
be
even
in
even
a
couple
of
months
or
a
couple
of
years
years
Thanks
for
coming
on
sharing
all
this
and
we'll
hope
to
have
you
back
on
the
channel
when
you're
at
100K
a
month
Yeah
thank
you
so
much
Producer
Gus
what
did
you
think
about
this
one
What
I
thought
was
cool
was
how
simple
the
app
is
Gamify
XP
totally
matches
probably
a
demographic
that
I
just
don't
know
He's
this
young
kid
who
knows
what
he
likes
or
what
his
friends
like
So
simple
stupidly
simple
Yeah
It's
funny
because
we've
had
a
few
habit
trackers
on
the
channel
that
are
actually
crushing
it
I
sometimes
am
skeptical
of
doing
that
as
a
business
idea
because
there's
so
many
of
them
What
I
think
is
a
little
secret
on
habit
trackers
is
iOS
like
a
cool
app
that
will
do
well
on
social
media
or
a
habit
tracker
like
Sebastian's
that
we
had
chatted
with
a
few
months
ago
that
ranks
well
in
ASO
so
in
iOS
app
store
optimization
Yeah
and
then
the
other
thing
obviously
is
what
did
he
say
at
the
end
He
said
we're
psyoped
into
just
going
to
school
and
stuff
I
thought
that
was
awesome
and
I
just
love
that
that's
his
point
of
view
Yeah
I
think
some
people
may
watch
this
and
sometimes
when
you
see
someone
who's
young
and
doing
so
well
it
can
be
like
a
little
bit
form
of
like
oh
I'm
not
far
enough
along
When
we
were
kids
we
didn't
have
access
There
wasn't
even
a
way
to
build
a
business
like
this
before
This
is
just
how
the
world
has
changed
Now
you
don't
need
permission
to
build
anything
anymore
You
can
open
up
a
vibe
coding
tool
and
you
can
build
a
business
You
can
put
it
out
on
the
World
Wide
Web
and
anyone
can
subscribe
to
it
So
you
know
we
had
chatted
with
him
Yeah
he
is
young
but
he
let
us
know
that
he
had
been
starting
businesses
for
years
right
He's
years
into
the
game
and
it
may
feel
like
oh
he's
so
young
but
actually
he
told
us
about
all
the
different
business
ideas
that
he
tried
that
failed
Thank
you
guys
for
watching
this
episode
I
hope
you
enjoyed
it
If
you
want
to
start
an
iPhone
app
or
an
iOS
app
like
Evan
did
I'll
put
a
link
in
the
description
where
you
can
learn
how
to
do
that
how
to
go
from
an
idea
to
a
shipped
app
That'll
be
right
down
there
in
the
description
Get
started
it's
all
free
All
right
guys
thank
you
guys
for
watching
We'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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