I Built A $14K/Month App In 4 Months

Evan scaled his app, Locked, to $14,000 per month in just a few months without a large audience or paid ads, relying on a single, effective strategy from day one. His approach, focused on influencer partnerships, offers a playbook for anyone looking to launch a new app successfully. Evan's journey into entrepreneurship began at age nine, developing Roblox games. He later experimented with various business models like dropshipping and reselling, all of which failed until his brother suggested the app space. His first app, Problem Pal, reached $2,000 per month before being sold. A subsequent app, Clear AI, didn't gain traction. The idea for Locked emerged when a friend expressed difficulty staying motivated, leading Evan to create a gamified health and fitness app to make staying on task more engaging than traditional habit trackers. Locked is designed to help users stay on task by gamifying the experience with character selection, leaderboards, motivational features, badges, and levels. The app offers a yearly subscription for $40 (with a 3-day free trial) or a weekly option for $7. A transaction-abandoned paywall provides a discounted yearly offer of $20 if users try to exit the initial paywall. The development of Locked was remarkably fast, with designs taking about two weeks in Figma, followed by a month and a half to transfer to Xcode. Evan and his team utilized YouTube tutorials, their own knowledge, and AI tools like Claude Code to bring the app from concept to the App Store. Evan’s primary growth strategy for Locked involved partnering with influencers. He noted that the RPM (revenue per mille) for his app was around $2-$3, so he aimed to close creators at a CPM (cost per mille) lower than that, typically between $1 and $1.50. This strategy leverages the trust influencers have with their audience, making their recommendations feel more authentic and leading to stronger results than traditional ads. He shared an example of a successful partnership with Jeremiah Jones, whose video, posted around February 6th, led to a significant spike in revenue and downloads. The video, which explained how to stay "locked in" and on task, featured the app within the first 15 seconds – a key requirement Evan sets for influencers. This content was effective because Jeremiah Jones has high engagement and an audience whose interests align perfectly with Locked, and the app's integration felt seamless. The video generated approximately $3,000 in revenue and 1,800 downloads from about 1 million views across all platforms. Evan paid Jeremiah $800, with a 600,000-minimum view clause, ensuring a return on investment. If the minimum views were met, the partnership could evolve into a larger deal; if not, the influencer could post more videos to reach the target. Evan's influencer playbook for a new app involves five steps: 1. **Find creators in your niche:** Search relevant topics on Instagram or TikTok, scroll through videos, and send a consistent message starting with "paid promo question mark" to potential partners. 2. **Get them on a call:** Move the conversation to a direct call to discuss partnership details. 3. **Close them on a profitable deal:** Aim for a CPM lower than your app's RPM. 4. **Structure the deal:** Offer one of four types of deals: * **Flat rate:** A fixed payment (e.g., $500 for one reel, $1,200 for four) for creators with consistently high views and confidence in meeting the target CPM without a minimum view clause. * **CPM deal:** A payment per thousand views (e.g., $1 or $2 per 1,000 views) with a cap (e.g., a $500 cap even if the video gets 10 million views). * **Minimum view clause deal:** A payment with a minimum view requirement (e.g., $500 for 500,000 views). This is Evan's preferred deal to keep CPM under RPM. * **Bonus deal:** An initial payment plus a bonus if the video achieves a certain view count (e.g., $500 for a video, plus an additional $500 if it gets a million views). 5. **Launch the partnership:** Send video requirements and a contract, setting a one-week deadline for the first video. If performance is good, continue the partnership. The app's tech stack includes Figma for design, Cloud Code for development (a $200/month subscription), Superwall for A/B testing paywalls (which takes 1% of earnings), and Superbase for the database (which is free). Evan's advice to his younger self and aspiring entrepreneurs is to prioritize building a business over excessive focus on traditional schooling. He believes that questioning the conventional path of school, good grades, college, and a stable job can provide a significant advantage in entrepreneurship. The success of Locked highlights the effectiveness of simple, gamified app concepts, especially when targeting specific demographics through organic short-form content on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts. The ability to build and launch an app quickly, combined with a strategic approach to influencer marketing, has proven to be a powerful formula for growth in the current digital landscape.