This App Makes $35K/Month With One Influencer

Flo, a solo developer from Germany, built an expense tracking app called Monai. After a year and a half of working on it by himself, the app was only generating $300 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR). However, after partnering with a content creator, the app's MRR skyrocketed to over $35,000 in just over a year, representing a 10,000% growth. Monai is a minimalistic money tracking app that uses AI for frictionless expense entry, allowing users to input expenses via voice or automations. The app is subscription-based and offers a 7-day free trial, a model they found to be more effective than a freemium approach after A/B testing. Flo’s journey into app development began after teaching himself iOS coding while studying computer science. He always aspired to build his own successful apps, and Monai was the one that finally enabled him to quit his job and work full-time on his projects. The idea for Monai stemmed from his personal need for a less cumbersome expense tracking solution, which he combined with the emerging usability of AI. He focused on rapid development, launching the first version within a couple of months, a significant improvement from a previous app that took two years to build and failed to gain traction. The turning point for Monai was the partnership with a significant influencer from Colombia. The influencer discovered Flo's social media links within the app and reached out. After negotiations, they established an agreement where the influencer posts three high-quality, story-driven videos per month on his main channel. The first video, a simple app walkthrough, was posted at the end of 2024. Within a week, the app's MRR increased tenfold, reaching almost $8,000 within a month. Subsequent videos continued to drive growth, with one short video adding over $5,000 to the MRR, bringing it to $13,000. A later video, leveraging an invitation from Apple to join the WWDC, garnered 1.7 million views and contributed an additional $5,000 to the MRR. The latest successful video, focusing on a highly requested feature with a compelling story, propelled the app past $35,000 MRR. The partnership structure is built on trust and a contract that gives the influencer a percentage of the profits and a fixed monthly retainer. This profit-based payout incentivizes the influencer to act in the best interest of the app, continuously thinking about how to create the most effective videos rather than just delivering content. The strategy emphasizes quality over quantity, with only three videos posted per month. These videos are highly story-driven, and while they may not always achieve millions of views, they convert at a high rate. The influencer is also responsible for generating video ideas, relieving Flo of that creative burden. Flo shared a playbook for developers looking to replicate this influencer marketing success: 1. **Finding Aligned Partners:** Ensure the influencer's lifestyle, tone, and audience match your product. Look for great personality, charisma, and a strong connection with viewers (e.g., replying to comments). Consider influencers who are not purely tech-focused but also incorporate lifestyle elements, as their audience might be more interested in stories and experiences rather than just technical specifications. 2. **Warm Up the Relationship:** Follow and engage with the influencer's content beforehand. Consistent commenting can make you noticeable. If time is limited, be upfront about your intentions. 3. **Be Specific with Outreach:** Avoid generic messages. Reference specific videos, moments, or jokes to show genuine engagement and that you've watched their content. 4. **Connect the Dots to Your Product:** After showing appreciation, highlight the natural alignment between your product and their brand or audience, rather than just proposing a transaction. For Monai, the aesthetic and minimalistic design, combined with AI tech, perfectly aligned with an audience that values aesthetics and useful tech. 5. **Acknowledge Their Value and Signal Willingness to Pay Early On:** Clearly communicate that they will be incentivized. This sets you apart. Showing examples of successful products in the same niche (using tools like Sensor Tower) can help them envision the potential financial gains of a long-term partnership. For example, suggesting a profit-sharing model and mentioning that other apps in the niche make $50K-$100K per month with good distribution can be compelling. Additional tips include keeping outreach brief, as creators receive many emails. Sending a personalized video mentioning their name and content can also make a strong impression. Flo also advises adding social media handles to your app's profile, as this can lead to influencers reaching out to you, giving you a better negotiating position. Finally, he emphasizes looking beyond the US market for influencers, as there are many opportunities in other countries. Flo demonstrated Monai, highlighting its minimalistic interface, the voice input feature (e.g., "coffee at Starbucks 50 bucks" automatically creates a transaction), and Apple Pay automation through Shortcuts integration. The app also includes an AI reports feature where users can ask questions about their finances, such as how to save money and where to cut back on costs. Monai's tech stack includes Xcode for native iOS development, Cloud Code for extensive use, RevenueCat for subscription management and A/B testing (costing around $400/month), Appwrite for backend, authentication, and database, and OpenAI and Anthropic for AI requests (around $200/month). He also uses Helm for managing App Store Connect, and Figma for design (free plan). Reflecting on his journey, Flo’s advice to his younger self or aspiring app developers is to overcome the reluctance to use paid ads. He noted that the high-quality videos created by his influencer partner are excellent assets for experimenting with Meta ads, something they started doing recently with promising results. He believes they could have generated significantly more revenue if they had embraced paid ads sooner. The success of Monai demonstrates that even in saturated markets like budget tracking, a unique approach to distribution, particularly through a strategic influencer partnership with shared incentives, can lead to substantial growth. The focus on quality content, targeting specific markets, and leveraging the influencer's creative input were key factors in transforming Monai from a side project into a thriving business.