S starter Story

Ryan quit his $200K product designer job to build apps. His first one is a Pomodoro timer with a cat that jumps on your chair which now does $18K/month. The app is called Cat on Chair. When you start focusing, an illustrated cat jumps up next to you. Finish the session, it leaves you a gift. Fail it, it leaves you trash (inspired by the meme of cats bringing dead mice to their owners). The numbers after 8-9 months: > 127K downloads > ~$80K total sales > $18K in the last 30 days > 24K first-time downloads that month > Hit rank #3 free productivity app in Taiwan Monetization is dead simple: free to download, $29.99 lifetime, $19.99 annual, plus a family share for up to 6 people. Most revenue comes from the lifetime plan. He built it starting May 2025 using ChatGPT Pro for the coding, RevenueCat for paywalls (~$200-300/mo), AppFigures for ASO ($10/mo), and Canny for user feedback. His girlfriend (an illustrator with a Red Note following) did the art. Growth was almost accidental. They beta tested with thousands of people on Red Note, launched August 27th, got 3K downloads week one. Then in December an Instagram app-collection post featuring them hit 2M views. Someone in Taiwan reshared it on Threads. Downloads and revenue doubled overnight. Ryan’s advice: pick an app you already use, study every review, then remix mechanics from other industries. His inspiration was Animal Crossing - that’s where the furniture customization and collectible cats came from. The takeaway: AI can build the Pomodoro timer in 2 hours. What it can’t do is build something handcrafted enough to feel like art. That’s the moat.