Mal started with no budget and no following. He created 12 TikTok/Instagram accounts and posted around 40 times a day across all of them to find what worked. After roughly 40 posts, he discovered a winning format: UGC-style "reaction girl" videos with an app demo overlay — the same format his top competitor was using. He couldn't afford to hire creators, so he asked his girlfriend (now wife) to record reaction videos for free. Once that format clicked, he committed to posting twice a day with just that one account and hook. That single account was generating ~10K views per day, which translated to roughly 200–300 downloads per day, enough to reach his first $1K/month in revenue. He then hired one additional female UGC creator to run a second account. After 14 days of struggle, that account cracked a video that hit ~20K organic views, pushing him to $1.5K MRR in July and $2.4K in August.
Prayer Lock
Christian app that blocks your phone until you pray using AI-generated prayers
8 moves, in order
- Pre launch / IdeaCompetitor research
Used Sensor Tower to find apps in the Christian/reference niche doing over $50K/month. Studied competitor app Praycreen's design, features, and distribution strategy, then decided to build a better version.
Identified a validated niche before writing a single line of code - Launch (June 2025)Organic tiktok and instagram ugc
Created 12 accounts across TikTok and Instagram and posted ~40 times a day across all of them testing different video formats to find what resonated. Identified the winning format: UGC 'reaction girl' video with an in-app demo overlay.
Found a repeatable winning hook after ~40 posts - Month 1–2 (June–July 2025)Organic tiktok ugc girlfriend creator
Had his girlfriend record UGC reaction videos for free using the proven hook format. Posted twice a day consistently on one focused account. Achieved ~10K views/day yielding ~200–300 downloads/day.
~$1K MRR; ~200–300 downloads/dayMRR $1.0k - Month 2–3 (July–August 2025)Organic tiktok ugc second creator
Hired a second female UGC creator and launched a second account running the same reaction video format. After 14 days of low performance, cracked one video that hit ~20K organic views.
$1.5K MRR in July → $2.4K MRR in AugustMRR $2.4k - Month 3–4 (September 2025)Onboarding optimization
Rebuilt the onboarding flow from a 5-minute experience to a 15-minute value-driven story. Focused on adding context and emotional narrative to increase download-to-trial conversion rate. Target: 10%+ download-to-trial rate.
Organic conversion rate 3x'd without any change to ad spend - Month 4 (October 2025)Tiktok ads
Launched TikTok ads with a super-broad campaign (no audience targeting, US location only) using existing UGC reaction videos. Started at $20/day. Saw $4 cost per trial started vs. $50 annual subscription price. Went all-in, investing ~$4,000 of personal savings into TikTok ads.
Closed October at $10K MRR; $4 per trial startedMRR $10k - Month 5 (November 2025)Tiktok spark ads new ugc creator
Discovered a 15-year-old UGC creator named Matthew organically on TikTok, reached out, and began running his videos as Spark Ads. His videos consistently hit 10K+ organic views. Invested another ~$6K into ads on his content.
Closed November at $15K MRR; $3 per trial startedMRR $15k - Month 6 (December 2025)Tiktok spark ads scaled spend
Continued scaling the same Spark Ads playbook — weekly ad spend increases, same UGC reaction format with top-performing creator. Reached $360/day in ad spend. Spent ~$9K on ads for the month against $21K in revenue.
Closed December at $21K MRR; $1.88 cost per trial startedMRR $21k Users 58k users
Had a girlfriend (now wife) willing to create UGC reaction videos for free, eliminating the cost of hiring creators at the most cash-constrained stage. Also had prior experience building and failing with other apps over ~3 months, giving him sharp insight into what competitors were doing wrong in both product design and distribution strategy.
TikTok Spark Ads on organic UGC reaction videos
Hiring an influencer (flopped). First attempt at paid Meta ads optimized for downloads instead of trials, combined with a weak onboarding (too short, low conversion), resulted in complete failure and wasted spend.
I Built a $20K/Month Mobile App: Here’s My Entire Playbook
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