George's co-founder was one of the biggest influencers in the wrestling space. Before launch, they used this relationship to hype up a pre-order campaign and accumulated approximately 3,000–4,000 pre-orders. On launch day (September 26, launched live at midnight), the co-founder's audience drove enough downloads to push the app to #18–19 on the App Store charts within hours. By the next morning, they had made over $1,000 and the app was flooded with positive Instagram comments from the wrestling community. The co-founder's influence was the single most important unlock for getting initial users. George explicitly credits this launch push as the catalyst that established brand recognition in the wrestling niche, which then made subsequent influencer outreach much easier. Without this embedded influencer co-founder, the initial spike would not have happened.
Wrestle AI
AI-powered wrestling coach app that analyzes match videos and gives improvement drills
8 moves, in order
- Pre launchInfluencer co founder
Recruited a top wrestling influencer as co-founder who hyped the app to their audience and drove a pre-order campaign on the App Store, accumulating 3,000–4,000 pre-orders before launch day.
3,000–4,000 pre-orders; #18 on App Store on launch day - Launch Day (Sep 26)App store preorder
Set up an App Store pre-order to stack downloads and hit the charts on day one. Co-founder pushed to their audience at launch, flooding the app with downloads at midnight.
#19 on App Store; $1,000+ revenue on day one; viral Instagram comments - Month 1–2Influencer marketing organic
Leveraged co-founder's wrestling influencer audience heavily through organic posts and videos featuring the app's 'gotcha moment' (submitting a match video and seeing the AI breakdown). Generated over 2 million impressions on social media across TikTok/Instagram Reels.
2M+ social impressions; ~17,000 total downloads (cumulative)Users 17k users - Month 2+Paid influencer outreach dm
After saturating the co-founder's audience, George took ~$500 and deployed it into paid influencer deals. Process: DM 100 wrestling creators/day leading with 'paid promo?', negotiate on a phone call (not DM), structure deals as 20–50% upfront for 4–5 videos with a minimum view guarantee based on $2–$5 CPM. Offered ~$225 per creator for a 100K view guarantee, paying $50–$100 upfront.
Scaled MRR to ~$13K+ that month; ongoing growth engineMRR $13k - OngoingInfluencer marketing dm via va
Hired a virtual assistant (VA) to send high-volume DMs to wrestling influencers when just getting started. Once brand recognition grew, George took over personally — scrolling his wrestling-niche For You page for 20 minutes/day, DMing as many creators as possible from the business account, then hopping on calls the next day to close deals.
Improved response rate as brand became known in niche; self-sustaining outreach loop - Conversion OptimizationApp store onboarding
Designed a high-converting onboarding flow inspired by apps like Opal and Cali: (1) educate user on app value, (2) personalize with guiding questions, (3) create FOMO, (4) show the 'gotcha moment' but withhold results until after the paywall. Attached the free trial to the yearly plan ($59.99/yr) to maximize LTV. Longer onboarding intentionally creates sunk-cost psychology to push users past the paywall.
Strong trial-to-paid conversion; majority of revenue accrues from annual subscriptions - Infrastructure / BuildFiverr contractor
Outsourced paywall and authentication integration to a developer found on Fiverr (~$250, ~1 week of work) rather than attempting to vibe code payment infrastructure. This unblocked the launch path without over-spending.
App ready for App Store submission with working payments; total dev cost well under $1,000 - Post 5K MRRProduct investment
Once past $5K MRR, started reinvesting all revenue (founder has taken $0 out) into contracted designers and additional developers to improve product quality beyond the MVP — expanding features like calorie tracker with barcode scanner, live coaching mode, training programs, and a weight/calendar journal to build a full wrestling ecosystem.
Product expanded significantly; MRR grew toward $17K; targeting $100K MRR before taking distributionsMRR $17k
Co-founder is one of the biggest influencers in the wrestling niche, providing a built-in audience, instant credibility, and free distribution at launch. This is not easily replicable for a typical founder.
influencer_marketing
Launched a second app called "Green" simultaneously in collaboration with a 1M-follower influencer, but it was not a novel idea (similar to existing apps). Despite ~1.8M impressions, it got only ~100 downloads because it lacked the "purple cow" uniqueness factor — confirming that distribution alone doesn't convert without a differentiated product idea.
How I grew my mobile app to $17K per month
Gravl
AI fitness app that generates smart, personalized gym workouts
Journable
AI calorie counter and nutrition tracker app, primarily on Android
Puff Count
Mobile app that helps users track and quit vaping habits