# Shipped & Paid: full case details > A directory of real AI-built (vibe-coded) apps with revenue: claimed MRR, verification level, tools used, how they got customers, steps to replicate, and links to every source. Site: https://shippedandpaid.com/ · 96 cases · generated 2026-10-26. Figures are copied exactly as the founder or source stated them; currency and period are as stated. Labels: Verified (payment-provider-backed third-party profile), Screenshot (dashboard screenshot, unverified), Self-reported (text claim, unverified). Prior audience = the founder's audience before launch, only as a source states it (none, small, large, or not stated). Steps marked 'Our suggestion' are general practice from us, not claims by the founder. Not financial advice. When citing, link the case page and the original source. Index and aggregate data: - Site index with every list, tool, app type and channel page: https://shippedandpaid.com/llms.txt - All cases as JSON: https://shippedandpaid.com/data.json - Data report with medians and methodology (CC BY 4.0, CSV): https://shippedandpaid.com/reports/ai-built-app-revenue-2026/ - AI-built app revenue calculator (median by AI tool and app type, n >= 3): https://shippedandpaid.com/revenue-calculator/ (data: https://shippedandpaid.com/revenue-calculator/data.json) ## Agensi: a marketplace for AI agent skills with $3,676 in verified sales, built by a non-technical founder with Claude Code and Lovable - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/agensi-ai-agent-skills-marketplace-3-7k-total-claude-code-lovable/ - App: Agensi. A curated marketplace for SKILL.md skills, the instruction packs that teach AI agents like Claude Code, Cursor and Codex new tasks: creators sell skills, every listing gets a security scan, and an MCP server lets agents find and install skills mid-task. - App type: Developer tools - Revenue (as claimed): $3,676 all-time, $876 in the last 30 days (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 26, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $3,676 in all-time sales and $876 in the last 30 days, up 54.8% on the previous 30 days (synced Oct 26, 2026). By month: about $5 in February and March 2026, $323 in April, $138 in May, $1,084 in June, $303 in July, $426 in August, $647 in September and $745 so far in October. Current MRR is about $38 from 3 subscriptions, so most sales are one-time skill purchases. Agensi is a marketplace: on direct sales creators keep 80% minus a $0.50 fee, so these are gross sales through Agensi's Stripe, not what Agensi keeps. In his Show HN post (Apr 21, 2026) the founder said gross sales in month one were about $200, which fits the Stripe data. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/agensi - Built with: Claude Code, Lovable - Got customers via: Reddit, Hacker News, SEO, Blog content - How they got customers: The founder posted about Agensi in AI and vibe coding communities on Reddit and in a Show HN on Hacker News, and publishes articles in a Learn section for SEO (66 articles by April 2026). Skill creators also promote their own listings on X. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 100 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/samuelrose4396) - Editor's note: Samuel Rose is the founder and CEO of Agensi B.V. in Amsterdam, per the Agensi about page, and his X bio links agensi.io; TrustMRR links the listing to the same X account. In Reddit posts about Agensi he describes the stack: Lovable for the frontend and UI, Supabase for the database and functions, Stripe Connect for creator payouts, and Claude Code for most of the architecture and the MCP server. Note that the verified figure is gross sales through the marketplace, and creators keep most of each direct sale. This is an early, small case. The quote is from his Show HN post of Apr 21, 2026. - Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47846681 (Samuel Rose (founder), Show HN on Hacker News, posted 2026-04-21; added 2026-10-26) Steps to try: - From the source: pick a new format with no good store yet: Agensi sells SKILL.md skills that work across many AI agents. - From the source: build the frontend in Lovable and use Claude Code for the architecture, backend functions and MCP server. - From the source: earn trust with curation: every listing runs through an automated security scan before it goes live. - From the source: pay creators well (80% of direct sales) so they list skills and promote them. - From the source: post in Reddit communities and on Show HN, and write guides for search traffic. ## Scribbble: a Mac screen annotation app with $2,094 in verified sales, vibe coded by a developer working with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/scribbble-mac-screen-annotation-app-2-1k-total-vibe-coded/ - App: Scribbble. A Mac app for drawing and highlighting over any app on your screen during presentations, screen shares and streams, sold as a one-time license. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): $2,094 all-time and $430 in the last 30 days, from one-time licenses (TrustMRR, Lemon Squeezy-verified, Oct 24, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Lemon Squeezy API key) shows $2,094 all-time, $430 in the last 30 days and $1,231 in the last 3 months (synced Oct 24, 2026). Scribbble sells one-time licenses, so there is no MRR. Sales were a few dollars a month until April 2026, then $138 in May, $329 in June, $321 in August and $535 in September. The founder's own posts fit this: "$100 in lifetime revenue" on May 5, 2026, "$1000 in all time revenue" on Aug 12 and "$320 in revenue" for August. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/scribbble - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: SEO, Product Hunt, X - How they got customers: Sales started to pick up after he began doing SEO in April 2026; he says Scribbble appears in Google's AI results. He has also launched it on SaasHunt, Peerlist and Product Hunt and posts updates on X. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 4,100 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count); he also runs CSSBattle (source: https://x.com/CSSMonk) - Editor's note: Kushagra Gour is an experienced web developer (he also runs CSSBattle), not a beginner. He calls Scribbble an app he vibe coded, and in a reply that links scribbble.app he wrote: "Yes, I am a dev. I know whats happening, but no idea how. Hence, vibe coded." He doesn't name the tool for Scribbble itself; we list Claude Code because in August 2025, a few weeks before Scribbble launched, he wrote that he was relying only on Claude Code after cancelling Cursor, and he says the app's revenue paid for his Claude Max plan. His X bio links his projects and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. This is a small case. The quote is lightly cleaned up from his X post of Aug 12, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/CSSMonk/status/2087538296704627182 (@CSSMonk (Kushagra Gour, founder) on X, posted 2026-08-12; added 2026-10-24) Steps to try: - From the source: build a small, focused Mac utility: draw over any app during a screen share. - From the source: launch with a low price that goes up by a dollar every 10 sales. - From the source: do SEO once sales stall; he says sales picked up within a month. - From the source: keep shipping features customers ask for and relaunch on directories and Product Hunt. - Our suggestion: be patient with one-time sales: it took about seven months to reach $100 and eleven to pass $1,000. ## Solo Content Studio: an AI content app for coaches at $3,201 MRR (Stripe-verified), vibe coded by non-technical founder Jason Zook - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/solo-content-studio-ai-content-app-for-coaches-3-2k-mrr-vibe-coded/ - App: Solo Content Studio. An AI writing app for solo coaches: a team of 10 AI specialists drafts all your content in your voice, on a schedule. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): $3,201 MRR from 59 subscriptions; $3,320 in the last 30 days and $27,698 all-time (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 24, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $3,201 in recurring revenue from 59 active subscriptions, $3,320 in the last 30 days and $27,698 all-time (synced Oct 24, 2026). It launched in late April 2026: $3,540 in April, $8,971 in May, $595 in June, $1,968 in July, $5,323 in August and $4,030 in September. MRR is down 12% over the last 30 days. Plans cost $99 or $199 a month after a 7-day free trial. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/solo-content-studio - Built with: Not specified - Got customers via: X, Building in public - How they got customers: Jason Zook has an existing audience from years of building products in public (Teachery, IWearYourShirt). He launched Solo Content Studio on X and shares the journey publicly as part of his "vibe coding to $100k in 2026" challenge. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Long-time creator and founder (Teachery, IWearYourShirt) with about 28,000 X followers (an Oct 2026 count) (source: https://x.com/jasondoesstuff) - Editor's note: Jason Zook describes himself as a non-technical founder who used to hire developers for every product. His X bio says he is "vibe coding to $100k in 2026". Replying to a post about every vibe coder's first projects, he named his two: SceneRoll and Solo Content Studio. He has also written that SceneRoll was "our first vibe coded app" and that he is "never hiring a developer again" for new projects. He works on these apps with his wife, which is why he says "we". He doesn't name the tool for Solo Content Studio itself. He has posted about using Claude Code, Codex and newer AI models in 2026, so we list the tools as not specified. TrustMRR links the listing to his X account. The quote is lightly cleaned up from his X reply of Jul 10, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/jasondoesstuff/status/2075611526405206487 (@jasondoesstuff (Jason Zook, founder) on X, posted 2026-07-10; added 2026-10-24) Steps to try: - From the source: pick a clear buyer: solo coaches who need a lot of content but don't have a team. - From the source: package AI as a team of specialists that writes in the customer's own voice on a schedule. - From the source: vibe code it without a developer, even as a non-technical founder. - From the source: charge like a service ($99 or $199 a month after a free trial), not like a cheap tool. - Our suggestion: expect an uneven start: revenue swung from $8,971 in May to $595 in June before settling around $3,000 to $5,000. ## Kodo: a Canva-style AI design tool at $1,573 MRR (Stripe-verified), built solo with Codex and Cursor by a 14-year-old - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/kodo-ai-design-tool-1-6k-mrr-codex-cursor/ - App: Kodo. A Canva-style AI design tool: describe what you need and get an editable, layered design for presentations, social posts, posters or menus, then export to PDF, PPTX, PNG or JPG. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $1,573 MRR from 105 subscriptions; $1,631 in the last 30 days and $10,924 all-time (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 24, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $1,573 in recurring revenue from 105 active subscriptions, $1,631 in the last 30 days and $10,924 all-time (synced Oct 24, 2026). Revenue was under $150 a month until February 2026, then jumped to $467 in March, $989 in April and about $1,500 to $1,700 a month from May on. On Oct 22, 2026 the founder posted that Kodo is at "~CA$2K MRR, ~105 paying subs", which matches the Stripe data in US dollars. Plans cost $12, $39 or $99 a month. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/kodo - Built with: OpenAI Codex, Cursor - Got customers via: SEO, X, LinkedIn, Product Hunt - How they got customers: TrustMRR lists SEO, X, LinkedIn and Product Hunt as channels. The founder posts about Kodo on X and says it has passed 29,000 signups. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 8,600 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/mlg27_) - Editor's note: Michael Goldstein's X bio says he is 14 and working on Kodo, and lists earlier internships; on Oct 22, 2026 he wrote that he "built it solo". In March 2026 he wrote that he was using Codex a lot more for usekodo.ai, and Codex models inside Cursor, and around the same time that the Kodo v1 pull request was over 100,000 lines of code; revenue jumped right after that. He doesn't say how much of the code AI wrote, or whether it was all of it. On Oct 22 he also said he is open to selling Kodo. TrustMRR links the listing to the same X account. The quote is lightly cleaned up from his X reply of Mar 14, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/mlg27_/status/2032648708693635562 (@mlg27_ (Michael Goldstein, founder) on X, posted 2026-03-14; added 2026-10-24) Steps to try: - From the source: take a big category (Canva-style design) and make AI generation the starting point, with designs you can still edit. - From the source: build solo with Codex and Codex models inside Cursor. - From the source: use a free tier with credits and paid plans at $12, $39 or $99 a month. - From the source: grow signups through SEO, X, LinkedIn and Product Hunt; he reports 29,000+ signups. - Our suggestion: expect a slow start: Kodo made under $150 a month for its first five months before the v1 rebuild. ## 1ClickWebsite.ai: an AI WordPress site builder for agencies at $15,006 a month (Stripe-verified), vibe coded with Cursor and Claude - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/1clickwebsite-ai-wordpress-site-builder-15k-month-cursor-claude/ - App: 1ClickWebsite.ai. Type a business name and it finds the business on Google, pulls its services and service areas, and builds an SEO-optimized WordPress site that agencies can resell. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $15,006 in the last 30 days and $14,575 MRR from 412 subscriptions; $97,724 all-time (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 24, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $15,006 in the last 30 days, $89,812 in the last 12 months and $97,724 all-time, with $14,575 in recurring revenue from 412 active subscriptions (synced Oct 24, 2026). Monthly revenue grew from $1,774 in November 2025 to about $5,500 in March 2026, $10,025 in June and $15,492 in September 2026. In August 2025, about 10 weeks after launch, the founder posted that it made $1.6k a month, which fits the November figure. Plans cost $49, $97 or $197 a month. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/1clickwebsite-ai - Built with: Cursor, Claude - Got customers via: X - How they got customers: He sells to agency owners who build and resell sites to local businesses, and shows real sites users built and sold on X. In October 2026 he added integrations with ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor and GoHighLevel. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 170 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/BoldSlate) - Editor's note: Bennett Black wrote in August 2025 that he vibe coded 1ClickWebsite.ai about 10 weeks earlier with Cursor, Claude, n8n and Supabase, and that it already made $1.6k a month; TrustMRR lists the founding date as Jun 14, 2025, about nine weeks before that post. The same post links 1clickwebsite.ai, and TrustMRR links the listing to his X account and lists a one-person team. Revenue has grown almost every month since, to about $15,000 a month. The quote is lightly cleaned up from his X post of Aug 15, 2025. - Source: https://x.com/BoldSlate/status/1956237169338597846 (@BoldSlate (Bennett Black, founder) on X, posted 2025-08-15; added 2026-10-24) Steps to try: - From the source: sell to people who make money with the output: agencies that build and resell websites to local businesses. - From the source: vibe code the first version with Cursor and Claude, using n8n and Supabase for workflows and data. - From the source: show real results: he posts sites users built in minutes and then sold for $99 a month. - From the source: plug into the tools customers already use; it now connects to ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor and GoHighLevel. - Our suggestion: check the curve: it went from $1.6k a month at 10 weeks to about $15k a month a year later, and the dashboard shows it. ## Kolbo.AI: an all-in-one AI creative workspace at $79,244 a month (Stripe-verified), 80% built with Lovable by a founder with zero coding skills - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/kolbo-ai-creative-ai-workspace-79k-month-lovable-cursor-claude-code/ - App: Kolbo.AI. One workspace for 100+ AI models: create images, video, music and more in one project instead of jumping between separate AI tools. - App type: Video & content - Revenue (as claimed): $79,244 in the last 30 days and $34,168 MRR from 611 subscriptions; $335,901 all-time (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 23, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $79,244 in the last 30 days, $324,447 in the last 12 months and $335,901 all-time, with $34,168 in recurring revenue from 611 active subscriptions (synced Oct 23, 2026). Monthly revenue grew from about $8,564 in November 2025 to $36,107 in August 2026 and $59,533 in September 2026. On Dec 5, 2025 the founder posted "$100K ARR. 4,000+ users. Zero marketing budget.", which fits the roughly $8,500 a month Stripe shows for November 2025. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/kolbo-ai - Built with: Lovable, Cursor, Claude Code - Got customers via: X - How they got customers: The founder says Kolbo reached $100K ARR and 4,000+ users with zero marketing budget. He tells the story of building it without coding skills on X, and says it started with a win in a Lovable vibe coding competition. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 320 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/ZoharVanunu) - Editor's note: Zohar Vanunu says he has zero coding skills. In July 2025 he wrote that six months earlier he had fired his developers, "tired of delays and bills", and built 80% of Kolbo with Lovable before moving on to Cursor and Claude Code; so developers did work on an earlier version, and he says AI tools built most of the product after that. In December 2025 he wrote that it all started with a win in Lovable's vibe coding competition, and announced the official launch at "$100K ARR. 4,000+ users. Zero marketing budget." His X bio says he is the founder of Kolbo and links kolbo.ai, and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. The quote is lightly cleaned up from his X post of Jul 29, 2025. - Source: https://x.com/ZoharVanunu/status/1950086185369456923 (@ZoharVanunu (Zohar Vanunu, founder) on X, posted 2025-07-29; added 2026-10-24) Steps to try: - From the source: solve your own annoyance: he was tired of switching between separate AI tools and losing context. - From the source: build most of the product yourself with Lovable, then move to Cursor and Claude Code as it grows. - From the source: put many AI models behind one subscription and one project workspace. - From the source: ship features solo instead of waiting on a dev team. - Our suggestion: growth can come late: revenue roughly quadrupled between November 2025 and September 2026, and the Stripe data shows it. ## LocalRank: local SEO software at $19,328 a month and $735K all-time (Stripe-verified), vibe coded after the founder first downloaded Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/localrank-local-seo-software-19k-month-cursor/ - App: LocalRank. All-in-one AI local SEO software for agencies: rank tracking, citations and tools to get clients to the top of Google Maps and local search. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): $19,328 in the last 30 days and $19,439 MRR from 195 subscriptions; $735,563 all-time (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 24, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $19,328 in the last 30 days, $418,830 in the last 12 months and $735,563 all-time, with $19,439 in recurring revenue from 195 active subscriptions (synced Oct 24, 2026). Monthly revenue has fallen from $55,941 in November 2025 to about $20,800 in September 2026, and MRR is down 25% over the last 30 days. The listing is for sale on TrustMRR. In March 2025 the founder posted that LocalRank was at $2k MRR two days after launch. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/localrank-so - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: X, YouTube, SEO, Building in public - How they got customers: The founder already ran a local SEO agency and a large X and YouTube audience. He says he live-streamed every day and posted a YouTube video every day while building, and that LocalRank ranks on Google without built links. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Runs the SEO agency Indexsy and has about 62,000 X followers (an Oct 2026 count); he built LocalRank in public with daily live streams and YouTube videos (source: https://x.com/indexsy) - Editor's note: Jacky Chou runs the local SEO agency Indexsy and buys and operates online businesses in public, so he started with a large audience and a clear market. In March 2025 he wrote that he had downloaded Cursor for the first time three weeks earlier with the goal of a $10k MRR SaaS in 30 days, and that LocalRank had launched two days earlier at $2k MRR; in May 2025 he called it "zero funding, vibe coded", and in August a "5 month old vibe coded b2b saas". He says "we", and in August 2025 he was hiring full-stack developers who "must use claude or cursor", so a team works on it now. Revenue peaked in late 2025 and has been falling. TrustMRR links the listing to his X account. The quote is lightly cleaned up from his X post of Mar 16, 2025. - Source: https://x.com/indexsy/status/1901370127054176629 (@indexsy (Jacky Chou, founder) on X, posted 2025-03-16; added 2026-10-24) Steps to try: - From the source: build for a market you already serve: he ran a local SEO agency before LocalRank. - From the source: set a public goal and deadline: a $10k MRR SaaS in 30 days. - From the source: vibe code the first version with Cursor and launch within about three weeks. - From the source: build in public every day with live streams and YouTube videos. - Our suggestion: an existing audience speeds up the start, but it doesn't stop decline: revenue has fallen by more than half since November 2025. ## MailCheap: a newsletter platform at $860 MRR nine days after launch (Stripe-verified), vibe coded with Claude Opus by Marc Lou - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/mailcheap-newsletter-platform-860-mrr-claude/ - App: MailCheap. An open-source newsletter platform with an editor, scheduling, stats, web archives and sending from your own domain, priced by the emails you send instead of by subscriber count, from $19 a month. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $860 MRR from 30 subscriptions; $860 all-time (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 23, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $860 MRR from 30 active subscriptions and $860 in revenue, all of it since Oct 15, 2026, the day the founder announced it (synced Oct 23, 2026). Daily revenue has ranged from $19 to $155. On Oct 23 he posted that a customer had just taken a 500,000-emails-a-month plan, "+$149 MRR". Plans start at $19 a month and are priced by emails sent, not by subscribers. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/mailcheap - Built with: Claude - Got customers via: X, Word of mouth, Reddit, SEO - How they got customers: Launched to his large X audience with a direct comparison: "I vibe-coded beehiiv, and it's 83% cheaper." TrustMRR also lists word of mouth, Reddit and SEO. The pitch is price: you pay for emails sent, not dormant subscribers, and you can import from beehiiv, Substack or Mailchimp in minutes. It's open source, so people can also self-host it for free. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Well-known maker; says he already had about 100K X followers when he launched an earlier course, before TrustMRR (source: https://x.com/marclou/status/2097181213895123314) - Editor's note: Marc Lou is a well-known indie maker who also runs TrustMRR, which is already a case on this site, and several other products. On Oct 9, 2026 he wrote that he left beehiiv after a third price rise in two years and "vibe-coded my own newsletter platform" with "a few prompts with Opus 5.5" (a Claude model), running on AWS SES and MongoDB. He launched it publicly on Oct 15 and on Oct 21 wrote that new features were "Shipped with Opus 5.5, my best vibe coding buddy." He is an experienced developer, and "a few prompts" describes the first version, not every feature since. His X bio links MailCheap, and TrustMRR links the listing to his account. Because of his audience, MailCheap's early numbers say more about distribution than about the product alone. The quote is from his X post of Oct 9, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/marclou/status/2110743912885489960 (@marclou (Marc Lou, founder) on X, posted 2026-10-15; added 2026-10-23) Steps to try: - From the source: rebuild a tool you pay too much for: he left beehiiv after its price kept rising. - From the source: price on your real cost (emails sent), which lets you undercut incumbents that charge per subscriber. - From the source: make switching painless with one-click imports from the big competitors. - From the source: lead your launch with a concrete comparison: "83% cheaper" than the tool people already know. - Our suggestion: an existing audience changes the math: most founders won't reach $860 MRR in nine days, so judge your launch on its own terms. ## Ritmo: a dating app for active singles at $4,553 a month (RevenueCat-verified), built with Codex and Rork by a designer who couldn't code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/ritmo-sports-dating-app-4-5k-month-codex-rork/ - App: Ritmo. A dating app for active singles ("if Strava and Tinder had a baby"): profiles built around sports and training habits, daily streaks, chat, and local run clubs to meet in person, on iOS and Android. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): $4,553 in the last 30 days and $4,521 MRR from 482 subscriptions; $4,822 all-time (TrustMRR, RevenueCat-verified, Oct 23, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (RevenueCat API key) shows $4,553 in the last 30 days and $4,822 all-time, with $4,521 MRR from 482 active subscriptions (synced Oct 23, 2026). The app launched in September 2026: $747 that month and $4,075 so far in October, with recent days at about $170 to $320. The founder's own posts track the same climb: $800 MRR on Oct 1, $2,618 on Oct 14 and "$4k MRR" on Oct 19. Revenue comes from weekly, monthly and six-month Pro subscriptions plus one-time Boosts and Super Likes. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/ritmoapp - Built with: OpenAI Codex, Rork - Got customers via: Meta ads, Word of mouth, Localization - How they got customers: He launched in Brazil first and grew inside running and fitness communities, especially local run clubs, which the app also lets users join. On top of that he runs localized Meta ad creatives. He says users are concentrated in five cities in southern Brazil and he is moving into São Paulo next, then Rio de Janeiro and Brasília. Paywalls are timed: after onboarding, a 50% offer on days three and seven, and Super Like prompts after a missed match. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 1.4K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/adeluxui) - Editor's note: Adel Benzehda is a product designer. In his RevenueCat Shipaton 2026 entry he writes that before Ritmo he had never built a mobile or web app and didn't know how to code; he had the idea on Aug 24, 2026, and Ritmo was live on Google Play on Sep 4 and on the App Store on Sep 17. The entry's "Built with" list names Codex and Rork, alongside Swift, React Native, Supabase, Resend and RevenueCat, and the App Store bundle ID starts with "app.rork". He doesn't say how much of the code each tool wrote; on Aug 29 he posted that Codex beats Claude Code for him. Ritmo won third place in Shipaton's HAMM (Help Apps Make Money) award. His X bio links ritmodating.com, and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. - Source: https://x.com/adeluxui/status/2110489885450678492 (@adeluxui (Adel Benzehda, founder) on X, posted 2026-10-14; added 2026-10-23) Steps to try: - From the source: start from something you keep hearing in real life: in run clubs it was "who here is single?" - From the source: ship fast with AI tools even if you can't code: idea to Google Play took 11 days. - From the source: launch in one market first (here, southern Brazil) and win its communities before expanding. - From the source: time paywalls and discounts to specific moments, like right after onboarding or before account deletion. - Our suggestion: check the numbers early: Ritmo went from $747 in its first month to over $4,000 MRR in October, and the dashboard shows it. ## Respira: a pollen allergy tracker with $264 in RevenueCat-verified sales, built mostly with Claude by a solo developer in Madrid - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/respira-pollen-allergy-tracker-264-total-claude/ - App: Respira. An iPhone app for people with pollen allergies that shows the level of each allergen where they are, from Spain's aerobiology monitoring network plus forecast data, with a 5-day forecast and alerts. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): $264 all-time and $141 in the last 30 days; $10.22 MRR from 3 subscriptions (TrustMRR, RevenueCat-verified, Oct 23, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (RevenueCat API key) shows $264 all-time and $141 in the last 30 days, with $10.22 MRR from 3 active subscriptions (synced Oct 23, 2026). Monthly revenue was $62 in May 2026, about $29 in June and July, $0 in August, $83 in September and $61 so far in October; it includes lifetime purchases. On Sep 29, 2026 the founder posted that Respira had "crossed €150 in revenue" five months after he added a paywall, which fits the RevenueCat total after Apple's cut. Small numbers, and seasonal: pollen season drives usage. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/respira - Built with: Claude - Got customers via: App Store search (ASO), Localization, Building in public - How they got customers: App Store search is the core: he also runs an ASO tool, and he launched in Japan ahead of its cedar pollen season on purpose so the app has time to rank. Respira went from Spain only to 35 countries in two months. He builds in public on X, where his bio says it has 2,000 users. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 5.1K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/pfernan95dev) - Editor's note: Pablo Fernández (@pfernan95dev, Madrid) builds small iOS and Mac apps; he is an experienced developer, not a beginner. He wrote that Respira's backend logic was built mostly with Claude's Opus and Sonnet models, with GPT for the app copy, and elsewhere that "all my projects are built w Claude". He doesn't say how much of the iOS app itself AI wrote. His X bio lists Respira and links its App Store page (seller Pablo Fernandez Jimenez), and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. Revenue is small and seasonal; we include it as an honest early-stage example. - Source: https://x.com/pfernan95dev/status/2097737453993869386 (@pfernan95dev (Pablo Fernández, founder) on X, posted 2026-09-09; added 2026-10-23) Steps to try: - From the source: build on public data people can't easily read: Spain's pollen monitoring network. - From the source: use AI for the backend logic and the copy, and keep the scope small. - From the source: launch in new countries before their season starts so the app has time to rank in search. - Our suggestion: expect seasonality: revenue fell to $0 in August, between pollen seasons. - From the source: offer a lifetime purchase for a seasonal need; he mentions lifetime purchases among Respira's sales. ## ekto: a live translation and captions app at $5,641 a month (App Store-verified), vibe coded over 18 months by an iOS developer - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/ekto-live-translation-captions-app-5-6k-month-vibe-coded/ - App: ekto. An iPhone app that shows live captions and translated subtitles of what people around you are saying, for meetings, lectures, TV and life abroad, without recording audio. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): $5,641 in the last 30 days; $28,958 in the last 12 months (TrustMRR, App Store-verified, before Apple's commission, Oct 23, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (App Store Connect API key) shows $5,641 in the last 30 days, $15,463 in the last three months and $28,958 in the last 12 months (synced Oct 23, 2026). Apple figures are before commission and minus refunds; TrustMRR can't compute MRR from App Store data. Monthly revenue grew from about $929 in November 2025 to $2,673 in July 2026, $4,410 in August and $5,900 in September, with $4,506 so far in October. On Jul 27, 2026 the founder wrote that the app "does around $2k per month from organic sources", which fits July. The app launched in January 2025 and TrustMRR only holds a year of Apple history. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/live-captions - Built with: Not specified - Got customers via: App Store search (ASO), Localization, X - How they got customers: Mostly organic App Store traffic, by his own account: he wrote in July that revenue came "from organic sources" and that he was weighing UGC and Meta ads against other AI translation apps. He localizes properly rather than literally (a Korean version pitched at students abroad) and supports right-to-left languages such as Arabic. He also mentions the app in replies on X. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 455 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/mnkyho) - Editor's note: Anthony Ho describes himself on X as an iOS developer building prosumer apps, so he wasn't starting from zero. He has written that his app was vibe coded and improved as AI models got better, that he has been vibe coding since November 2024, and, on Jul 30, 2026, that it "took 18 months to 'vibe code'" the live translation app. He doesn't name the coding tools, so we list them as not specified. In several posts he names the app as ekto (App Store: "Live Translator: ekto", seller Anthony Ho), and TrustMRR links the listing to his X account. The App Store listing dates from Jan 27, 2025. - Source: https://x.com/mnkyho/status/2032734503551005055 (@mnkyho (Anthony Ho, founder) on X, posted 2026-03-14; added 2026-10-23) Steps to try: - From the source: pick a crowded category but win on experience: he says most translation apps can't do readable live subtitles. - From the source: keep improving the same app as AI models get better instead of starting over. - From the source: fix performance problems in long sessions; he says revenue doubled after fixing heat and lag. - From the source: localize for each market's motivation, not just its language. - Our suggestion: a slow start is normal: revenue was under $1,000 a month for most of the first year before passing $5,000. ## Brawler: an AI boxing coach app at $55,118 in the last 30 days (RevenueCat-verified) that its founder says Rork built entirely - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/brawler-ai-boxing-coach-app-55k-month-rork/ - App: Brawler. An iPhone AI boxing coach: upload shadowboxing, bag or sparring footage and the AI scores stance, guard, footwork, combinations and head movement, with training programs, punch callouts, a round timer and nutrition tracking. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): $55,118 in the last 30 days and $154,149 all-time (TrustMRR, RevenueCat-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (RevenueCat API key, synced Oct 21, 2026) shows $55,118 in the last 30 days, $154,149 all-time, $22,544 MRR and 4,274 active subscriptions. By month: about $4,152 in May 2026 (launch month), $17,996 in June, $26,161 in July, $23,482 in August, $48,741 in September and $33,616 so far in October. Daily sales have eased from $2,000 to $3,000 in late September to about $1,000 to $1,800 in mid-October. Plans are $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year, so many subscribers pay yearly up front, which is why 30-day revenue is above MRR. On Oct 15, 2026 the founder posted that the boxing app "does $60k/mo"; the verified figure is a little lower. In a July 17, 2026 interview he put the boxing app at $23,000 lifetime, which matches May and June on TrustMRR. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/brawler - Built with: Rork - Got customers via: Influencers, Meta ads - How they got customers: Paid creator posts and Meta ads. TrustMRR lists Influencers and Meta Ads as the channels. In a July 2026 interview with Chris Koerner, he described paying combat-sports creators for organic posts at about a $2 CPM and walked through his Meta ads setup; his earlier app, Wrestle AI, grew the same way through a 50/50 partnership with a large wrestling creator. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 13.1K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure); his earlier app Wrestle AI grew through a large wrestling creator (source: https://x.com/GeorgeLampro20) - Editor's note: George Lampropoulos is the founder behind Wrestle AI; in a July 2026 interview he said he has no technical background. On Jul 28, 2026 he listed Brawler among three apps he had scaled to $10K a month in under 30 days. The App Store listing (seller Brawler LLC) links to wrestleai.app as its website, and the app's bundle ID starts with app.rork. TrustMRR shows no founder name on the listing, so the link to him rests on his own posts and that App Store website. His X bio reads "Building the Future of combat sports with @Rork" and he posts for Rork, so he is tied to the tool he credits. The App Store shows a 4.8 rating from about 2,100 US ratings. Brawler has been listed for sale on TrustMRR since June 2026 (asking $200,000). - Source: https://x.com/GeorgeLampro20/status/2110854380845195411 (@GeorgeLampro20 (George Lampropoulos, founder) on X, posted 2026-10-15; added 2026-10-22) Steps to try: - Our suggestion: pick a sport you know and turn private coaching into an app: video upload plus AI feedback on technique. - From the source: build the whole app with an AI app builder; he says Rork built all of it. - From the source: reuse what worked on an earlier app: he copied the Wrestle AI playbook for boxing. - From the source: pay niche creators for organic posts at a low CPM, then add Meta ads. - From the source: offer a cheap yearly plan ($59.99) next to the monthly one so more revenue comes in up front. ## Laper: AI screenwriting software at $46,509 MRR (Stripe-verified), written 100% with Claude Code and Codex - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/laper-ai-screenwriting-software-48k-month-claude-code-codex/ - App: Laper. Screenwriting software for writers, directors and storyboard artists: it formats scripts to industry standard, maps story structure and builds cast, location, scene and shot lists from the script, with AI agents that help without writing for you. - App type: Video & content - Revenue (as claimed): $48,641 in the last 30 days, $46,509 MRR and $180,032 all-time (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 22, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key, synced Oct 22, 2026) shows $48,641 in the last 30 days, $46,509 MRR from 1,433 active subscriptions and $180,032 all-time. By month: $760 in December 2025, then $162 to $1,334 a month until April 2026, $5,136 in May (the public launch), $15,857 in June, $27,108 in July, $45,999 in August, $46,079 in September and $36,507 so far in October. In his Jun 23, 2026 article the founder gave $7,609 MRR and $10,031 for the past four weeks, which fits the May and June figures. Plans run from $20 to $400 a month. Laper is listed for sale on TrustMRR (asking about $1.47M). - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/laper - Built with: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex - Got customers via: X, SEO, Google ads - How they got customers: Mostly his own X account and search. He posts about Laper to about 46,700 followers on X, and TrustMRR lists SEO, content marketing, a blog, a newsletter, X, Google Ads, X Ads, cold email, Hacker News and partnerships as channels. He says his partner Liang Shizhi learned growth from scratch and runs go-to-market while he handles the product. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: About 46.7K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/chunxiangai) - Editor's note: Zhao Chunxiang (赵纯想) is a screenwriter and novelist; he writes in Chinese and the quote is our translation from his Jun 23, 2026 article “OPC公司真实财报：Laper 发布的6个月后” (a real financial report six months after Laper's launch). Laper is built by two people: he writes the product code and his partner Liang Shizhi handles growth, using Codex for growth spreadsheets and admin tools, as he wrote on X on Aug 9, 2026, calling them a “VibeCoding” duo. In Nov 2025 he answered a question on X with "all in claude code with skills". His X bio says "Founder of laper.ai" and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. TrustMRR lists a team of 2 to 5, Hong Kong, React, TypeScript, Go, Supabase and Stripe. - Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jAaANyCgbPEURRpde1EBRA (赵纯想 (Zhao Chunxiang, founder) on WeChat, posted 2026-06-23; added 2026-10-22) Steps to try: - From the source: pick a field with strict structure that general chatbots handle badly; for screenplays that means industry formatting, versions and production lists. - From the source: let AI coding agents write the code: he says Claude Code and Codex did all of it, about 200 commits a week. - From the source: keep the AI as a helper, not the writer; he renames agent features in plain words for non-technical users. - From the source: split the work: one founder on product, one learning growth full-time. - From the source: offer tiers from $20 to $400 a month so professionals can pay for more. ## ClaudeKit: a Claude.ai workspace extension with 2,000+ users and $279 in Dodo Payments-verified sales, built with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/claudekit-claude-ai-workspace-extension-279-total-claude-code/ - App: ClaudeKit. A free Chrome extension that adds a workspace inside Claude.ai: prompt library, conversation forks, pins and notes, reference chats, token counts, exports and usage warnings before a session cuts off, with a $4/month or $28 lifetime Pro tier. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $279 all-time and $62 in the last 30 days, with $10 MRR (TrustMRR, Dodo Payments-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Dodo Payments API key) shows $62 in the last 30 days, $274 in the last three months and $279 all-time, with $10.33 MRR from three active subscriptions (synced Oct 21, 2026): $5 in July 2026, $122 in August, $94 in September and $58 so far in October. Pricing is free, $4 a month or $28 lifetime, so most sales are lifetime licenses. The founder posted on Oct 13, 2026 that ClaudeKit had passed 2,000 users. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/claudekit-1 - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: SEO, Blog content, Chrome Web Store - How they got customers: SEO and a blog are the channels on its TrustMRR listing (about 6,000 visitors in the last 30 days), plus the Chrome Web Store, since ClaudeKit is a free Chrome extension with a paid Pro tier. It needs no account and doesn't track users, which is part of the pitch to Claude.ai power users. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 12 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/itsavishshah) - Editor's note: Avish Shah, in Bangalore, says on ClaudeKit's TrustMRR profile that it was built with Claude Code; that profile text is written by the founder, while the revenue figures come from Dodo Payments. He hasn't published more about how he built it. TrustMRR lists TypeScript and Dodo Payments and a founded date of May 20, 2026. His X bio links claudekit.app, and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. - Source: https://trustmrr.com/startup/claudekit-1 (Avish Shah (founder), TrustMRR profile on TrustMRR, posted 2026-10-21; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: fix a pain you hit every day in a popular tool; ClaudeKit warns Claude.ai users before a session cuts off and lets them fork and save work. - From the source: ship it as a free Chrome extension with no account so people can try it instantly. - Our suggestion: offer a lifetime price next to the monthly one; most of ClaudeKit's sales so far are lifetime licenses. - Our suggestion: build on top of a fast-growing platform, but expect the platform to ship some of your features itself over time. ## ZenMode: a LinkedIn outreach desktop app at $1,729 MRR and $9,447 in Stripe-verified revenue, built by a former Google employee with Claude and Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/zenmode-linkedin-outreach-automation-1-7k-mrr-claude-code/ - App: ZenMode. A Mac and Windows desktop app that automates LinkedIn outreach from your own computer and IP: it finds target profiles, sends connection requests and follow-up sequences, and syncs the inbox, from $15 a month. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): $1,729 MRR and $1,724 in the last 30 days; $9,447 all-time since an April 2026 launch (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $1,729 MRR, $1,724 in the last 30 days, $4,584 in the last three months and $9,447 all-time (synced Oct 21, 2026). Monthly revenue: $1,873 in April 2026 (launch month), then $808, $924, $1,466, $1,320 and $1,737 in September, with $1,319 so far in October. On Oct 18, 2026 the founder wrote that ZenMode had made $9.6K in six months with almost 50 active users, which matches the verified total. In September he put MRR at about $2K to $2.5K; TrustMRR's current figure is lower, at $1,729, so we use the verified number. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/zenmode - Built with: Claude Code, Claude - Got customers via: LinkedIn, Reddit, X, Building in public, SEO - How they got customers: He uses ZenMode to sell ZenMode: it scrapes target customers on LinkedIn and runs connection requests and follow-ups, which he says books about five meetings a week. He also posts build-in-public stories on Reddit, LinkedIn and X, and works on SEO with "alternative to" comparison pages, a regularly updated blog, reviews and directory listings. Early on he sold lifetime deals to get testers. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 1,519 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/ZenModeJon) - Editor's note: Jonathan Lis is a 38-year-old solo founder in London who worked at Google and then in sales. In a Sep 21, 2026 post he says he built ZenMode "without knowing how to code": he used Claude to work out the architecture around safety (an Electron desktop app driving a dedicated Chrome browser, so outreach runs from the user's own IP), then built it with Claude Code. In another post he calls it "what I built entirely with Claude and Claude code". He quit his job before he had a single customer. TrustMRR lists Electron, Next.js, TypeScript and React with Stripe, a founded date of Feb 6, 2026, and the UK. His X bio links zen-mode.io, and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. - Source: https://x.com/ZenModeJon/status/2111850827799224679 (@ZenModeJon (Jonathan Lis, founder) on X, posted 2026-10-18; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: build the safer version of a tool you already used: he got a LinkedIn warning from a cloud automation tool, so ZenMode runs on the user's own machine. - From the source: use your own product as your first sales channel; ZenMode's outreach books him about five meetings a week. - From the source: write "alternative to" pages against bigger competitors and keep a blog going for search traffic. - From the source: offer lifetime deals in the first one or two months to get testers before asking for subscriptions. - Our suggestion: check MRR against a verified source: his post said about $2.5K, while Stripe data on TrustMRR shows $1,729. ## VibeLing: a vocabulary app at $1,037 a month (RevenueCat-verified), vibe coded by a solo founder who hand-wrote only the core - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/vibeling-vocabulary-app-1k-month-vibe-coded/ - App: VibeLing. A free iOS and Android vocabulary app: save words and phrases you come across and it turns them into short daily practice with translations, examples, audio and spaced repetition, in 15 languages. - App type: Education & learning - Revenue (as claimed): $1,037 in the last 30 days and $410 MRR from 98 subscriptions; $2,794 all-time (TrustMRR, RevenueCat-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (RevenueCat API key) shows $1,037 in the last 30 days, $2,084 in the last three months and $2,794 all-time, with $410 MRR from 98 active subscriptions (synced Oct 21, 2026). Revenue grew from about $23 a month in late 2025 to $512 in August 2026, $699 in September and $855 so far in October. On Oct 19, 2026 the founder posted that he made $200 in one day after adding an MCP server to the app. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/vibeling - Built with: Not specified - Got customers via: Reddit, Building in public - How they got customers: Reddit is his main described channel: he joins language-learning subreddits as a helpful member and mentions VibeLing sparingly, and he automated the commenting with Claude Code using a persona built from his own backstory. He also builds in public on X, a Telegram channel and Habr. A recent MCP server lets people connect VibeLing to Claude Code or ChatGPT, which he says brought $200 in a day. The app is free, in 15 languages, with a paid subscription. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 766 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/vital_pavlenko) - Editor's note: The founder, who posts as Pavlenko and lists Serbia as his location, writes in Russian; the quote is our translation. He wrote it after finding a seven-month-old bug in the spaced-repetition logic, the one part of VibeLing he says he coded by hand, which implies the rest was built with AI. He doesn't name the coding tool he used for the app itself; elsewhere he uses Claude Code for Reddit automation and for a language tutor that adds words to VibeLing over MCP. He also added ruble payments on Android through YooKassa. His X bio links vibeling.app, and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. - Source: https://x.com/vital_pavlenko/status/2110734827318022435 (@vital_pavlenko (Pavlenko, founder) on X, posted 2026-10-15; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: hand-write the one part that must be right (here, the spaced-repetition logic) and let AI build the rest; even then, test it. - From the source: be a useful member of niche subreddits first and mention your product only in passing. - From the source: add an MCP server so AI assistants can feed your app; he says it made $200 in a day. - From the source: offer local payment methods where app stores block them; he added ruble payments on Android. - Our suggestion: a free app with a subscription can grow slowly for months before it pays: revenue went from about $23 to $855 a month in a year. ## SpacePlanner: a free browser floor-plan tool with $711 in Stripe-verified sales in its first paid month, built by one founder with Claude Code agents - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/spaceplanner-browser-floor-plan-tool-711-month-claude-code/ - App: SpacePlanner. A free floor-plan and space-planning editor that runs in the browser with no signup: draw rooms, homes and gardens, drop in real-size furniture, and buy credit packs for exports and extras. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): $711 in the last 30 days and $747 all-time from $9 credit packs (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $711 in the last 30 days and $747 all-time (synced Oct 21, 2026): $2 in September 2026 and $709 so far in October, with no subscriptions because SpacePlanner sells $9 packs of 10 credits for exports and extras on top of a free editor. The founder reports 114,077 users in September and 25,105 people on its best day, after a creator featured it unprompted in an Instagram video that passed 424K views. Usage figures are his own; the revenue is Stripe-verified. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/spaceplanner-co - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: Creator content, Instagram, TikTok, SEO, Localization - How they got customers: No signup wall: anyone can draw a plan as a guest, and an account is only needed to save across devices or export. A creator put SpacePlanner in a "powerful websites" series on Instagram without being asked (424K views), and his onboarding survey says most users found it on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube; almost none came from X. About 30% of sessions come from Google, mostly people searching the name after seeing it on social. He translated the app into Spanish, Indonesian, German, Polish and Italian with an LLM, and the app records its own tutorial videos every night for social posts. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 16 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/jimymass) - Editor's note: Jimmy Mass builds SpacePlanner alone, next to a full-time job. He runs Claude Code on a server that he reaches from his phone: builder agents for design, SEO and code write each change, a fourth agent tries to break it, and 4,649 tests decide whether it ships. He says the app is "744 commits since June, almost all written by coding agents on one server" (Oct 1, 2026). The stack is Supabase, Vercel Pro and Cloudflare R2. TrustMRR gives a founded date of Dec 5, 2024 and Romania; his X profile says London, and his own posts date the current push to June 2026. His X bio links SpacePlanner.co, and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. - Source: https://x.com/jimymass/status/2108573026128118011 (@jimymass (Jimmy Mass, founder) on X, posted 2026-10-09; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: remove the signup wall: let people use the editor as guests and ask for an account only when they need to save or export. - From the source: ask new users where they found you; his survey showed Instagram and TikTok, not X, where founders hang out. - From the source: give coding agents separate jobs and add one whose only job is to break the change before it ships. - From the source: translate early with an LLM and fail the build on missing strings so every language stays complete. - Our suggestion: monetize a free tool with small credit packs; $9 packs turned a usage spike into $711 in a month. ## UIDrop: a design-system Chrome extension with 12K users and $115 in Polar-verified sales, a 20-year-old's first project built with Claude - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/uidrop-design-system-chrome-extension-115-total-claude-cursor/ - App: UIDrop. A Chrome extension that reads any website's design system (colors, fonts, spacing, component styles) in one click and sends it, with a screenshot, as a ready prompt to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Lovable and other AI tools. - App type: Developer tools - Revenue (as claimed): $115 all-time from $4 one-time Pro upgrades (TrustMRR, Polar-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Polar API key) shows $115 all-time and $9.45 in the last 30 days (synced Oct 21, 2026): $92 in August 2026, $20 in September and $3 so far in October. There are no subscriptions; Pro is a $4 one-time upgrade. The founder's X bio says "108$, 11k users" and the site says 12K+ users, so this is a big free user base with very little revenue so far. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/uidrop - Built with: Claude, Cursor - Got customers via: Reddit, X, Chrome Web Store - How they got customers: A free Chrome extension aimed at vibe coders and frontend designers, promoted on Reddit and X (the two channels on its TrustMRR listing), with growth through the Chrome Web Store. He planned launch-directory listings and a Product Hunt launch for his next app based on what he learned from UIDrop. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 520 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/tudorxjh) - Editor's note: The founder is a 20-year-old in Romania who builds in public as tudorbuildsai. He says he had given up on coding and didn't want to use AI, then "picked up some tools like Cursor to try stuff out" and made UIDrop (Oct 20, 2026), which he calls his first project built with the help of Claude. He doesn't say how much of the code AI wrote. His second app, Notch, has $88 in Polar-verified sales on TrustMRR. His X bio links uidrop.site, and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. - Source: https://x.com/tudorxjh/status/2103241027578650942 (@tudorxjh (tudorbuildsai, founder) on X, posted 2026-09-24; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: build for people already using AI tools: UIDrop turns a site's design into a prompt for Claude, Cursor or Lovable. - From the source: a free Chrome extension can reach 10K+ users fast through Reddit and X. - From the source: use what you learn from the first launch on the next one; he lined up launch directories and Product Hunt for his second app. - Our suggestion: price for the value, not the install count: 12K users at a $4 one-time upgrade produced $115, so a recurring plan or higher price is the obvious test. ## Aidelly: a social media platform for agencies at $655 MRR (Stripe-verified), rebuilt from a Bubble app with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/aidelly-ai-social-media-agent-agencies-655-mrr-claude-code/ - App: Aidelly. A social media platform for agencies that AI agents such as Claude and ChatGPT can run through MCP, CLI and API: it drafts, schedules and publishes across 11 networks with team approvals and white-labeling, from $39 a month. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): $655 MRR and $625 in the last 30 days; $4,574 in the last 12 months and $7,137 all-time (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $655 MRR, $625 in the last 30 days, $2,631 in the last three months, $4,574 in the last 12 months and $7,137 all-time (synced Oct 21, 2026). The all-time figure includes revenue from the first, Bubble-built version; the founder says the Claude Code rebuild went live by the end of 2025. Monthly revenue in 2026: $99 in February, $246 in May, then $937, $941, $644 and $966 from June to September, and $522 so far in October. He also says revenue stayed flat right after the rebuild and grew in 2026. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/aidelly - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: X, Building in public - How they got customers: The founder hasn't published a detailed acquisition breakdown. He posts about the business and the rebuild on X, graduated from Founder Institute, submitted Aidelly as a connector for AI assistants, and in October 2026 launched Agency Listed, a free directory for agencies that links back to their sites. Pricing is per workspace and team rather than per seat, from $39 a month. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 141 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/wilzerjb) - Editor's note: Wilzer Jean-Baptiste is a software engineer in Atlanta and cofounder of Aidelly. The first version started from a Bubble no-code template; in the summer of 2025 he shut it down, cancelled Bubble and rebuilt the app from scratch with Claude Code, with the new version live by the end of 2025 (he repeats this in an Oct 7, 2026 post). He is a developer, so this isn't a beginner story, and he doesn't say how much of the code the AI wrote. TrustMRR lists a team of 2 to 5, Next.js, React, TypeScript, Supabase, Vercel, Resend and Stripe, and the US. His X bio names him cofounder of @aidellyai, and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. - Source: https://x.com/wilzerjb/status/2102428068631429249 (@wilzerjb (Wilzer Jean-Baptiste, cofounder) on X, posted 2026-09-22; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: if a no-code version has hit its limits, rebuild it with a coding agent instead of patching it; he started again from an empty folder with Claude Code. - From the source: carry over what users told you about the first version; the rebuild kept the lessons and feedback. - From the source: pay a third-party QA tester once the app is vibe coded; he says the bug report was money well spent. - From the source: make the product usable by AI agents (MCP server, CLI, API), since agencies now run work through Claude and ChatGPT. - Our suggestion: expect a lag: revenue stayed flat right after the rebuild and grew over the following year. ## Appthetics: an AI mobile app design tool with $2,292 in verified sales, vibe-coded with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/appthetics-ai-mobile-app-design-2-3k-total-cursor/ - App: Appthetics. Design mobile app screens just by chatting with AI, with no design skills needed. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $2,292 all-time and $136 in the last 30 days (TrustMRR, Polar and Dodo Payments-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Polar and Dodo Payments API keys) shows $2,292 all-time, $792 in the last three months and $136 in the last 30 days, with about $121 in recurring revenue from 11 active subscriptions (synced Oct 21, 2026). TrustMRR gives a founded date of Feb 2, 2026. On Aug 4, 2026 the founder posted that it took him a year to make his first $2K from his vibe-coded startups; his X bio lists Appthetics at $2.2K. Plans are Lite $9/month, Pro $20/month or $79 lifetime. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/appthetics - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: X, Building in public - How they got customers: Building in public on X, where he has a large following and posts design demos and feature previews. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 17.6K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/AdityaShips) - Editor's note: Aditya is a solo founder in India who calls his products vibe-coded startups and posted that "Cursor is cooking up the next big feature for Appthetics". TrustMRR lists Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Convex, Polar and Dodo Payments. His X bio names Appthetics and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. The quote is from his X post of Aug 4, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/AdityaShips/status/2084673021571399724 (@AdityaShips (Aditya, founder) on X, posted 2026-08-04; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: target non-designers: describe the app in chat and get screens back. - From the source: build with Cursor and preview new features on X before they ship. - From the source: offer a lifetime plan ($79) next to monthly plans to convert people who dislike subscriptions. - From the source: be patient: he says his first $2K across vibe-coded products took a year. ## InspoAI: an AI UI design tool with $6,281 in verified sales, 100% vibe-coded by a designer - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/inspoai-ai-ui-design-tool-6-3k-total-vibe-coded/ - App: InspoAI. An AI design tool that generates interactive React and Tailwind interfaces from a prompt in your brand's style, with a library of 200K+ real designs for inspiration and brand-consistency checks. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $6,281 all-time and $2,599 in the 30 days to Sep 6, 2026 (TrustMRR, Lemon Squeezy and Dodo Payments-verified; last synced Sep 6, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Lemon Squeezy and Dodo Payments API keys) shows $6,281 all-time, $6,045 of it in the six months to its last sync, and $2,599 in the last 30 days before that sync, including about $2,473 in August 2026. The data was last synced on Sep 6, 2026, when the Lemon Squeezy key expired, so revenue after that date is not shown. On Aug 3, 2026 the founder posted that InspoAI had passed 2,000 users and 1,700 UI generations. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/inspoai - Built with: Claude - Got customers via: X, Building in public, Cold calling - How they got customers: Building in public on X, replying in threads about vibe-coded startups with the link. The TrustMRR listing also names cold calling. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 250 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/AL_Nick_) - Editor's note: The founder, who posts as Farhanism, is a designer in India. Replying to a thread about vibe-coded startups, he linked InspoAI and wrote that it was "100% vibe coded"; in October 2026 he posted that he was building InspoAI's motion feature "using opus 5.5 #claude". His X bio says he is building InspoAI for designers and links inspoai.io, and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. TrustMRR has not synced since Sep 6, 2026, so the figures here stop at that date. The quote is from his X reply of Aug 3, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/AL_Nick_/status/2084222621668049239 (@AL_Nick_ (Farhanism, founder) on X, posted 2026-08-03; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: build for your own job: a designer making a design tool for designers. - From the source: combine generation with inspiration: prompt-to-UI plus a library of 200K+ real designs. - From the source: vibe-code it with Claude and keep shipping features (motion, brand audits) in public. - Our suggestion: keep the revenue proof connected: an expired payment key freezes the public numbers. ## GETebook.ai: an AI ebook generator with $35,469 in verified revenue in the last 30 days, built by a non-technical founder with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/getebook-ai-ebook-generator-35k-month-claude-code/ - App: GETebook.ai. An AI tool that turns an idea into a publish-ready ebook in minutes: pick a topic, audience and tone, and it writes the outline, the chapters and the cover, then exports to PDF, EPUB and Word. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $35,469 in the last 30 days and $141,933 all-time (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $35,469 in the last 30 days, $141,933 all-time and about $9,375 in recurring revenue from 199 active subscriptions (synced Oct 21, 2026). By month: about $19,300 in July 2026, $47,600 in August, $47,700 in September and $22,500 so far in October. On Aug 14, 2026 the founder posted "$28K in the last 30 days", which fits the Stripe data for that window. TrustMRR gives a founded date of Jul 29, 2025; plans start at $29/month. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/getebook-ai - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: Meta ads, TikTok, Instagram, Google ads, SEO, Blog content, Email list - How they got customers: Mostly paid and social: the TrustMRR listing names Facebook, Instagram and TikTok (organic and ads), Google Ads, a blog with SEO, and email. On X he says the ads sell the transformation ("person with an idea" to published author) rather than an "AI ebook generator", and that he runs A/B tests and analytics he built into the product himself. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 2,800 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/bogdan_ai) - Editor's note: Bogdan Dragomir is a solo, bootstrapped founder in Romania who introduced himself as a "non-tech founder" during GETebook.ai's MVP week in July 2025. In 2026 he says the platform's A/B testing and analytics are "all vibe coded with Claude Code", and that apart from the Resend API for sending email "everything else is custom built with claude code". TrustMRR lists React, TypeScript, Supabase, Vercel and Stripe. His X bio links getebook.ai and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. The quote is from his X reply of Jul 26, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/bogdan_ai/status/2081280713731559453 (@bogdan_ai (Bogdan Dragomir, founder) on X, posted 2026-07-26; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: sell an outcome, not a tool: his ads promise going from an idea to a finished ebook, not an "AI ebook generator". - From the source: ship a narrow MVP fast: a 13 to 15 chapter ebook plus cover in about 10 minutes. - From the source: build your own analytics and A/B tests into the product so you can see which pages and offers convert. - From the source: run paid social (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) alongside SEO and a blog. - Our suggestion: watch the monthly trend: October is running below August and September, so paid acquisition needs constant testing. ## Interni IA: an AI interior design photo app with its first $396 in verified sales, built 100% with Replit - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/interni-ia-ai-interior-design-photos-396-total-replit/ - App: Interni IA. An Italian AI photo app for interiors and real estate: furnish empty rooms, restyle a room in 15+ styles, remove furniture, turn 3D renders into photos, repaint facades or make a video tour from one image. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $396 all-time, about $39 MRR from 2 subscriptions (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $396 all-time, almost all since July 2026 (about $18 in July, $6 in August and $368 in September), $9 in the last 30 days and about $39 in recurring revenue from 2 active subscriptions (synced Oct 21, 2026). On Jul 7, 2026 the founder posted that organic traffic was starting but the app was still at $0 MRR, which fits the Stripe data. Plans cost €9.90, €29.90 or €69.90. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/interni-ia - Built with: Replit - Got customers via: SEO, Blog content, Instagram, Pinterest - How they got customers: Organic search for the Italian market: he says he uses Outrank for blog posts and backlinks and Fastlane for social posts. TrustMRR also lists Instagram and Pinterest. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 1,200 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/mrgriggio) - Editor's note: The founder runs Interni IA from Italy and calls it his "vibecoded app", "100% Built with @Replit and brainstormed with Claude". In the same July 2026 post he said organic traffic was starting through Outrank and Fastlane but revenue was still $0; the first meaningful Stripe sales came in September. His X bio links interniia.com and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. This is an early, small case. The quote is lightly cleaned up from his X post of Jul 7, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/mrgriggio/status/2074410575916892626 (@mrgriggio (Mr. Griggio, founder) on X, posted 2026-07-07; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: pick a local market: Interni IA is built for Italian homeowners, designers and estate agents. - From the source: bundle several AI photo jobs (furnish, empty, render to photo, facade, garden, video) in one app. - From the source: build it in Replit and use Claude to plan features. - From the source: set up SEO and social posting early; the first sales came about two months after organic traffic started. ## Dial Moments: an audio guestbook app with $7,686 in verified sales, built in a weekend with Replit - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/dial-moments-audio-guestbook-1k-month-replit/ - App: Dial Moments. An audio guestbook for weddings and parties: create an event, share a link or QR code, and guests leave voice messages from any phone, no app needed, saved for the hosts to keep. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): $1,005 in the last 30 days and $7,686 all-time (TrustMRR, RevenueCat and Stripe-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (RevenueCat and Stripe API keys) shows $1,005 in the last 30 days and $7,686 all-time (synced Oct 21, 2026). By month: about $30 in March 2026, $451 in April, $909 in May, $1,185 in June, $1,223 in July, $1,915 in August, $1,298 in September and $676 so far in October. Sales are per event ($9.99, $24.99 or $49.99), so there is no recurring revenue. On May 8, 2026 the founder posted that he had "made over $400 in the first month", which matches April. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/dial-moments-audio-guestbook - Built with: Replit - Got customers via: TikTok, Building in public, X - How they got customers: Short videos: he says he focused marketing on TikTok and Lemon8, aimed at people planning weddings and parties. He also builds in public on X, tagging Replit, which has shared his posts. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 420 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/eliasxreyes) - Editor's note: Elias Reyes had shipped two iOS apps before; he says Dial Moments took a weekend with Replit, and he repeats in later posts that it was "built with @Replit over a weekend" and "built on @Replit". The app is on the App Store and the web, with RevenueCat and Stripe connected to TrustMRR. By Aug 14, 2026 he said it had 281 subscribers. His X bio links dialmoments.com and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. The quote is from his X post of May 8, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/eliasxreyes/status/2052603221323968800 (@eliasxreyes (Elias Reyes, founder) on X, posted 2026-05-08; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - Our suggestion: pick an event people already spend on: weddings and parties, where an audio guestbook replaces a rented phone. - From the source: remove friction for guests: they call or tap a link from any phone, with no app to install. - From the source: build the first version in a weekend with Replit and ship it to the App Store and the web. - From the source: market with short videos on TikTok and Lemon8 where people plan their events. - From the source: charge per event with three tiers ($9.99 to $49.99) instead of a subscription. ## Karvi: a LinkedIn profile analyzer with $8,577 in Stripe-verified sales, vibe-coded in 3 days - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/karvi-linkedin-profile-analyzer-8-6k-total-vibe-coded/ - App: Karvi. A Brazilian career tool that reads your LinkedIn profile, scores how visible you are to recruiters and tells you what to fix, for a $9 one-time payment. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $8,577 all-time and $18.81 in the last 30 days (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $8,577 all-time and $18.81 in the last 30 days (synced Oct 21, 2026). Sales peaked at launch, with about $1,868 in February 2026, and have fallen to about $88 in September and $13 so far in October. Karvi is a $9 one-time purchase. A week after launch, on Feb 11, 2026, the founder posted "R$ 7k faturados" (about $1,300), which fits the February Stripe total. On TrustMRR he adds that most of Karvi's sales are Brazilian PIX payments through Mercado Pago and Woovi, which TrustMRR cannot read, and puts the real lifetime total at about $49.8K; that larger figure is not verified, so we only report the Stripe amount. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/karvi - Built with: Not specified - Got customers via: X, Building in public - How they got customers: A launch post on X to his Brazilian developer audience (he runs the codar.me community), promising a thread on the build in public. Karvi is listed for sale on TrustMRR. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 9.3K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure); he runs the codar.me developer community (source: https://x.com/brunobertolini) - Editor's note: Bruno Bertolini is a developer in Florianópolis, Brazil, who says he has been shipping code for about 20 years. He wrote that he built Karvi in 3 days, "totalmente vibe-coded" (fully vibe-coded), and that it billed R$7k in its first week; he does not name the AI tool. In English, the quote reads: "I built in 3 days, fully vibe-coded, a (micro) SaaS that analyzes your LinkedIn and tells you where to improve. In 1 week: R$7k billed." The link in his post goes to karvi.app, and TrustMRR links the listing to his X account. TrustMRR lists Next.js, Neon, Vercel, Resend and Stripe. The quote is from his X post of Feb 11, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/brunobertolini/status/2021667697927610743 (@brunobertolini (Bruno Bertolini, founder) on X, posted 2026-02-11; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - Our suggestion: solve a job-seeker pain everyone feels: "is my LinkedIn good enough?" - From the source: vibe-code a small, single-purpose version in days rather than weeks. - From the source: launch to an audience that already knows you: his X post brought R$7k in the first week. - From the source: price it as a low one-time fee so the decision is instant. - Our suggestion: plan for the second month: one-time launch spikes fade, as Karvi's Stripe sales did from February to October. ## Frameliq: a script-to-video AI studio at $631 MRR (Stripe-verified), built mostly with Codex and Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/frameliq-script-to-video-ai-studio-631-mrr-codex-claude-code/ - App: Frameliq. A script-to-video AI studio: import a screenplay or let AI write one, generate a storyboard scene by scene, then render video with models like Kling, Veo and Seedance, with AI dialogue and music. - App type: Video & content - Revenue (as claimed): $631 MRR from 23 subscriptions, $613 in the last 30 days and $1,539 all-time (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows about $631 in recurring revenue from 23 active subscriptions, $613 in the last 30 days, $1,187 in the last three months and $1,539 all-time (synced Oct 21, 2026). TrustMRR gives a founded date of Nov 23, 2025. Plans are free, Creator at $19/month and Studio at $49/month, with users bringing their own fal.ai and ElevenLabs keys for generation. Frameliq is listed for sale on TrustMRR, where the founder reports 389 sign-ups in 90 days from Mixpanel (not verified). - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/frameliq - Built with: OpenAI Codex, Claude Code - Got customers via: SEO, Blog content, X - How they got customers: Organic: TrustMRR lists SEO, content marketing, a blog and X. He posts his build workflow on X. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 3K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/tinkerersanky) - Editor's note: The founder, a solo maker in the UK who posts as tinkerersanky, listed his products by the tool he built them with and put Frameliq ("AI video story") under "Mostly built with Codex". He has also described a Claude Code workflow "for @frameliq development", where Claude Code documents the codebase before a larger model plans new features, and says Frameliq is built on Convex. His X bio links frameliq.com and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. The quote is shortened from his X post of Feb 3, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/tinkerersanky/status/2018567848067821943 (@tinkerersanky (founder) on X, posted 2026-02-03; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: cover the whole pipeline: script, storyboard, video, voice and music in one place. - From the source: let users bring their own generation keys (fal.ai, ElevenLabs) so subscriptions stay cheap and margins stay safe. - From the source: use Claude Code to document the codebase before asking a model to plan big features. - From the source: grow through SEO and content rather than ads. ## AI Renamer: a desktop app that renames files with AI, $7,625 in verified sales, 100% vibe-coded with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/ai-renamer-file-renaming-app-7-6k-total-cursor/ - App: AI Renamer. A desktop app that looks at your images, videos and documents and renames them with AI, either privately with local models (Ollama, LM Studio) or with cloud credits. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): $7,625 all-time and $169 in the last 30 days (TrustMRR, Polar-verified, Oct 21, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Polar API key) shows $7,625 all-time, $4,866 in the last 12 months and $169 in the last 30 days (synced Oct 21, 2026). Sales peaked at about $1,000 a month in November and December 2025 and are now around $90 to $125 a month. On TrustMRR the founder says he stopped marketing it in 2026 to build another app, and lists AI Renamer for sale. Pricing is $19 one-time for local mode or $10 per 200 cloud credits. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/ai-renamer - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: SEO, Blog content, Reddit, Open source - How they got customers: Content and search: TrustMRR lists a blog, SEO, content marketing and Reddit. Before the paid desktop app he released an open-source AI file renamer, and he posts updates on X. He says customers kept coming in 2026 without any marketing. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 2,400 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/ozgrozer) - Editor's note: Ozgur Ozer is a developer in Turkey. Replying to a question about vibe-coded apps, he linked his AI Renamer post and wrote that it was "100% vibe-coded with cursor"; in another reply he called it "a desktop app 100% vibe coded" and said he always tells the AI to use Tailwind and shadcn. The TrustMRR listing links to his X account, and his posts about AI Renamer go back to its launch in February 2025. The quote is from his X reply of Aug 11, 2025. - Source: https://x.com/ozgrozer/status/1954998286365950194 (@ozgrozer (Ozgur Ozer, founder) on X, posted 2025-08-11; added 2026-10-21) Steps to try: - From the source: start open source: he first released a free AI file renamer, then sold a polished desktop app. - From the source: offer a private option: local models through Ollama or LM Studio for people who won't upload files. - From the source: charge once for local use ($19) and sell credits for cloud use. - From the source: lean on search and content (blog, SEO, Reddit) so sales continue when you stop posting. - Our suggestion: expect a slide when attention moves elsewhere: sales fell from about $1K a month to about $100 once he stopped marketing. ## VectoSolve: a PNG-to-SVG converter at $2,695 a month (Stripe-verified), built by a former landscaper with Claude Code and Manus - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/vectosolve-png-to-svg-converter-2-7k-month-claude-code-manus/ - App: VectoSolve. A web app that turns PNG, JPG and WEBP images into editable SVG vectors and machine-ready files (DXF, G-code, embroidery formats and more) for Cricut, laser and CNC users, sold by subscription or one-time credit packs. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $2,695 in the last 30 days, with $1,676 MRR from 253 subscriptions plus one-time credit packs (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 20, 2026); $21,051 all-time (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $2,695 in the last 30 days, $8,788 in the last three months, $18,492 in the last six months and $21,051 all-time, with $1,676 MRR from 253 active subscriptions (synced Oct 20, 2026). In the AI Bites interview (posted Oct 12, 2026) Rob screen-shared Stripe and said VectoSolve makes about $3K a month but only about $1,500 of it is MRR, because roughly half of buyers take a one-time credit pack instead of a subscription. He says the first payment came at the very end of February 2026, after he cut the free tier from 25 conversions to 3. TrustMRR lists VectoSolve as founded Oct 7, 2025, based in France. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/vectosolve - Built with: Claude Code, Manus - Got customers via: SEO, Blog content, Reddit - How they got customers: Almost entirely SEO. He translated the site into 12 languages and generated about 1,000 landing pages for conversion pairs (PNG to SVG, JPG to SVG and so on), then wrote about 200 blog articles. Launches on Peerpush, Product Hunt and Reddit brought early backlinks; later he swapped backlinks with niche blogs. New export formats for Cricut, laser, CNC and embroidery users came from customer requests and each got its own landing page. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Rob is not a developer by training: he worked in landscaping from age 16, then two years in plasterboard, before getting into crypto and running a small digital agency in Dijon, France, with his cofounder. At the end of 2025 they launched a batch of small SaaS products. He says he gave Manus his stack (Next.js, Vercel, Supabase) and asked it to create a new micro-SaaS about 20 times, then picked the ones worth keeping; VectoSolve came out of that batch and fixed his own need to vectorize logos. He now writes each idea up as a Markdown spec and builds it in Claude Code, which he calls his "best friend". The conversion itself runs on an open-source model and JavaScript scripts. The quote is from YouTube's auto-captions, which render Claude Code as "cloud code". His X account, @Go_To_Rob, lists vectosolve.com among his projects. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FJWqmZY8u8 (Rob (founder), AI Bites on YouTube, posted 2026-10-12; added 2026-10-20) Steps to try: - From the source: solve a small problem you have yourself; he needed to vectorize logos for his other projects. - From the source: write the idea up as a Markdown spec, then build it in a back-and-forth with Claude Code and deploy. - From the source: go wide on SEO: one landing page per conversion pair in 12 languages, plus a blog (about 1,000 pages and 200 articles). - From the source: if lots of free users never pay, tighten the free tier; cutting free conversions from 25 to 3 brought the first payments. - Our suggestion: sell credit packs next to subscriptions: about half of VectoSolve's revenue is one-time, so its $1,676 MRR understates what it earns. ## SocialCrawl: a social media data API at $35,135 a month (Stripe-verified), built in about three weeks with Claude Code and Grok - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/socialcrawl-social-media-data-api-35k-month-claude-code/ - App: SocialCrawl. A single API that gives developers and AI agents social media and web data from 60+ platforms (TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, X and more) in one consistent format, paid mostly through usage credits. - App type: Developer tools - Revenue (as claimed): $35,135 in the last 30 days and $95,630 all-time since an April 2026 launch (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 20, 2026); $26,000 in August 2026 per the founder (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $35,135 in the last 30 days, $81,126 in the last three months and $95,630 all-time (synced Oct 20, 2026). Most of it is usage-based credit and enterprise revenue rather than subscriptions: TrustMRR's MRR figure is only $1,081, from one active subscription. In the AI Bites interview (posted Oct 1, 2026) Selene Lee says they made about $300 in April and closed August at $26,000 (one auto-caption reads $6,000; the intro clip of the same line and TrustMRR support $26K). Indie Hackers reported $12.5K a month on Sep 10, 2026. She puts the profit margin at about 50%, nearer 40% on enterprise deals. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/socialcrawl - Built with: Claude Code, Grok - Got customers via: Reddit, X, Threads, SEO, Google ads - How they got customers: The first sale came within 48 hours of launch, from indie-hacker WhatsApp and Discord groups where she had been active and helpful for months. Reddit then became the main source of paying and enterprise customers (she models each post on the subreddit's top posts), alongside building in public on X and Threads. SEO/GEO followed, and once revenue came in they reinvested in Google search ads. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 5,000 followers on Threads before launch, per the interview; 2,650 followers on X is an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQQb5wUZ3o) - Editor's note: Selene Lee has a neuroscience PhD from Oxford and no engineering background. Her cofounder and partner, Oscar Lee, is the CTO and has a PhD in AI and physical computing; together they ran a small dev agency (Ridio) that built AI products for clients, and four of their own products failed before SocialCrawl. Asked about their tools, she names Claude and Claude Code as their main AI, with Claude for planning and Grok for "writing code itself". On X she later wrote that she had gone "from claude code → codex → grok → deepseek" to cut costs. She doesn't say how much of the code AI wrote, and the team has real engineering experience. The stack is TypeScript, Next.js, Vercel and Neon. TrustMRR lists SocialCrawl as founded Apr 8, 2026, based in the UK. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQQb5wUZ3o (Selene Lee (cofounder), AI Bites on YouTube, posted 2026-10-01; added 2026-10-20) Steps to try: - From the source: pick a market people already pay for; she found competitors making up to about $50K MRR on TrustMRR and added a twist from her own data background. - From the source: ship fast and learn from feedback; they built SocialCrawl in about three weeks. - From the source: be useful in founder communities (WhatsApp, Discord) before you launch there; the first sale came within 48 hours. - From the source: on Reddit, copy the format of each subreddit's top posts and lead with value, not a pitch. - Our suggestion: for a usage-based API, look past MRR: SocialCrawl's $1,081 MRR hides about $35K a month in credit and enterprise sales. ## Tucket: a Mac clipboard manager with $1,293 in verified sales in two months, built by a designer with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/tucket-mac-clipboard-manager-1-3k-total-claude-code/ - App: Tucket. A clipboard manager that lives in the MacBook notch: it saves text, links, colours, images, SVGs and files, sorts them by type, reads text in screenshots, and runs fully offline for a one-time $10. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): $672 in the last 30 days and $1,293 all-time from $10 one-time licenses (TrustMRR, Dodo Payments-verified, Oct 20, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Dodo Payments API key) shows $672 in the last 30 days and $1,293 all-time (synced Oct 20, 2026): $62 in August 2026, $944 in September and $287 so far in October, with no recurring revenue because Tucket is a $10 one-time purchase. Daily sales have slowed in October, including several zero days while the founder was on vacation. On Sep 16, 2026 he posted that Tucket had passed 50 customers in its first month, which fits the September total. TrustMRR gives a founded date of Aug 22, 2026; his first launch posts are from early August. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/tucket - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: X, Building in public, YouTube, Blog content - How they got customers: Building in public on X: a numbered "Day 1, Day 2" series showing one feature per post, weekly release notes, and replies to designers and Mac users with the link. He also posted short YouTube walkthroughs and Medium lists such as "5 Mac apps every designer needs" that include Tucket. The pitch is aimed at designers, who copy hex codes, SVGs and images all day. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 206 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/ArpitChandak18) - Editor's note: Arpit Chandak is a self-taught designer in Bangalore. He says he could only visualize software before he found Claude Code this year, and that he has been building Tucket with it; he also calls himself someone who vibe-codes "all day" and runs vibestack.in, a directory of vibe-coding resources for non-coders. He built Tucket because he only used Raycast for its clipboard history and kept losing what he copied. TrustMRR lists Swift and SwiftUI with Dodo Payments. His X bio links trytucket.com, and TrustMRR links the listing to the same account. The quote is lightly cleaned up from his X reply of Sep 26, 2026. - Source: https://x.com/ArpitChandak18/status/2103934171802693691 (@ArpitChandak18 (Arpit Chandak, founder) on X, posted 2026-09-26; added 2026-10-20) Steps to try: - From the source: build the tool you wanted yourself; he only kept Raycast for clipboard history, so he made a clipboard manager. - From the source: pick an audience you belong to: Tucket is pitched at designers who copy hex codes, SVGs and images all day. - From the source: post one feature a day on X as a numbered series, then weekly release notes. - From the source: charge once: a $10 lifetime license brought 50+ customers in the first month. - Our suggestion: plan for the drop after launch; one-time sales slowed in October, so a paid upgrade or new audience matters more than for a subscription app. ## CNVS: a voice-controlled Mac app for AI coding agents, $49,986 in Stripe-verified sales since its June 2026 launch, built with Claude Code and Codex - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/cnvs-voice-controlled-ai-agent-canvas-50k-total-claude-code-codex/ - App: CNVS. A macOS app that puts AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) on an infinite canvas per project, controlled by voice, with terminals and live browsers, locally or on a remote server; sold as a one-time purchase. - App type: Developer tools - Revenue (as claimed): $49,986 all-time revenue since a June 2026 launch (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 19, 2026); $3,980 in the last 30 days (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows $49,986 all-time revenue, $12,935 in the last three months and $3,980 in the last 30 days (synced Oct 19, 2026). By month: $23,718 in June 2026 (launch month), $15,920 in July, $3,980 in August, $3,781 in September and $2,587 so far in October, so sales have fallen sharply since launch. It is a one-time purchase ($199 on TrustMRR), so MRR is $0. The founder's own posts match the launch spike: "$8k in 8 days" (Jun 19), "$13k in 9 days" (Jun 20) and "over 20 thousand dollars" 12 days after launch (Jun 24). - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/cnvs - Built with: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex - Got customers via: X, Building in public, YouTube - How they got customers: Building in public on X, where he has about 24.8K followers, with daily revenue and feature posts, and by live-streaming himself building CNVS on X and YouTube for four to eight hours a day. He also posts tutorials on his AI coding workflow that end with the app. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 24.8K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure); he says he had made over $100K shipping earlier projects with AI (source: https://x.com/_MaxBlade) - Editor's note: Max Blade is an experienced builder who says he had made over $100K shipping projects with AI before CNVS. He describes his "design loop" in the same post: Codex and GPT image generation for the mockup, then Claude Code iterating until the result matches. He also says he live-streams himself "building cnvs with CNVS", the agent environment itself, which runs Claude Code, Codex and Cursor's agent. The app is written in Swift. Sales peaked in the launch month and have fallen every month since; the figure above is the total to date, not a monthly rate. The quote is from his X post of Jun 16, 2026. - Source: https://trustmrr.com/startup/cnvs (Max Blade (founder) on TrustMRR, posted 2026-10-19; added 2026-10-19) Steps to try: - From the source: build the tool you use every day; he made the environment he wanted for running many AI agents at once. - From the source: use a design loop: mock up with image generation, hand the mockup to Claude Code, then screenshot, compare and iterate. - From the source: live-stream the build daily so the launch already has an audience watching. - From the source: sell it once instead of by subscription; he says people are burnt out on subscriptions and the app has no recurring costs. - Our suggestion: plan for what comes after the launch spike: one-time sales fell from $23.7K in June to about $3.8K a month by September. ## BasinCheck: an oilfield safety audit SaaS at $895 MRR and $5,576 in Stripe-verified revenue, built by a self-described vibe coder - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/basincheck-oilfield-safety-audit-saas-5-6k-total-vibe-coded/ - App: BasinCheck. A mobile-first safety audit app for oil and gas contractors that replaces paper checklists with inspections, offline mode, tracked corrective actions and OSHA-ready exports. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $895 MRR from 5 active subscriptions; $5,576 all-time revenue (TrustMRR, Stripe-verified, Oct 19, 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR (Stripe API key) shows current MRR of $895 from 5 active subscriptions, $5,576 all-time revenue, $2,226 in the last 30 days and $3,608 in the last six months (synced Oct 19, 2026). Revenue is lumpy: $1,800 in February 2026 and $2,221 on a single day (Sep 30), with $155 to $405 in the months between, which suggests larger or longer-term payments, though the page doesn't say. Plans are listed at $125, $250 and $500 a month. TrustMRR gives a founded date of Dec 21, 2025. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/basincheck - Built with: Not specified - Got customers via: Not specified - How they got customers: The founder hasn't said how he gets customers. On X he replies to posts about safety-audit paperwork to mention BasinCheck, and its TrustMRR profile lists memberships in ASSP and the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 110 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/jay_cobski) - Editor's note: The founder posts as jayCobski (based in Wrocław, Poland); his X bio says he is the founder of BasinCheck, and TrustMRR links the listing to that account. He calls himself "a typical vibe coder that built BasinCheck.com" and writes of prompting "in my CLI & IDE", but doesn't name the AI tools. TrustMRR lists Next.js, TypeScript, Supabase, PostgreSQL, Resend and Stripe. It sells to a narrow B2B niche at $125 to $500 a month, so a handful of customers is real money. The quote is from his X post of Jul 11, 2026. - Source: https://trustmrr.com/startup/basincheck (jayCobski (founder) on TrustMRR, posted 2026-10-19; added 2026-10-19) Steps to try: - From the source: pick a narrow B2B niche with paper-based compliance work; oil and gas contractors face OSHA fines for missing records. - From the source: price for businesses: $125 to $500 a month means five customers make close to $900 MRR. - From the source: join the industry associations your buyers belong to; BasinCheck lists ASSP and the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. - From the source: reply to people describing the exact problem your app solves, as he does on X. - Our suggestion: publish verified revenue so a small, lumpy number still reads as trustworthy. ## Harpagia: a text-based idle RPG at about $13K a month ($155K in a year, Firebase shown), built by an ex-Meta manager with Cursor and ChatGPT - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/harpagia-idle-rpg-mobile-game-155k-year-cursor-chatgpt/ - App: Harpagia. A text-based offline idle RPG for iOS and Android where players battle, level up, collect gear and trade, monetized with in-app purchases. - App type: Games - Revenue (as claimed): About $13,000 a month on average, over $150,000 in the past year (Firebase dashboard shows $155K total revenue; Starter Story interview, September 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In the Starter Story interview (posted Sep 13, 2026) Ken says the game has averaged around $13,000 a month, totaling over $150,000 in the past year, from over 50,000 downloads across iOS and Android with roughly a 6% conversion rate and over $3 in revenue per active user. The Firebase overview shown on camera reads $155K total revenue, $149K purchase revenue and $5.9K in a third revenue line, with $3.11 per user. He says a single Reddit post took revenue from about $1,000 to $10,000 a month, and that he spends nothing on ads and about $500 a month to run it. His June 2026 Reddit post gives the same totals ($150K+, 50K+ downloads), and an earlier Starter Story written interview put it at about $10K a month with 40K downloads. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, ChatGPT - Got customers via: Reddit, Word of mouth - How they got customers: Reddit: six months after launch he posted the game to an incremental-games community. The response was mostly critical, but the post put the game in front of thousands of players and revenue went from about $1,000 to $10,000 a month almost overnight. A Discord community and player feedback keep retention up; he has not spent on ads. - Prior audience (before launch): None: Says he had no audience, no publisher and no marketing budget (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axH1e2cZSrw) - Editor's note: Ken was an engineering manager at Meta and a software engineer at Amazon, so he is not a beginner, but he says he had not coded in over four years when he started with AI tools in early 2024. He first built a small card game (Big 2 Wild) in about six weeks to learn AI-assisted development, then applied it to Harpagia; he names Cursor as his code editor and ChatGPT for brainstorming and icon touch-ups, with React Native and Firebase. He launched the game while still working full time. The App Store lists Harpagia: Offline Idle RPG from Kayelle Apps LLC (released Nov 22, 2024), and it is also on Google Play. We found no TrustMRR listing. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axH1e2cZSrw (Ken Law (founder), Starter Story on YouTube, posted 2026-09-13; added 2026-10-19) Steps to try: - From the source: ship a tiny first project to learn AI-assisted development end to end, including store approvals, before the real one. - From the source: build for a niche you understand; he made the idle RPG he wanted to play. - From the source: force a launch date (his was six months) even if the bigger vision isn't done. - From the source: post the game where its players gather, such as Reddit's incremental-games community, and take the criticism as feedback. - From the source: focus on retention before monetization, then price in-app purchases in the 4.99 to 9.99 range where players convert. - Our suggestion: one viral post is not a channel; set up a repeatable source of new players before the spike fades. ## Erly: a push-up alarm app at over $50K a month four months after launch, built in 19 days with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/erly-push-up-alarm-app-50k-month-claude-code/ - App: Erly. An iPhone alarm that only turns off after you do push-ups, built to help people wake up early and keep the habit. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): Over $50,000 per month, about four months after a late-2025 launch; App Store Connect shows $61.2K in sales over 28 days (Starter Story interview, July 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In the Starter Story interview (posted Jul 5, 2026) Jake says Erly makes over $50,000 a month and went from zero to $50,000 a month in four months after launching at the end of 2025. The App Store Connect Analytics screen shown on camera reads $61.2K in sales for a 28-day period (about Apr 19 to May 17). He says the app got 50,000 downloads in 30 days and over 200,000 downloads in 2026. Pricing is $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month. The App Store lists Erly: Wake Up Early from Glacier Labs LLC with 4.8 stars from about 16,000 ratings. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: Influencers, TikTok, Instagram, UGC videos - How they got customers: Creators on TikTok and Instagram making day-in-the-life style videos with the app. He pays them on view-guarantee deals that work out to about $2 to $3 per thousand views, tracks every creator's results, and puts marketing ahead of building. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Jake, 24, is a former CPA at a Big Four firm who taught himself to code over about four years. He says it took about 19 days from his first commit to the App Store, and the alarm feature itself shipped about 19 days later. He calls Claude Code 'the absolute best tool for actually building the app' and runs Firebase, Superwall, OpenAI, Mixpanel and creator-payment tools around it. The 28-day sales figure on screen ($61.2K) is App Store sales before Apple's cut. The app on the App Store is sold by Glacier Labs LLC (released Sep 3, 2025). We found no TrustMRR listing for Erly. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/this-insanely-simple-app-makes-50k-month (Jake Glacer (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-07-05; added 2026-10-19) Steps to try: - From the source: pick a problem almost everyone has (getting out of bed) and a dead simple mechanic: the alarm stops only after push-ups. - From the source: ship the MVP fast; Erly went live in about 19 days, before the alarm feature even existed. - From the source: build with Claude Code and keep the stack to off-the-shelf services: Firebase, Superwall, Mixpanel. - From the source: recruit TikTok and Instagram creators for day-in-the-life videos and pay on view guarantees, around $2 to $3 per thousand views. - From the source: track every creator's views and installs and keep paying only the ones that work. - Our suggestion: remember App Store sales are before Apple's commission and refunds; plan costs on proceeds, not sales. ## Scanémon: a Pokémon card scanner app at $17,165 MRR (RevenueCat dashboard shown), MVP built in a day with Cursor's agent - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/scanemon-pokemon-card-scanner-17k-mrr-cursor/ - App: Scanémon. An iPhone app that identifies Pokémon and other trading cards from the camera, shows market value and recent sales, and tracks a collection's value, sold by subscription. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): $17,165 MRR, 3,462 active subscriptions (RevenueCat dashboard shown in a Starter Story interview, June 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In the Starter Story interview (YouTube, Jun 7, 2026) Kyle Fowler says Scanémon is at "about 3,400 active subscriptions, 17K monthly recurring revenue, about 16,000 new customers a month", about a year after launch. The RevenueCat overview he shows on camera, with the Scanémon project selected, reads MRR $17,165, 3,462 active subscriptions, 220 active trials, $29,198 revenue in the last 28 days, 16,340 new customers and 19,792 active customers. The same team's older app, Cardstock, is at about 15,000 subscriptions and $75K MRR; the two together are the video's "$120K/month". The app is free to download with subscriptions. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: TikTok, UGC videos - How they got customers: TikTok slideshows: a simple, repeatable format tested for both views and conversions. They distribute the slideshow templates to creators through UseNoise and pay per view; he suggests starting on your own accounts to validate a format first. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: The same team already ran Cardstock, a sports card scanner with about 15,000 subscriptions, ~$75K MRR and about 13,000 downloads a month (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWnqY2Mav4s) - Editor's note: Kyle Fowler is a self-taught iOS developer, not a beginner: he hand-built Cardstock, a sports card scanner, starting in 2019, and runs it with a small team at Open Brace. Scanémon is essentially Cardstock for Pokémon cards, so it reused a proven idea and an experienced team. He says that for Scanémon he had Cursor's agent generate the app, with an MVP in a day; the team's current stack also includes Codex (via ChatGPT), Claude, Supabase and Railway. The App Store lists Scanémon: Trading Card Scanner from Open Brace LLC (released Jul 6, 2025; 505 ratings, 4.6 stars when we checked). We found no TrustMRR listing. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWnqY2Mav4s (Kyle Fowler (founder), Starter Story on YouTube, posted 2026-06-07; added 2026-10-19) Steps to try: - From the source: build around a hobby you know well; he collects cards and built the app he wanted. - From the source: reuse a format that already works: Scanémon is the Cardstock playbook pointed at a new card market. - From the source: let an AI agent generate the first version and get an MVP out in a day, then iterate. - From the source: monetize with a subscription paywall through RevenueCat or Superwall. - From the source: market with repeatable TikTok slideshows; pay creators per view through a platform like UseNoise once a format converts. - Our suggestion: track new customers and MRR separately; 16,000 new customers a month against 3,462 active subscriptions shows how much retention matters. ## Tarsi: a budget tracker built in a weekend with Codex that made about $20K in its first month as a paid app - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/tarsi-budget-tracker-app-20k-first-month-codex/ - App: Tarsi. An offline-first budget tracker for iPhone and Android with a tarsier mascot: log spending, track balances across cards and accounts, and plan bills without an account or a server. - App type: Finance & money - Revenue (as claimed): About $20,000 in its first month across iOS and Android as a paid-upfront app; App Store Connect shows $14.7K in iOS sales (Tap & Swipe podcast, May 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: On the Tap & Swipe podcast (May 23, 2026) Bryl says iOS sales were sitting at about $14.9K after a little over a month and that iOS plus Android came to around $19K to $20K, with Android live for only about three weeks. The App Store Connect Trends screen he shared on camera shows $14.7K in lifetime sales and 3.37K units for Tarsi - Budget Tracker (Apple ID 6760278399) through April 2026. The app launched at $4.99 paid upfront on iOS, about $2 less on Android, with no free trial and no paid ads. Tarsi later switched to free with Pro plans ($2.99 a month, $29.99 a year or $29.99 lifetime); TrustMRR, connected to RevenueCat, shows that newer subscription revenue separately: $869 MRR, 339 active subscriptions and $4,357 all time (checked Oct 19, 2026). - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Codex - Got customers via: Word of mouth, Social media, App Store search (ASO) - How they got customers: No paid ads. Tarsi went viral after he demoed it at a university talk on vibe coding and shared it on his socials, then climbed to #1 in the paid charts in several countries. A link in the app's settings sends users to a public Facebook group for questions and feedback, and because the group is public their posts show up in their friends' feeds. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: His X bio calls him a "300k+ creator" (about 1.8K followers on X itself); he first showed Tarsi as a live demo at a university talk (source: https://x.com/bryllim_) - Editor's note: Bryl Lim, from the Philippines, built Tarsi in one weekend as a live demo for a university talk about vibe coding. He says he mainly uses Codex on top of his own React Native templates, made the first mascot with Nano Banana (Gemini) from a Bulbasaur reference, and designs App Store screenshots in Figma. The $14.7K on screen is App Store Connect sales before Apple's cut, and the roughly $20K total is his own estimate including Google Play. The App Store lists Tarsi - Budget Tracker from Bryl Kezter Lim (released Mar 12, 2026; 4.6 stars from about 470 ratings in the Philippines). TrustMRR's RevenueCat data only starts with the later subscription plans (April 2026), so it does not include the paid-upfront launch sales; it shows $869 MRR and $2,178 in the last 30 days as of Oct 19, 2026. On Oct 15, 2026 he posted that one of his apps is being acquired without naming it; TrustMRR does not list Tarsi for sale. - Source: https://tap-and-swipe.com/episodes/bryl-lim-tarsi (Bryl Lim (founder), Tap & Swipe podcast on Podcast, posted 2026-05-23; added 2026-10-19) Steps to try: - From the source: build the first version fast with an AI coding agent on top of a template you already trust; Tarsi took one weekend with Codex and a React Native starter. - From the source: skip the paywall setup at launch: charge upfront ($4.99) and let the App Store handle payments. - From the source: keep the core app offline-first (no account, no server) so it costs nothing to run as sales grow. - From the source: put a public Facebook group link in the app's settings so feedback posts reach users' friends. - From the source: ship early and iterate on reviews and group feedback instead of polishing before launch. - Our suggestion: if you later add subscriptions, track paid-upfront and subscription revenue separately so your numbers stay comparable. ## Algrow: a YouTube format research SaaS at £10,250 in four weeks (Stripe shown), vibe coded with Cursor by a student with no coding background - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/algrow-youtube-format-research-saas-10k-gbp-month-cursor/ - App: Algrow. A research tool for YouTube creators that surfaces channels and video formats going viral right now, with subscriber and average-view data, and helps them replicate those formats. - App type: Video & content - Revenue (as claimed): £10,250.61 gross volume in the last four weeks, which he describes as over $14,000 in the last 30 days, about six months after launch (Stripe dashboard shown, Starter Story interview, January 2026) (per month) - Currency: GBP (British pounds, as stated in the source) - Details: In the Starter Story interview (posted Jan 14, 2026) Sam says he vibe coded his first SaaS, Algrow, six months earlier and that it has over 10,000 users and made over $14,000 in revenue in the last 30 days. The Stripe 'Your overview' screen he shows on camera reads £10,250.61 gross volume and £9,537.38 net volume for the last four weeks (November 2025), with 480 new customers. Plans are 25, 45 and 80 a month. On X he posted on May 28, 2025 that Algrow had passed 8k MRR and on Jul 23, 2025 that it was doing five figures MRR; on Mar 3, 2026 he wrote that he had taken the company past five figures MRR solo before hiring a lead developer. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: ChatGPT, Cursor - Got customers via: Discord communities, Word of mouth, X - How they got customers: Discord first: he joined small communities of YouTube creators, muted his mic and shared his screen to demo the tool live, and got his first 400 users that way. Members told their friends, and he kept posting in the same communities as he shipped updates. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: Restarted an X account he had used for two years as a thumbnail designer, which he says had some "dead followers" (size not stated) (source: https://x.com/samgrows/status/1920190551879458823) - Editor's note: Sam is a university student with no coding background: he says he first built by copying code back and forth between ChatGPT and Notepad, then VS Code, until a friend told him to use Cursor; he is now on the $200 a month Cursor plan. In an Apr 29, 2026 X post he says he has since moved to Zed with Claude Code. The figure we use is the one on the Stripe screen (in GBP); his $14,000 is his own conversion. The video's cold open also has him saying 'last month, I did over $40,000 in revenue' without naming the business; he runs a second SaaS, so we did not use that number. We found no TrustMRR listing for Algrow. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r0qPeSJGog (Sam Adeniyi (founder), Starter Story on YouTube, posted 2026-01-14; added 2026-10-19) Steps to try: - From the source: find where your users already hang out; for Algrow that was small Discord servers of YouTube creators. - From the source: ship the MVP even if it is broken, and demo it live: mute your mic, share your screen and show the tool working on real channels. - From the source: build with AI from zero: start by pasting code between ChatGPT and an editor, then move to Cursor once the project grows. - From the source: price in simple tiers (25, 45 and 80 a month) and let the free demos in communities feed sign-ups. - From the source: keep posting updates in the same communities so members bring their friends. - Our suggestion: check your Stripe figure in its own currency before quoting it in another; FX can move a headline number by 30%. ## Kleo: an AI LinkedIn writing tool at $61,910 MRR (Polar shown) about 90 days after a rebuild with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/kleo-linkedin-ai-writing-tool-62k-mrr-claude-code/ - App: Kleo. An AI writing tool for LinkedIn posts that learns your writing style, finds what's trending, suggests ideas and drafts posts with you in a chat, pitched as 'Cursor for LinkedIn posts'. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): $61,910 MRR on the Polar card shared by the cofounder (Nov 2 to Dec 1, 2025); $62k MRR about three months after relaunch (X and Indie Hackers, December 2025) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: On Dec 15, 2025 cofounder Cameron Trew posted on X: 'We built a $62k MRR SaaS in 90 days. (Without ads or launching)', with a Polar card reading $61,910 monthly recurring revenue for Nov 2 to Dec 1, 2025. Indie Hackers (Dec 31, 2025) independently reports Kleo at $62k MRR, plus $20k MRR for his second product, Mentions. Kleo 2.0 filled 500 beta spots with a lifetime discount on Oct 6, 2025 (filled in 4 days, per cofounder Jake Ward), then 500 more (filled in 9 days). Cameron's current X bio says the company passed $1m in revenue by September 2026. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: Waitlist, Email list, LinkedIn, Webinars - How they got customers: The waitlist did all the work: Kleo 1.0, a free Chrome extension, had 60K to 70K users, and cofounders Jake Ward and Lara Acosta brought large LinkedIn audiences. They emailed the waitlist with 500 beta spots at a lifetime discount, sold out in four days, then opened 500 more, and Lara ran webinars showing features and testimonials. No ads. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Kleo 1.0 had 60K+ users, and cofounders Jake Ward (100K LinkedIn followers in a year) and Lara Acosta brought large LinkedIn audiences (source: https://x.com/jakezward/status/1975183615257411704) - Editor's note: Kleo started as Jake Ward's free Chrome extension for studying LinkedIn creators; it grew past 60K users, then got a cease-and-desist from LinkedIn and was shut down. Cameron, a software engineer who quit his job in September 2025, rebuilt it as a web app; in his post the stack is 'Claude Code for development' with Vercel, Inngest and Neon, and Indie Hackers says v2.0 went from cease-and-desist to launch in four weeks. This is a team with an experienced engineer and very large audiences, not a solo beginner. The Polar card is an image shared by the founder, not a live dashboard; the Indie Hackers article ($62k MRR) is paywalled past the intro, which we read. We found no TrustMRR listing. - Source: https://x.com/camtrew/status/2000550729447043420 (Cameron Trew (cofounder), X on X, posted 2025-12-15; added 2026-10-19) Steps to try: - From the source: start with a waitlist you already own; Kleo's came from 60K users of its free first version and the cofounders' audiences. - From the source: rebuild fast with Claude Code on managed infrastructure (Vercel, Inngest, Neon), then ship, learn and iterate. - From the source: email the waitlist a limited beta offer, 500 spots with a lifetime discount, and close the doors when they sell out. - From the source: spend the beta bug bashing and adding the features users ask for, then open another limited batch. - From the source: run live webinars showing features and testimonials to convert the rest of the list. - Our suggestion: build on your own product, not on scraping a platform; LinkedIn's cease-and-desist is why Kleo 1.0 died. ## Cursor Directory: a community site for Cursor rules and plugins at $35K+ MRR from ads and listings, a 3-hour hack coded with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/cursor-directory-community-plugins-35k-mrr-cursor/ - App: Cursor Directory. A free community site where developers share and find Cursor rules, MCP servers and plugins, paid for by job listings, featured placements and ads. - App type: Developer tools - Revenue (as claimed): $35K+ MRR from ads and listings and $150K+ in profit, about a year after a 3-hour build (founder, X, September 2025) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: On Sep 12, 2025 Pontus Abrahamsson posted on X that cursor.directory, 'a 3-hour hack', makes $35k a month: $35k+ MRR from ads and listings, $150k+ in profit and 55.5k registered users. In the Starter Story interview (posted Nov 16, 2025) he says 'we built it in a weekend and now it makes 35k per month', the host puts it at $34,000 a month, and the founders give a 99.8% gross margin, operating costs under about $500 a month, 49,000 registered users and 2.2 million unique visitors since launch. Revenue comes from paid job listings, featured placements and ads; payments run through Polar. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: X, Open source, SEO - How they got customers: They posted the site on X the day it was built and it took off; Pontus already had a large developer audience there. Every rule is open source and merged on GitHub, so the community keeps adding content, which brings search traffic and the sponsors and job posters who pay for listings. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: About 31K followers on X; cofounder of the open-source Midday app before building the directory (source: https://x.com/pontusab) - Editor's note: Pontus Abrahamsson and Viktor Hofte built the site after Pontus called Viktor from an airport; in the Starter Story interview (Nov 16, 2025) they say 'we of course use cursor to code', with Next.js, Vercel and shadcn, and that they spend about three hours a month on it. The interview repeats the X figure (about $34,000 to $35,000 a month) but shows no dashboard, so this stays self-reported. Pontus is an experienced developer with a large audience, not a beginner. The site is live as of Oct 19, 2026 ('Extend Cursor with community plugins', 90.9K+ developers); his X bio now says he is building at Ramp, and we did not confirm who runs the directory today. We found no TrustMRR listing. - Source: https://x.com/pontusab/status/1966470564601835963 (Pontus Abrahamsson (cofounder), X on X, posted 2025-09-12; added 2026-10-19) Steps to try: - From the source: spot a gap the moment a tool takes off: Cursor users had nowhere to share rules, so they built the directory in about three hours. - From the source: launch the same day on X, where the founder already had a developer audience. - From the source: make the content open source on GitHub so the community keeps it growing for free. - From the source: monetize the traffic with paid job listings, featured MCPs and ads instead of charging users. - From the source: keep the stack serverless and cheap (Next.js, Vercel, Polar) so margins stay near 100%. - Our suggestion: a directory tied to one tool depends on that tool's popularity; diversify before the platform changes direction. ## Vaultaire: a private photo vault iPhone app at $41K a month, built in three weeks with coding agents - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/vaultaire-private-photo-vault-app-41k-month-codex-claude-code/ - App: Vaultaire. A privacy-first iPhone and iPad app for hiding photos, videos and files: everything is encrypted on the device, there are no accounts, and different unlock patterns open separate vaults. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): $41,425 in gross App Store sales in August 2026 (up from $26,384 in July) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In an Indie Hackers interview (Oct 8, 2026) the founder says Vaultaire did $26,384 in gross App Store sales in July and $41,425 in August. He says most revenue comes from lifetime purchases, so he does not call it MRR; the recurring part is much smaller. July breakdown he gives: 17,100 downloads, 1,287 purchases (7.53% download-to-paid), 545 annual plans at $9.99, 47 monthly at $1.99 and 695 lifetime at $29.99; lifetime was about 54% of customers and 79% of revenue. It made $66 in its first partial month after the March 13, 2026 launch. These are gross sales before Apple's 15% commission. On X (Sep 3, 2026) he wrote it was 'currently stuck at $2k/day'. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: OpenAI Codex, Claude Code - Got customers via: App Store search (ASO), Localization, SEO, Pinterest, Apple Search Ads, Building in public, Free tools - How they got customers: No formal launch: he put up the website, published the app, measured everything and ran small experiments. ASO became the biggest channel at about 60% of downloads, and localizing the app and site made Japan a major market. SEO only took off after backlinks from directories and republishing articles on Medium, Blogger and WordPress.com. LinkedIn, X and Reddit did little; one Pinterest push brought 311 visits, 244 downloads, 51 paying customers and $1,122. Apple Search Ads (about $650) returned about $2,400 in attributed sales before he paused them. He also built free browser tools on the site. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Rasty Turek is a career engineer (security, then Gmail at Google) who founded Pex, a copyright tech company sold in 2025, so he is not a beginner, but Vaultaire was his first iPhone app and he says coding agents bridged the iOS parts he didn't know. In his X article he says he built the first version in about three weeks 'by mostly prompting a coding agent' and lists $200/month each for Codex and Claude among his costs; on X he says he uses Claude Code. He doesn't say which agent wrote the first version. The app is written in Swift/UIKit with no backend (iCloud for storage); the website is static on Cloudflare. - Source: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/tech/how-rasty-turek-built-vaultaire-in-three-weeks-and-grew-it-to-40k-month-1BjFvs2akwfIVjMGYO54 (Rasty Turek (founder), Indie Hackers interview by Channing Allen on Indie Hackers, posted 2026-10-08; added 2026-10-18) Steps to try: - From the source: write a detailed product spec first, then hand it to coding agents; he says the product stayed close to that spec. - From the source: copy what other indie developers publish about paywalls, pricing, screenshots and ASO instead of reinventing it; he says public shares shaped about 90% of his marketing and monetization decisions. - From the source: offer a lifetime plan for a utility app; lifetime was most of his revenue. - From the source: test higher prices sooner; he nearly doubled prices and says volume barely changed while revenue roughly doubled. - From the source: localize the app and the website; Japan became one of his biggest markets. - From the source: build backlinks (directories, republished articles) when a new site isn't getting indexed. - From the source: try many cheap channels and follow the numbers; Pinterest beat LinkedIn, X and Reddit for him. - Our suggestion: track subscription retention separately from lifetime sales, since lifetime-heavy months don't recur. ## Dropmagic: an AI store builder for e-commerce beginners at $120K MRR, developed with Cursor and Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/dropmagic-ai-ecommerce-store-builder-120k-mrr-cursor-claude-code/ - App: Dropmagic. A SaaS that uses AI to build a ready-to-sell online store for a product in about five minutes, aimed at beginners in e-commerce and dropshipping. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $120K MRR (founder on X, October 2026); over 45K MRR within the first four months (Starter Story, Nov 2025) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: On October 6, 2026 the founder posted on X: 'I scaled Minea to $750K MRR and Dropmagic to $120K MRR'. His X bio at the time read '€106k/300k', a progress bar toward a 300k goal shown in euros, so the company may track revenue in euros; the dollar figure from his post is the one used here. In a Starter Story interview published November 30, 2025 he said Dropmagic was 'growing to over 45K MMR within the first four months', with no currency given. Minea is his earlier company and is not counted here. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, Claude Code - Got customers via: YouTube creators, Affiliates - How they got customers: Mostly YouTube creators: the founder says more than 60% of new customers come from YouTube. One co-founder is a YouTube creator who uses the product and promotes it, which he says secured the first 10K MRR; after that they paid other creators a fixed fee plus commission, starting with one video and moving to multi-video deals once a creator broke even. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 7K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure); he previously scaled Minea to $750K MRR (source: https://x.com/LoicBerthelot) - Editor's note: Loïc Berthelot is a French software engineer with more than ten years of experience who previously scaled Minea, a product-research tool for e-commerce, which he says peaked at 750K MRR. He is not a non-coder: in the Starter Story interview he lists 'Cursor and Claude Code to actually develop the solution' in his stack (with Supabase, Next.js, Vercel, Sentry and Trigger.dev), and in October 2026 he wrote on X that he does 'almost zero coding anymore, I just chat with Claude Code all day long'. Dropmagic has three co-founders, one of them a YouTube creator in the e-commerce niche, so distribution was not starting from zero. He spent summer 2026 building a Dropmagic v2. - Source: https://x.com/LoicBerthelot/status/2107414617685373125 (Loïc Berthelot (co-founder), X on X, posted 2026-10-06; added 2026-10-18) Steps to try: - From the source: put distribution in the founding team; a creator co-founder de-risks the launch and gives you product and marketing feedback. - From the source: favour long-form YouTube creators over chasing viral short videos; they can show how the app is used and keep converting for years. - From the source: pick creators by engagement (views relative to followers, about 100+ comments per video) and by repeat brand deals. - From the source: start with a one-video deal, check if it breaks even within a month, then sign a three- or four-video package. - From the source: validate in steps (newsletter, then a no-code app, then the real app) and use deadlines and milestones, not attachment, to decide whether to continue. - Our suggestion: if free users get AI generations, cap them and track that cost per signup. ## NinjaPear: a B2B data API past $15K in a month six months after launch, prototyped in two weeks with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/ninjapear-b2b-data-api-15k-month-claude-code/ - App: NinjaPear. A B2B data enrichment and competitive intelligence platform: APIs and tools that look up companies, their customers, competitors and employees from public web data. - App type: Developer tools - Revenue (as claimed): Over $15k in gross revenue in a month, about six months after a January 2026 launch (founder, Indie Hackers, July 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: Steven Goh launched NinjaPear on January 30, 2026 and posted on X the next day that he got his first payment. On his blog on March 25, 2026 he wrote that 54 days after launch NinjaPear had 1,036 registered users and an annualized run rate of around $66,000. On June 30 he wrote that he had made more than 10K in each of the last 2 months (no currency given), that NinjaPear was already profitable, and that revenue had dipped that month, so he did not think he had product-market fit yet. In the Indie Hackers interview published July 7, 2026 he says: 'We did over $15k in gross revenue last month.' Revenue comes from credit packs (pay as you go from $10) and subscriptions, so this is monthly gross revenue, not MRR. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code, Codex - Got customers via: Cold email (AI agent), Free tools, Blog content, X - How they got customers: He launched with a blog post, then released a free 1:1 replacement for Clearbit's deprecated Logo API and replied to people on X who were looking for one. His main growth hack, on his blog: for every new signup, a prospecting agent finds people in similar roles at that user's competitors and sends them a cold email saying a competitor just signed up; he credits it with taking registrations from 300 to 3,163 users in five months. He also writes long guides and reviews on the company blog. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: Kept a newsletter of about 20K readers when he sold Proxycurl, plus past Proxycurl users (his reply in the interview's comments) (source: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/tech/hitting-15k-mo-six-months-after-getting-sued-and-acquired-MMWkpCaClOB6wVgbuPI7) - Editor's note: Steven Goh is not a beginner: he is a software engineer with more than 20 years of experience and founded Proxycurl, a LinkedIn data API that reached about $10M ARR with around 60 employees before LinkedIn sued it in January 2025; he settled and sold it. He says he was stuck at his keyboard with a fractured foot, started playing with Claude Code, and built and deployed the NinjaPear prototype in two weeks. He now pays for Codex and Claude Code plans (about $200 a month together), runs NinjaPear alone with no plan to hire, and hosts it on his own computers at home in Singapore. He is based in Singapore; the $ figure is as he wrote it and NinjaPear's prices are listed in $. - Source: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/tech/hitting-15k-mo-six-months-after-getting-sued-and-acquired-MMWkpCaClOB6wVgbuPI7 (Steven Goh (founder), Indie Hackers interview by James Fleischmann on Indie Hackers, posted 2026-07-07; added 2026-10-18) Steps to try: - From the source: build in a market you already know; he went from a LinkedIn scraping API to B2B data built from public web data. - From the source: prototype fast with an AI coding agent; he built and deployed the first NinjaPear version with Claude Code in two weeks and launched it with a blog post. - From the source: give away a free tool that fills a gap people are searching for, like his free replacement for Clearbit's retired Logo API. - From the source: use an agent for outreach that reacts to signups, such as emailing people in similar roles at each new user's competitors. - From the source: keep costs near zero and automate support, bookkeeping and customer-success emails with agents, but keep yourself in the loop on product taste and marketing. - Our suggestion: with credit-pack pricing, report monthly gross revenue rather than MRR and watch repeat purchases and churn to judge product-market fit. ## Klar: an AI study agent at 1.3M kronor ARR a month after launch, built with Lovable by three non-technical students - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/klar-ai-learning-agent-students-sek-1-3m-arr-lovable/ - App: Klar. A learning agent for university students that answers questions about their own courses and makes practice exam questions, flashcards, study guides and podcast-style audio from their sources. - App type: Education & learning - Revenue (as claimed): 1.3 million Swedish kronor in ARR one month after launch (co-founders on the Foundore podcast, May 2026) (per year) - Currency: SEK (Swedish kronor, as stated in the source) - Details: On the Foundore podcast (published May 29, 2026) one of the co-founders said: 'after just one month of launch we reached 1.3 million Swedish crowns in ARR'. The product launched around January 20, 2026, opened to students in batches. This is annualized from the first month, not a full year of revenue. Lovable's own posts describe the same milestone as '$130k/year' and '€130,000 in ARR'; those converted figures are not used here. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Lovable - Got customers via: Campus sales, Word of mouth, Student ambassadors, University partnerships - How they got customers: They pitched students in person at a university career fair and got them to pay (Apple Pay, card) before the product existed, pitching it as cheaper than the ChatGPT Plus subscription students already paid for. After launch they opened access in batches to make it feel exclusive, targeted new students who had no study habits yet, recruited older students as ambassadors wearing Klar merch, and worked with student associations and universities. Lovable says they spent nothing on ads. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Isabel Storgårds, Andreas Melander and Eric Götborg met as university students in Uppsala, Sweden, and describe themselves as three non-technical founders. They sold the idea to students before building, then dropped out, moved into a small dorm together and built Klar with Lovable; one co-founder says they had earlier spent six months with an outsourced engineering team on another app and rebuilt a better version in Lovable in a couple of days. A university first asked them to stop and later became a partner, and they say they closed long-term partnerships. They planned to expand to the US. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAdPA-25aNg (Isabel Storgårds and Eric Götborg (co-founders), Foundore podcast on YouTube, posted 2026-05-29; added 2026-10-18) Steps to try: - From the source: sell before you build; they took real payments from students at a career fair before launching. - From the source: position against something users already pay for; their pitch was saving money compared with a ChatGPT subscription. - From the source: keep the first version small; they say less is more, even though Lovable makes it easy to add a thousand features. - From the source: open access in batches so the launch feels exclusive. - From the source: target new users before habits form; they focused on first-year students and used older students as ambassadors. - Our suggestion: when you annualize an early month as ARR, keep tracking retention, since student usage is seasonal. ## Flowfy: a budgeting app built with Rork and no code, at $22K total and #3 in Finance in Spain - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/flowfy-budgeting-app-22k-total-rork/ - App: Flowfy. A personal finance app for tracking expenses, setting budgets and seeing spending patterns, with a pastel look aimed at young women; advanced features sit behind a FlowfyPRO subscription. - App type: Finance & money - Revenue (as claimed): $22K in total revenue and $300+ a day, about five months after launch (Rork case study, May 1, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: Rork's case study (May 1, 2026) says Flowfy launched on the App Store on Nov 11, 2025, switched on payments on Dec 5, made $10K in its first 30 days of monetization and had reached $22K in total revenue, $300+ a day with peaks above $600, and 100K+ downloads. It says Alberto had made $750 in total when he joined Rork's founder community in January. On X the founder has posted the app reaching #3 in Finance in Spain (Jan 21, 2026), that 'revenue for Flowfy took a hit this month' (Feb 23, 2026) and 100K downloads, 100% organic, in six months (May 4, 2026). FlowfyPRO costs €3.99 a month or €29.99 a year; the case study reports revenue in dollars. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Rork - Got customers via: TikTok, Organic short-form video, Paid creator collabs - How they got customers: No ads. Alberto spent weeks testing organic short-form formats and hooks until one clicked, then doubled down; he focused on Spain first and only turned on payments after initial traction. Later he looked for US-based slideshow creators and agencies for paid collabs to push into English-speaking markets. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: Had built an audience from a year of content creation before the app (size not stated) (source: https://rork.com/blog/alberto-flowfy-case-study) - Editor's note: Alberto Pérez is a 22-year-old mechanical engineer from Spain studying for a master's in data science; before Flowfy he ran organic dropshipping stores. He says he has never written a line of code and built Flowfy, his first app, in Rork in a couple of days; on X he credits Rork and Expo for it. Rork says he had already built an audience from a year of content creation before the app, but doesn't say how big. Rork sells the tool, so this is a tool-maker source. - Source: https://rork.com/blog/alberto-flowfy-case-study (Alberto Pérez (founder), Rork blog on Rork blog, posted 2026-05-01; added 2026-10-18) Steps to try: - From the source: pick a crowded category and win on design; Flowfy started from seeing an 'ugly' finance tracker and making a cleaner one. - From the source: aim at an underserved audience; the pastel, lifestyle-brand look targets young women that finance apps ignored. - From the source: get traction in one market first (Spain) before monetizing, then add a freemium paywall for advanced features. - From the source: iterate on organic video hooks for weeks until one converts, then double down on that format. - Our suggestion: track revenue per market and per content format so you know what to scale when you expand abroad. ## Daymaker: cakes as sales outreach, almost $100K invoiced in a month, platform vibe coded with Lovable by a 20-year-old - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/daymaker-cold-caking-sales-outreach-100k-month-lovable/ - App: Daymaker. A platform that sends custom cakes made by local bakeries and hand-delivers them, first for company birthdays and now as 'cold caking' sales outreach with your pitch or a QR code on the cake. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): Almost $100k invoiced in a month (March 2026), up from $10k the month before, after 'cold caking' took off (founder on X) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: On March 18, 2026 the founder posted: 'Last month we invoiced $10k in cakes. This month we're invoicing almost $100k' because cold caking blew up. That is invoicing for cakes and delivery, so it is gross sales before bakery and delivery costs, not profit or recurring revenue. Separately, Gründerszene (Business Insider Germany, April 3, 2026) reported that the original birthday-automation product reached 150,000 dollars ARR four months after its September 2025 launch, per the company. On September 11, 2026 the founder wrote on X that this birthday side grew to 150k arr in 3 months through cold calling and was at 85k arr nine months after he stopped growth and customer success work, and offered an operator 75% of that part of the business. Lovable's CEO and others on X have quoted figures of $110K to $120K a month; those are not used here. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Lovable - Got customers via: Cold calling, Physical outreach (cakes), X - How they got customers: In summer 2025 he and co-founder Simon Dieu cold called more than 100 executives, including at KPMG, to sell automated office birthday cakes. In San Francisco he switched to 'cold caking': sending a prospect a custom cake with a pitch or QR code on it instead of another cold email, and posting about it on X, where his March 2026 revenue post was viewed about 400,000 times. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 3.1K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/daymakerguy) - Editor's note: William Lindholm is a 20-year-old Norwegian founder who says he can't code. Gründerszene reports he built the software with Lovable, including 'the complete backend', coding at night and delivering cakes by day, and Lovable's CEO has posted that William used Lovable to build Daymaker. Revenue is mostly cakes and delivery, made by partner bakeries (first a pastry chef in Oslo), so this is a software-run service rather than pure software. The company moved from Oslo to San Francisco; its site now sells a 'guaranteed meetings' package (about 130 hand-delivered cakes, money back if fewer than 20 meetings), a self-serve option, automatic client birthdays and a cakeMCP for AI agents. - Source: https://x.com/daymakerguy/status/2034172822197834139 (William Lindholm (founder), X on X, posted 2026-03-18; added 2026-10-18) Steps to try: - From the source: sell before you scale; Daymaker's first customers came from cold calling more than 100 executives. - From the source: a non-coder can build the operating software with an AI app builder; he built Daymaker's backend himself with Lovable. - From the source: partner with local bakeries instead of producing the physical product yourself. - From the source: when inboxes are flooded, physical outreach stands out; switching to cold caking took monthly invoicing from about $10k to almost $100k. - From the source: growth stops when you stop selling; the birthday product fell from 150k to 85k ARR after he stopped growth and customer success work. - Our suggestion: for a product with physical costs, track margin per delivery as well as invoiced revenue. ## Rewired: a screen-time blocker app at $1,864 MRR (Superwall-verified), built by a 17-year-old with Rork and Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/rewired-screen-time-blocker-1-9k-mrr-rork-claude-code/ - App: Rewired. An iPhone screen-time blocker that locks distracting apps until you earn minutes back, first by photographing a completed habit for AI to check and now through short arcade challenges. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): $1,864 MRR (697 active subscriptions; TrustMRR, Superwall-verified) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR shows $1,864 MRR from 697 active subscriptions, $569 in the last 30 days and $25,637 all-time revenue (as of Oct 18, 2026); monthly revenue peaked at $5,189 in April 2026 and has fallen every month since. In his TrustMRR sale listing (Sep 29, 2026, asking $6,500) the founder wrote of about $872 in sales over the previous 30 days. Rork's case study (Feb 26, 2026) reported $1.3K in the first month, updated to $2,600 total on Mar 13 and $6,000 total on May 1; those totals run below TrustMRR's for the same months, and neither source says whether its figures are before or after Apple's fees. Pricing: $29.99 a year or $9.99 a week. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/rewired-screen-time-blocker - Built with: Rork, Claude Code - Got customers via: Instagram, TikTok, UGC videos, Meta ads - How they got customers: Short videos on Instagram and TikTok. A Clash Royale gameplay hook got 500K views in three weeks and no revenue because the audience was too young; copying a higher-production format that was converting for other screen-time apps worked, and Instagram beat TikTok. Reels ask viewers to comment 'app' to get the link by DM, and friends make reels for a share of the subscriptions they bring in. TrustMRR also lists Meta ads; the founder says there has been no paid ads or UGC spending since July. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Nick is 17 and homeschooled, and had done six figures in e-commerce sales (dropshipping, a TikTok Shop brand) before this, his first app. Rork says he had no coding or Xcode experience and used Rork with Claude Code to build the core screen-time features, going from idea to a live App Store listing in four days. The App Store lists the developer as Darya Kostyuchek; the bundle ID (app.kosty…) matches his handle. The app has changed since the case study: the current version (3.0) unlocks apps through arcade challenges instead of photo-checked habits. Rork sells the tool, so the case study is a tool-maker source; the revenue figure comes from TrustMRR. - Source: https://rork.com/blog/nick-therewired-case-study (Nick (founder), Rork blog on Rork blog, posted 2026-02-26; added 2026-10-18) Steps to try: - From the source: solve a habit you and your friends have; they are the target users, so he didn't need focus groups. - From the source: get a first version live fast: Rork plus Claude Code took him from idea to App Store in four days. - From the source: judge content by conversions, not views; 500K views from a gaming hook made nothing, while a smaller video in a proven category format sold. - From the source: use 'comment app' reels with DM automation, so every comment boosts the post and delivers the download link. - From the source: put the paywall in onboarding; Superwall showed 87% of users reaching it and 4.45% converting from cold Instagram traffic in the first month. - Our suggestion: track revenue month by month once marketing stops; Rewired's verified revenue fell from $5,189 in April to $822 in September. ## Meet Oscar: an AI email assistant at $45K MRR in 60 days, first version vibe coded in Lovable by a non-developer - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/meet-oscar-ai-email-assistant-45k-mrr-lovable/ - App: Meet Oscar. An AI email assistant that drafts replies in your own voice, using the email thread and your company's documents such as price lists and FAQs. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $45,000 MRR within 60 days of launch (founder's own site, January 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: On his own site the founder writes that he used his framework 'to scale Meet Oscar to $45,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) in just 60 days'. The SaaS Mastery interview he links to (January 2, 2026) repeats the figure, and there he says the company is now 'definitely profitable' after reinvesting all early revenue into ads and taking no salaries. No later figure is given. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Lovable, Replit - Got customers via: Meta ads, Google ads, Reddit, Referrals, Waitlist - How they got customers: Before building, he ran Meta ads to more than 200 tailored landing pages for 15 customer types and asked waitlist signups to pay $5 to jump the queue. After launch, every dollar of revenue went back into Meta and later Google ads, plus helpful (not salesy) Reddit posts and a referral loop that gave users free months for bringing in friends. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Giovanni Brees says he has zero coding experience. He built the first version over a weekend in Lovable (with 'a little bit' of Replit for front-end screens), connected to the ChatGPT API, and also used Lovable to make more than 200 landing-page variations for 15 customer types. He is open that the vibe-coded MVP broke as it grew: Google's CASA security review and unstable reply quality led him to bring in a technical co-founder, who rebuilt it with a custom model. He is not a typical first-time founder: he ran a product-launch agency for over a decade that he says helped bring 4,500+ products to market, so paid acquisition was his specialty. - Source: https://giovannibrees.com/saas-ai-launch-framework (Giovanni Brees (founder), his own site on Founder's site, posted 2026-01-15; added 2026-10-18) Steps to try: - From the source: validate with a landing page, a waitlist and a small prepayment ($5 to jump the queue) before building anything. - From the source: test many audiences at once; he made 200+ landing-page variants in Lovable for 15 customer types and followed the prepayment rate. - From the source: vibe code a minimal MVP that solves one core problem; his first version skipped the WhatsApp and Instagram integrations the team wanted. - From the source: reinvest early revenue into the ad sets that already work, and add a referral loop that rewards users with free months. - From the source: plan to rebuild once security reviews and reliability matter; he brought in a technical co-founder for that. - Our suggestion: if your app reads users' email, budget for the provider's security review (Google requires one for restricted Gmail scopes) early. ## Creator Hunter: an influencer database for startups at $30K total, vibe coded with Bolt and Cursor by a self-described non-coder - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/creator-hunter-influencer-database-30k-bolt-cursor/ - App: Creator Hunter. A curated database of vetted TikTok and Instagram creators that matches startups and apps with influencers, now with AI agents that find, email and follow up with creators. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): $30K in total revenue, about seven months after launch (founder, Starter Story interview, May 2025) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In the Starter Story interview (posted May 24, 2025) the founder said the app had made him $30K since he built and launched it about seven months earlier, with over 1,000 users and more than 350 paid users, at margins of about 90%. On X he posted on Mar 23, 2025 that he shipped Creator Hunter in October 2024 and 'made first $10k', and on May 17, 2025 that it did $10K the month after he started vibe coding it. Pricing on the site starts at $67 a month. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Bolt, Cursor - Got customers via: X, Building in public - How they got customers: Building in public on X: launch night alone brought 20 to 30 sales. His best post (close to 500K impressions) paired a simple demo with a raw reaction and joined the debate of the moment, whether AI coding can build a full SaaS. He borrows formats that are already working for others (he cites a Marc Lou post) and ships updates often instead of one big launch. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Paulius says he 'completely sucked at code'; on X he says he vibe coded the MVP with Bolt and Cursor in 14 days as 'a total n00b'. In the interview he plans with Perplexity, builds the MVP in Bolt, then finishes it in Cursor with Supabase and Clerk, and designs the landing page from a Framer template. He quit his job on Dec 24, 2024 to work on it full-time. An Apr 1, 2025 post of his announced a '$5M' raise; Tracxn lists Creator Hunter as unfunded and we found no record of that round. The product now pitches AI agents that work from inside ChatGPT, Claude and Hermes. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/paulius (Paulius Masalskas (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2025-05-24; added 2026-10-18) Steps to try: - From the source: build a tool you would pay for yourself; the database idea came from his own work on creator-led services. - From the source: ask Perplexity for a beginner's step-by-step plan, then build one step at a time in Bolt, pasting every error back to the AI. - From the source: when the Bolt MVP works, download it into Cursor to connect Supabase, add Clerk authentication and make it production ready. - From the source: start the landing page from a free Framer template and spend most of the effort above the fold: headline, subheading, one big call to action. - From the source: on X, tie your product to the conversation already happening instead of posting into the void. - Our suggestion: show a few target buyers the database before months of curation, so launch night isn't the first test of demand. ## Enjoy: a desktop app for AI coding agents at $3.8K MRR 30 days after launch, made by one founder and his agents - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/enjoy-ai-coding-agents-desktop-app-3-8k-mrr-codex/ - App: Enjoy. A desktop, web and iPhone app that runs AI coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex side by side, so non-programmers can build software in plain language. - App type: Developer tools - Revenue (as claimed): $3.8k MRR (30 days after launch) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: The founder posted on October 15, 2026 that Enjoy launched 30 days earlier and is at $3.8k MRR. In the same post he says it lacks product-market fit and he is considering a rebrand. The only plan, Unlimited, costs $14.99 a month after a 7-day trial, plus $9.99 a month per extra computer. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: OpenAI Codex - Got customers via: X, YouTube - How they got customers: His own audience: about 85K followers on X and a YouTube channel about building with AI. He notes that this audience may not overlap with the beginners Enjoy is aimed at. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: About 85K followers on X and a YouTube channel; previously founded Standard Notes (source: https://x.com/atmoio) - Editor's note: The founder, Mo Bitar, previously built Standard Notes (acquired by Proton). Enjoy's about page describes the company as 'a company of one, too: Mo, and a staff of agents', and his manifesto says he lets AI do the programming and that 'it's the way I choose to work'. On X he says one and a half 200-dollar Codex subscriptions are enough for his own work. He does not list exactly which agent wrote which part of Enjoy. - Source: https://x.com/atmoio/status/2110803320684097683 (@atmoio (Mo Bitar) on X, posted 2026-10-15; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: launch to your existing audience, then check honestly whether the paying users match the market you are aiming at. - From the source: let AI agents do the programming so your time goes to customers and marketing. - From the source: work out early whether the brand fits your audience; he worries Enjoy feels too beginner-friendly for the engineers who follow him. - Our suggestion: before a rebrand, talk to your first paying users about why they bought. ## BridgeMind: an AI agent workspace at $250K ARR, vibe coded live on stream every day by its founder - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/bridgemind-ai-agent-workspace-250k-arr-claude-code-codex/ - App: BridgeMind. A desktop 'agent super app' for Mac, Windows and Linux where you run AI coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex side by side, with voice input; Pro costs $50 a month. - App type: Developer tools - Revenue (as claimed): ARR: $250,772 (Day 238 of his live-streamed challenge, Oct 8, 2026) (per year) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: The founder puts the current ARR in the title of each daily stream. Day 202 (Jul 3, 2026): $230,076. Day 206 (Jul 10): $242,964. On Day 218 (Aug 19) he said he cut about $50K of ARR on purpose, from $251,759 to $194,904, by shutting down two side businesses (Vibecademy and ViewCreator) to focus on the core app. Day 231 (Sep 22): $229,140. Day 236 (Oct 2): $257,540. Day 238 (Oct 8): $250,772. Pro is listed at $50 a month on bridgemind.ai. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex - Got customers via: YouTube, X, Building in public - How they got customers: Daily live streams on YouTube and X where he builds the product on camera and talks to viewers, plus a Discord of 14,600+ builders (per his August 2026 stream description). ProvenStartups reports he chose an all-organic strategy after a previous startup spent heavily on paid ads. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Matthew Miller (@matthewmillerai) builds BridgeMind live on YouTube and X every day as a public challenge to vibe code an app until it makes $1,000,000. His August 2026 stream description lists the stack as Claude Code and Codex with frontier models (Claude Opus 5, Fable 5, GPT 5.6 SOL, Kimi K3, Grok 4.6), and other streams mention running several Claude Max subscriptions at once. Since August 2026 everything goes into BridgeMind One, the core app, plus BridgeBench, an AI coding leaderboard he also runs. - Source: https://x.com/bridgemindai/status/2108204998664626480 (@bridgemindai (Matthew Miller, founder) on X, posted 2026-10-08; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: build in public every day and put the live revenue number in the stream title, so each stream is both marketing and accountability. - From the source: cut side projects that split your focus; he shut down two side businesses, giving up about $50K of ARR, to work only on the core app. - From the source: gather your viewers in a community (his Discord has 14,600+ builders) so they stick around between streams. - Our suggestion: if you share revenue in public, connect a payment-provider profile (such as TrustMRR) so viewers can check it. ## AgentaOS: a merchant of record at $9.5K MRR two months after launch, run by one founder and AI agents - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/agentaos-merchant-of-record-9-5k-mrr-ai-agents-claude-code/ - App: AgentaOS. A merchant of record that lets freelancers, agencies and SaaS founders take card and monthly payments worldwide, handling tax, invoices and chargebacks. - App type: Finance & money - Revenue (as claimed): $9.5K MRR (two months after an August 2026 launch) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In an Indie Hackers interview published October 6, 2026, the founder says AgentaOS launched in August, has 400+ SaaS founders signed up, has processed 1,400+ live payments and is at $9.5K MRR. On X a week later he describes it as about $10k MRR. Revenue mixes subscriptions and a percentage of sales (4.5% + 0.50 per card sale on the free plan). - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude, Claude Code - Got customers via: X, LinkedIn, Warm network - How they got customers: No ads or paid marketing. The founder writes about payment problems rather than the product, then follows up in DMs with everyone who engages, and onboards founders personally. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: The founder is an engineer with about 20 years in payments, not a beginner. He says he runs AgentaOS with zero employees: a team of AI agents handles onboarding, support, operations and much of the code. On X he names Claude as his 'Chief of Staff' and says his AI team runs through his own Claude Code plugin, which he also sells. AgentaOS is run by Aristokrates OÜ in Tallinn, Estonia. - Source: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/tech/starting-from-scratch-and-hitting-9-5k-mrr-in-two-months-j5pMaED5FEbKw8qmeyj9 (Panche Isajeski (founder), Indie Hackers interview by James Fleischmann on Indie Hackers, posted 2026-10-06; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: talk to many potential customers before you build; his first version, built on technology he liked, made no revenue. - From the source: write about the problem first, not the product, and follow up personally with people who engage. - From the source: charge from day one and tie your revenue to your users' success (here, a percentage of their sales). - From the source: let AI agents take onboarding, support, operations and much of the coding so one person can run the business. - Our suggestion: when the product moves other people's money, keep a human review step on payment and ledger code even if agents write it. ## TrustMRR: a revenue leaderboard turned startup marketplace, $300K + $30K in fees in 9 months, vibe coded with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/trustmrr-verified-revenue-marketplace-330k-9-months-cursor/ - App: TrustMRR. A website where founders verify their startup revenue with a read-only payment-provider key; it earns from ad spots and a fee on startups sold through its marketplace. - App type: Content sites & ads - Revenue (as claimed): Just over $300,000 in revenue plus around $30,000 in acquisition fees in its first nine months (Sep 1, 2026) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: Launched Oct 30, 2025 with ad spots at $299 a month, raised to $699, $999 and then $1,499 as the launch post spread; every spot sold within three days for $20,378. A marketplace was added Nov 30, 2025 and a 3% finder fee on Jan 15, 2026. He reports $31,834 in March 2026, $23,695 in May and a best month of $44,000 in July 2026 at a 90% margin. His newsletter totals: $301,198 gross product revenue, about $30,000 in acquisition fees, 154 founders acquired. On X he posted that TrustMRR made $53K in September 2026. He turned down a $1.2M offer to buy it. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: X, Word of mouth, SEO, Building in public - How they got customers: A launch post on X that reached 2.9 million views. After that, word of mouth (he says most traffic comes from it), Google search (over 5,000 startup pages indexed by February 2026 and 1 million impressions by March), and features built to be shared, such as one-click revenue images, games and embeds. About 200,000 visitors a month by September 2026. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Well-known maker; says he already had about 100K X followers when he launched an earlier course, before TrustMRR (source: https://x.com/marclou/status/2097181213895123314) - Editor's note: Marc Lou is a well-known indie maker who also runs DataFast, CodeFast, ShipFast and other products (per his monthly income posts on X). He says he opened Cursor the morning after a Pieter Levels post about fake MRR screenshots, asked it to build a place where founders verify revenue with a read-only Stripe key, and had a two-column leaderboard six hours later. He calls TrustMRR vibe coded in several X posts, but doesn't say how much of the later features (marketplace, chat, escrow) AI wrote. The money comes mostly from ad spots and marketplace fees, not software subscriptions. - Source: https://newsletter.marclou.com/p/i-vibe-coded-330k-in-9-months (Marc Lou (founder), own newsletter on Newsletter, posted 2026-09-01; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: build while a topic is hot; he shipped the first version six hours after reading a viral post about fake revenue screenshots. - From the source: sell a few ad spots from day one and raise the price as demand grows ($299 up to $1,499 a month). - From the source: listen to odd requests; one founder asking to sell his startup on the site became the marketplace, the main business. - From the source: make features useful and shareable, since word of mouth brings most of the traffic. - Our suggestion: when traffic from a launch fades, look for a repeat reason to come back (here, listings and acquisitions) rather than more one-off features. ## Fastlane: an AI short-form marketing tool at 69K a month two months after launch, shipped with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/fastlane-ai-short-form-marketing-69k-month-claude-code/ - App: Fastlane. A tool that turns a product's website into short-form content for TikTok, Instagram and YouTube and schedules it, aimed at solopreneurs building mobile apps and SaaS. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): around 69K a month in recurring revenue for the software, about two months after launch (founder, Starter Story interview published Aug 2026; currency not stated) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: In the interview Gaurav says Fastlane does around 69K a month in recurring revenue just for the software product. It launched publicly on March 23, 2026 and grew from around 16K from paid beta users to over a thousand paid users and over a million ARR across the whole business. On X he posted $100k ARR four days after launch (Apr 17, 2026), $200k ARR on Apr 24, and on June 1, 2026: 'We went from $0 to $1m ARR in two months'. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: Waitlist, Reddit, Social media, X - How they got customers: A beta for a waitlist of about 2,000 people, then a public launch that went viral. Early users were found one by one in Reddit threads and with lead magnets on social media; every waitlist signup was invited to a call, and a 'book a call' button offering 7 extra days of access kept about 20 customer calls a week going (2,000 calls in total). - Prior audience (before launch): Small: Started posting on X with 0 followers in July 2025; by Nov 22, 2025 he had nearly 700 followers and a 1,500-person waitlist (his own post) (source: https://x.com/gauravsbuilding/status/1992366382240141400) - Editor's note: Co-founded by Gaurav and Jock, whom he calls the non-technical co-founder. Gaurav says he started building apps about a year earlier after watching Starter Story videos. He names Claude Code on the 20x Max plan as 'an absolute must for the speed that we ship at', and the team's customer-intelligence dashboard was built by the non-technical co-founder with Claude Code in plain language; the rest of the stack is Convex, Vercel, Railway, Clerk, Resend and Axiom. The team joined the f.inc accelerator in San Francisco and Gaurav later wrote that Fastlane is backed by VCs. The website now describes Fastlane as an AI marketing agent for brands. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/the-insanely-obvious-secret-behind-this-69k-month-saas (Gaurav (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-08-30; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: run customer calls every week (they did about 20 a week) and use The Mom Test: ask how people solve the problem today, not whether they like your idea. - From the source: in usability tests, share the product, stay quiet and watch where users get stuck; this led to Fastlane's swipe-style UI. - From the source: narrow a broad tool down to the one feature users get results from; they went from an all-in-one AI marketing suite to short-form content only. - From the source: record calls with an AI note taker and have Claude Code build a dashboard that segments customers by why they signed up and how much they use the product. - Our suggestion: offer a small reward, such as extra trial days, in exchange for a call so you keep a steady flow of interviews. ## Snag: a free-stuff finder app at about $30K MRR four months after launch, coded with Claude Code in Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/snag-free-stuff-finder-app-30k-mrr-claude-code-cursor/ - App: Snag. An iPhone app that shows people free items near them, with search, filters and favorites, sold as weekly, monthly, yearly or one-time subscriptions. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): Around $30,000 MRR, over $80,000 in total proceeds, about four months after launch (Superwall dashboard shown in a Starter Story interview, May 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: On camera he shows Superwall with around 30,000 US dollars in monthly recurring revenue, over 100,000 authenticated users, 9,000 conversions and over $80,000 in total proceeds, plus about 3,300 App Store ratings. He says every 100,000 views on a creator video brings roughly 1,000 to 2,000 US dollars in subscription profit. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code, Cursor - Got customers via: UGC videos, TikTok, Meta ads - How they got customers: UGC creators at scale: his team interviews creators and keeps about 1 in 10, pays them a monthly retainer plus CPM, and turns videos with over 50,000 views into Meta ads. Each ad starts at about $50 a day and is scaled up while return on ad spend stays above 1; one example video got 240,000 views, and about $3,000 went into one ad before it stopped paying back. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Benjamin 'Benji' Chen is a 20-year-old NYU student who says he built over 45 apps in a year; his first, Pillar, a self-improvement app, reached 11,000 users. Snag was launched by his team at 10X Studio, so it is not a solo build. His process: design the screens in Figma, then feed the designs to Claude Code; he says he uses Cursor as his IDE and Claude Code Max 'to code pretty much the entire thing', with Supabase as the backend. He says a good app takes four to five hours to build, not counting the backend. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4QodeA_lQ0 (Benjamin Chen (founder), Starter Story on YouTube, posted 2026-05-31; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: start from the marketing: decide the value a user should see in three seconds, then design the app around it. - From the source: wireframe in Figma, then hand the designs to Claude Code to build the app. - From the source: interview UGC creators and keep only the ones whose videos get views; pay a retainer plus CPM. - From the source: turn videos with over 50,000 views into Meta ads, test at about $50 a day and scale while ROAS stays above 1. - From the source: if you can't pay creators yet, film the videos yourself. - Our suggestion: watch for ad fatigue and keep making new creatives, since each ad stops paying back after a while. ## Pep AI: a peptide tracker app at 33K in 28 days and 11K MRR seven weeks after launch, vibe coded with Replit and Claude - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/pep-ai-peptide-tracker-33k-28-days-replit-claude/ - App: Pep AI. An iPhone app that helps people track peptide and GLP-1 doses safely: vial inventory, dose scheduling with reminders, dosing history, an AI chat bot and a research library. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): 33,000 in revenue in the last 28 days, 11,000 MRR and 51,000 in total revenue about seven weeks after launch (RevenueCat dashboard shown in a Starter Story interview, May 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In the interview Cedric shows almost 2,000 active subscriptions; plans are 45 a year or 10 a month with a three-day free trial. On X he posted $14,686 in revenue and $2,716 MRR after three weeks (Mar 14, 2026), 'Month 1: $30k revenue, Month 2: $50k revenue' (May 3), and 'Pep AI hit $100k total rev on May 9. Now we hit $200k total rev on June 10' (June 10, 2026). On August 7 he posted 100,000 downloads. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Replit, Claude - Got customers via: Influencers, Instagram, TikTok, Meta ads, TikTok Spark Ads, Reddit, Building in public - How they got customers: Influencer marketing first: creators in the peptide niche were signed before launch, and one creator's first post brought about 4,000 in revenue that day. On X he later wrote that over 100 creators post once or twice a week (paid by engagement plus a 15% affiliate cut), that the best videos are run as Meta ads and TikTok Spark Ads, and that his team sends over 1,000 outreach messages to creators a week. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Cedric Roberge is a college student; his first app, a student marketplace for the University of Oregon, got about 800 users but made no money. He says he started Pep AI on Replit by explaining what he wanted, with Claude as 'my senior developer' for setting up RevenueCat and Resend, and that it took about two weeks to build, with Firebase as the backend. Apple rejected the app many times before approving it. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/i-built-a-30k-month-in-35-days (Cedric Roberge (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-05-28; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: pick a niche that is trending right now (peptides) so demand and attention come for free. - From the source: read every review of the existing apps, note what people like, dislike and wish for, and hand that to Claude or ChatGPT to shape your app idea. - From the source: get niche influencers posting about the app before you launch, even before you write code. - From the source: give creators a personal affiliate code (15% of sales) so they post more than you asked. - From the source: run paid ads on the creator videos that already performed well. - Our suggestion: for health-related apps, plan time for App Store review and rejections before launch day. ## Clairvo: an AI power dialer at a million dollars in ARR, about 90% built with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/clairvo-ai-power-dialer-1m-arr-claude-code/ - App: Clairvo. An AI-enabled power dialer for sales teams in call-heavy industries such as HVAC, plumbing and roofing, built to raise the share of calls that get picked up. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): a million dollars in ARR (founder, video published May 2026) (per year) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In a video published May 20, 2026 the founder says Clairvo just hit a million dollars in ARR. It is mostly sold to companies and rolled out to whole calling teams: his example is a 100-seat deal at $250 a seat per month, which he works out as $25,000 MRR or 300k ARR, adding 'that's more or less what we've done. We've closed a handful of deals.' He says the price started near 100 a month and was raised while customers kept paying. On X in July 2026, while onboarding another client, he wrote 'Could be huge! $2M ARR soon'. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code, Codex - Got customers via: Warm network, YouTube - How they got customers: High-touch sales to mid-market and larger companies in call-heavy industries, rolled out to their existing calling teams; one early rollout was at one of his own eight-figure clients. On X he says a single 15-minute YouTube video drove 75 leads for Clairvo. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: About 500K YouTube subscribers and 700K Instagram followers (his X bio); also runs an AI automation agency and a paid community (source: https://x.com/nicksaraev) - Editor's note: By his own deal maths (about 300k ARR per 100-seat deal), the million comes from a handful of mid-market contracts, so a few customers carry most of the revenue. He says the 'built with Claude Code' title is 'like 90% true': the team also used DeepSeek for long-running refactors and increasingly uses Codex because of token costs. The video doubles as a pitch for Clairvo and for his paid community. Some client-impact figures in the video contradict each other (per year vs per month), so they are not used here. An auto-dialer is a regulated product in many places; the video does not cover compliance. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K65vd9EYbDU (Nick Saraev (founder), own YouTube channel on YouTube, posted 2026-05-20; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: pick an expensive, painful problem that companies will pay real money to fix, not a lukewarm nice-to-have like a to-do app. - From the source: have Claude spawn parallel subagents that each propose many different ways to move your key metric, then throw out the junk by hand and build the few ideas that work. - From the source: pick a price, sell it, and keep raising it while people keep paying; Clairvo went from about 100 to 250 a month per seat. - From the source: keep the codebase model-agnostic so you can switch between Claude Code, Codex and other models as token costs change. - Our suggestion: with only a few large customers, watch concentration risk, and check calling and consent rules before selling any auto-dialer. ## Revid: an AI short-video generator at 600K+ a month, developed with Cursor by a team of about four - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/revid-ai-short-video-generator-600k-month-cursor/ - App: Revid. An AI tool that turns a text, a link or an existing video into short, engaging videos for TikTok, Reels and YouTube Shorts. - App type: Video & content - Revenue (as claimed): a little bit more than 600,000 per month (founder, April 2026 interview; currency not stated, the host writes $600K+/month) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: In a December 2025 Starter Story interview the founder put Revid at 'something like 400K per month', growing about 10% month over month. By the April 2026 interview he said it was doing 'a little bit more than 600,000 per month' with a team of about four people. It is the largest of the five products in his portfolio (with Outrank, SuperX, PostSyncer and Feather). - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, GPT-5.4, Gemini 3.1 Pro - Got customers via: SEO, Free tools - How they got customers: The founder says SEO is Revid's number one acquisition channel. He builds free tools and landing pages aimed at specific search queries, works on domain authority, and charges from day one at a price meant to attract committed customers. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Previously built and sold Tweet Hunter and Taplio; the host notes his big audience on social media (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UnZnonMN9o) - Editor's note: Revid did not start as a vibe-coded app: the founder acquired a small product-video tool called Typeframe (making 1 or 2K a month), then pivoted and rebranded it into Revid. AI here is how the small team builds today: he says his development setup is Cursor, with GPT-5.4 for complex work and Gemini 3.1 Pro for UI. He previously built and sold Tweet Hunter and Taplio. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UnZnonMN9o (Tibo Louis-Lucas (founder), Peter Yang interview on YouTube, posted 2026-04-26; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: if users keep bending your product toward a different use, follow them; he pivoted a product-video tool into short-form AI videos, rebranded it and bought a new domain. - From the source: charge money from day one and price around 50 to 100 per month to attract customers who churn less and need less support. - From the source: build free tools and landing pages that each target one search query, and keep investing in SEO. - From the source: have the AI in Cursor draft a spec for each feature, throw away the ones you don't like, then build. - Our suggestion: track churn by plan so you can tell whether a higher price is really bringing better customers. ## CreatorLookup: influencer search at nearly 100K MRR, built by non-technical founders with Cursor and Claude - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/creatorlookup-influencer-search-100k-mrr-cursor-claude/ - App: CreatorLookup. A search engine for brands and agencies to find niche creators across 400 million YouTube, Instagram and TikTok profiles, with contact details and audience data. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): nearly 100K MRR (co-founder, Feb 2026 podcast; currency not stated) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: Co-founder Mateo Greenberg described 'nearly 100K MRR' less than a year after pivoting to CreatorLookup in early 2025, with about 5K a month in costs. Revenue comes from credits for creator leads plus done-for-you search and outreach campaigns. In a short street interview in March 2026, co-founder Jose Rodriguez Odon answered 'We do 20K a month', which is much lower. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, Claude - Got customers via: Warm network, Events, Freelance marketplaces, LinkedIn - How they got customers: The first client came from Upwork and Fiverr: a sauna company that needed health creators, sent a list before any contract. Early clients came from their influencer agency network and from upselling brands seen contacting creators; later growth came from word of mouth, in-person events (parties, Tech Week, CES), filmed testimonials, and LinkedIn influencers found with their own tool and boosted posts. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: The figures conflict: the headline uses the longer podcast interview, but a March 2026 clip has the other co-founder saying 20K a month (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5iE5V6bZ88). The MRR may include agency-style outreach services, not only software. After failing to hire a reliable CTO, co-founder Jose learned to code with prompting and Cursor and they rebuilt the platform themselves. - Source: https://manavgolecha.com/podcasts/how-i-built-a-100k-month-creator-saas (Mateo Greenberg (co-founder), Manav Golecha podcast on Podcast, posted 2026-02-18; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: if you sell a service on the side (they brokered creator lead lists), check whether it can become its own software product. - From the source: if engineers keep missing deadlines, learn to build with prompting and an AI editor so you can ship changes yourself. - From the source: find first customers on freelance marketplaces, deliver value before asking to be paid, then turn happy clients into filmed testimonials. - From the source: give generous free credits, find the power users, and offer them a done-for-you service on a call. - Our suggestion: report software and service revenue separately so your MRR is easy to compare. ## Gift My Book: personalized AI comedy books near a $1M annual run rate in three months, built on Base44 in a week - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/gift-my-book-ai-comedy-books-1m-run-rate-base44/ - App: Gift My Book. A website where you answer questions about someone and AI writes a personalized comedy book starring them, which is then printed and shipped as a gift. - App type: Video & content - Revenue (as claimed): 'Pretty close to annualized revenue of one million dollars' about three months after launch (Dec 2025, Base44 case study) (per year) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: Co-founder Yoav Hornung is quoted: 'We're pretty close to annualized revenue of one million dollars. December is our first real profitable month. It took like three months.' Base44's headline rounds this to $1M ARR. Sales are one-off book orders, not subscriptions, so this is a run rate; when an X user pointed that out, Yoav replied 'AR then, I guess?'. The case study reports 6–8% of visitors buying by early October 2025. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Base44 - Got customers via: Meta ads, UGC videos - How they got customers: Paid Meta ads. A first $100 test with ad copy written by ChatGPT brought the first purchase overnight. On X, Yoav says they used a broad audience and let the algorithm work, and later made UGC videos and static ads with AI; spend went up for the holiday season. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Yoav Hornung spent eight years at Fiverr, which bought his earlier startup Veed.me (per his X bio), and started Gift My Book as a side project with two friends after a first attempt with hired developers dragged on for months. On Base44 they had an end-to-end product in about a week: a question flow, an AI-written comedy book with a custom cover, then automatic print-on-demand and shipping. The plan was to rebuild on another stack later, but they stayed on Base44. Base44 sells the tool, so this is a tool-maker source. - Source: https://base44.com/blog/base44-case-study-gift-my-book (Yoav Hornung (co-founder), Base44 blog on Base44 blog, posted 2026-01-14; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: validate with a tiny paid test before building more; $100 of Meta ads brought the first sale. - From the source: use an AI app builder to get an end-to-end product live in about a week instead of months with hired developers. - From the source: keep the flow short and guided; customers answer questions, preview the book and buy. - From the source: push marketing around gifting seasons, when this kind of product sells best. - Our suggestion: for one-off purchases, report revenue as monthly sales or a run rate rather than ARR, and watch print and AI costs per order. ## SuperX: an X growth tool at $22K MRR (Stripe-verified), built by a solo developer coding with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/superx-x-growth-tool-22k-mrr-claude-code/ - App: SuperX. A web app and Chrome extension that shows which posts went viral on X and why, then helps you write, schedule and engage to grow your own account. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): $22,281 MRR (523 active subscriptions; TrustMRR, Stripe-verified) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR shows $22,281 MRR, $21,329 in the last 30 days and $253,731 all-time revenue (as of Oct 17, 2026). In the Starter Story interview (posted Dec 28, 2025) the founder said SuperX was at $13,000 a month in MRR four months after its July 2025 public launch, with about 450 subscribers at $29 a month, growing 25% month over month. On X he posted that SuperX made $20,978.15 in September 2026. Pricing on TrustMRR: Pro $49/month, Advanced $49/month launch price (normally $99), Ultra $199/month. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/superx - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: X, Building in public - How they got customers: Building in public on X every day. His launch post got about 32,000 views and 26 signups; a selfie post the same day got over 46,000 views and added $1,000 in MRR within 24 hours. He then used SuperX to grow SuperX: find what goes viral, make his own version, double down on the hits. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 18K followers on X right before the July 2025 public launch (his own post, Jul 7, 2025); he had been posting on X since early 2023 (source: https://x.com/robj3d3/status/1942093722071843108) - Editor's note: Rob Hallam is a software engineer with a computer science degree. After a layoff he spent two and a half years launching five products that made nothing, then ran a development agency that got clients through his X posts. SuperX began as a Chrome extension bought by Tibo Louis-Lucas (co-founder of Tweet Hunter); Rob partnered with him and built the SuperX web app. In the interview he says he uses Claude Code for his AI-assisted coding (about $200 a month). He doesn't say how much of SuperX it wrote. TrustMRR lists SuperX as founded in August 2025 and based in France. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYT-ip21P08 (Rob Hallam (founder), Starter Story on YouTube, posted 2025-12-28; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: share the failures as well as the wins; a viral post about his five failed products brought his first $3,000 agency client. - From the source: charge from day one and build a painkiller, not a vitamin. - From the source: use your own product to grow your product; he grew SuperX on X with the system built into SuperX. - From the source: pick one stack and learn it deeply instead of chasing new tools (his: Next.js, Node.js, Tailwind, SQLite, with Claude Code for coding). - Our suggestion: when you post revenue screenshots, link a payment-provider profile so readers can check the number. ## Payout: a class-action settlement finder at 20K a month, vibe coded in 14 days with Claude Code and Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/payout-class-action-settlement-app-20k-month-claude-code-cursor/ - App: Payout. A mobile app that finds class-action settlements people may qualify for, explains eligibility in plain English and alerts them to new claims. - App type: Finance & money - Revenue (as claimed): 20K per month, currency not stated (founder, Starter Story interview, Oct 2025) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: About 50 days after an August 2025 launch: over 12,000 downloads and 1,300+ new subscriptions. RevenueCat's Shipaton 2025 write-up listed 17,000+ users, $30,017 in revenue and 1,750 paying subscribers; RevenueCat later said the app went from zero to about $80K MRR in four months. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code, Cursor - Got customers via: Influencers, UGC videos, Meta ads - How they got customers: A finance creator partner and other niche creators made short videos about the app; formats that worked were repeated with more creators, then turned into paid Facebook ads, with a paywall that pushes the yearly plan. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: Under 250 followers on X in late June 2025, about six weeks before the August 2025 launch (his own post) (source: https://x.com/BusDownBonnor/status/1938288191209124023) - Editor's note: Won first place in RevenueCat's Shipaton 2025 Build and Grow award. Growth came from creator UGC videos, then paid Facebook ads. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwHD6Fg-Mjs (Connor Burd (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2025-10-26; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: pick an idea that can make money from day one; he studied and remixed onboarding flows from competing apps before building. - From the source: before prompting, write a document describing the app's data with example JSON so the AI doesn't guess, then build the core feature first. - From the source: ship v1 fast (about two weeks with AI) instead of polishing, then grow with creator videos and scale the winning formats into Facebook ads. ## Lumoo: an AI fashion content platform at €700K ARR in 9 months, built on Lovable - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/lumoo-ai-fashion-content-platform-700k-arr-lovable/ - App: Lumoo. An AI platform where fashion and retail brands generate on-model product images, virtual try-ons, lookbooks and localized campaign content. - App type: Video & content - Revenue (as claimed): €700K ARR within 9 months of a February 2025 launch (Lovable case study, Oct 2025) (per year) - Currency: EUR (euros, as stated in the source) - Details: 15+ customer brands including Gant, Brothers, Johnells, Zoovillage and AWNR Group, targeting €1M ARR by the end of 2025. In December 2025 it raised a SEK 6 million (about €550K) angel round that included Lovable's CEO. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Lovable - Got customers via: Warm network - How they got customers: The source doesn't detail a marketing channel; the two founders bring 25 years of combined fashion and retail experience and sell directly to brands. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: This is a B2B product sold to brands, not a consumer app. The co-founder built it himself on Lovable; the company later hired engineers and an agency to build the production platform from the Lovable MVP. - Source: https://lovable.dev/blog/lumoo-ai-fashion-platform (Henrik Skagerlind Fasth and Peter Thörngren (founders), Lovable blog on Lovable blog, posted 2025-10-01; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: start from a single tool (theirs was a virtual clothing try-on prototype) and widen it once you see the bigger workflow problem. - From the source: use years of industry experience to pick a problem brands already pay a lot for, such as photoshoots and order returns. - From the source: build fast with Lovable but keep testing and iterating with customers, and bring in an engineer once back-end scaling goes past your knowledge. ## Plinq: a women's safety app at R$2.2M ARR three months in, built entirely on Lovable by a non-coder - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/plinq-womens-safety-app-r2-2m-arr-lovable/ - App: Plinq. A Brazilian app where women run instant background checks on public criminal and legal records, with green/yellow/red risk flags and a panic button that shares their location. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): ARR: R$2.2M (USD ~$456K), 10k+ users in 3 months (Lovable case study, Sep 2025) (per year) - Currency: BRL (Brazilian reais, as stated in the source) - Details: Lovable's case study reports a 300% month-over-month growth rate and says Plinq was raising a R$1.5–2M (about US$500K) pre-seed round with angel investors. Lovable's X account described it as '$456k ARR and 10k users with Lovable in 3 months' (Sep 25, 2025). - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Lovable - Got customers via: Not specified - How they got customers: The source doesn't detail a marketing channel; the founder has a growth-marketing background and her advice is to 'double down on marketing'. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Sabrine Matos is a growth marketer and first-time founder with no technical training. She started Plinq after a case in Brazil of a woman killed by a partner whose violent criminal record she never knew about. She says she built everything on Lovable, from the website and desktop app to the backend workflows and the integrations with public-records databases, and that the MVP went live in 45 days. A B2B version for HR and employers was planned. - Source: https://lovable.dev/blog/how-sabrine-matos-built-plinq (Sabrine Matos (founder), Lovable blog on Lovable blog, posted 2025-09-18; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: launch an MVP fast (hers went live in 45 days) and refine it with feedback from real beta users, not guesses. - From the source: start every feature from a user problem; for Plinq that meant safety, trust and accessibility. - From the source: building keeps getting easier, so put your extra effort into marketing. - Our suggestion: if your app shows public records about people, check the data-protection rules in your country before launch. ## Creator Buddy: an AI content coach for X at 300K ARR two weeks after launch, built with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/creator-buddy-ai-x-content-coach-300k-arr-cursor/ - App: Creator Buddy. An AI content app that pulls in your posts from X and coaches you on how to create better content. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): 300K ARR within two weeks of launch (founder, Starter Story interview published June 2025; currency not stated, the host writes $300K ARR) (per year) - Currency: unstated - Details: The founder says Creator Buddy reached 100K of ARR within 15 minutes of its January launch and 300K of ARR within two weeks, with almost 500 active paid subscribers. Later in the interview he puts revenue at about 25,000 a month against costs of about 5,300 a month (mostly the X API at about 5,000), so roughly 80% margins. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, Windsurf, ChatGPT - Got customers via: X, Building in public, Waitlist - How they got customers: His own X audience. He shared the build for six or seven months, ran a beta with about 150 testers from his followers (meeting each one), announced the launch date 12 days ahead and spent launch day talking about it on X Spaces. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Hundreds of thousands of X followers after a viral thread on the X algorithm, built over three years of posting (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hMg_CZauJs) - Editor's note: The founder had a large X audience before launch (his thread on the open-sourced X algorithm went viral and brought him hundreds of thousands of followers), and he credits that audience for the launch-day sales. He started building in Cursor in August 2024 and later moved to Windsurf; he uses ChatGPT o3 as his 'product manager'. The interview was published in June 2025, so the figure is from then. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hMg_CZauJs (Alex Finn (founder), Starter Story interview on YouTube, posted 2025-06-07; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: build a tool for a problem you have yourself; he automated the spreadsheet he used to review his own tweets. - From the source: break each feature into the smallest steps and prompt the AI one step at a time; you can ask ChatGPT to split a feature into micro-steps and paste those into Cursor. - From the source: run a real beta (his had about 150 testers) and watch what people click and where they get stuck before launch. - From the source: build in public for months and announce a launch date so people are ready to buy on day one. - Our suggestion: if your product depends on a paid third-party API, model that cost against your price before you launch. ## fly.pieter.com: a browser flight game at $87K MRR from ads 17 days after launch, coded mostly with Cursor and Claude - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/fly-pieter-com-browser-flight-game-87k-mrr-cursor-claude/ - App: fly.pieter.com. A free multiplayer flight game that runs in the browser and earns money from in-game ads: branded planes, blimps, billboards and UFOs. - App type: Games - Revenue (as claimed): $87,000 MRR (which is $1M ARR), 17 days after launch (founder's post on X, Mar 11, 2025) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: The ads are sold as monthly subscriptions through a Stripe payment link; in the same post he says only 3 ads were left and 320,000 people had flown in the game. He also wrote: 'Whether the MRR is truly sustainable for a year we can only guess, but they ARE subscriptions and they do renew'. This is a March 2025 figure; no newer number for the game is used here. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, Claude - Got customers via: X, Building in public - How they got customers: He built the game in public on X, posting updates and stats; brands then bought ad spots inside the game through a Stripe link, including a custom UFO for sponsor Basecamp. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Very large X following: about 977K followers in Oct 2026 (source: https://x.com/levelsio) - Editor's note: Pieter Levels (@levelsio) is a well-known solo maker with a very large X audience, so this is not a zero-audience story. In the post he says he still mostly uses Cursor with Anthropic's Claude 3.5 (and was trying 3.7), that without AI it would have taken him 10-100x more time, and that AI-written code 'can be full of security holes' unless you explicitly ask it to check for things like XSS. - Source: https://x.com/levelsio/status/1899596115210891751 (@levelsio (Pieter Levels) on X, posted 2025-03-11; added 2026-10-17) Steps to try: - From the source: sell in-game ad placements (planes, blimps, billboards, UFOs) as monthly subscriptions through a simple Stripe payment link. - From the source: make a custom placement that fits a sponsor's story, as he did with the Basecamp UFO. - From the source: post revenue and player stats in public, including how few ad slots are left. - From the source: explicitly ask the AI to check for XSS and other security holes; it doesn't do that on its own. - Our suggestion: track renewals for a few months before treating ad subscriptions as steady recurring revenue. ## Voicy: a dictation app at 11K MRR for older users, built with ChatGPT, Cursor and Codex - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/voicy-dictation-app-11k-mrr-chatgpt-cursor-codex/ - App: Voicy. A voice-to-text app for the computer and phone, aimed at older people and people who can't type comfortably, run as a side project. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): 11K MRR (16 to 20K a month including lifetime deals; currency not stated) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: Monthly plan around 8.49, lifetime plan around 260. Started as a Chrome extension; a Windows app came about six months later. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: ChatGPT, Cursor, OpenAI Codex - Got customers via: SEO, Chrome Web Store, Reddit, YouTube - How they got customers: The Chrome Web Store brought the first users with almost no work, and daily Reddit posts got it to a few hundred. Most growth comes from SEO: about 200 blog posts, 30 landing pages and a site in four or five languages. A YouTube series, 'AI for Seniors', is now growing too. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: The founder runs it alongside a full-time product manager job. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/i-built-this-app-for-my-dad-now-it-makes-18k-month (Kourosh (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-10-14; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: serve a customer others ignore; he targets older users instead of tech-savvy early adopters. - From the source: launch the smallest version as a Chrome extension to get free store traffic. - From the source: invest in SEO at volume (many posts, landing pages and languages). - From the source: 'do the thing and do it five times more than you think you should'. ## AbMaxx: an AI abs-coach app at $46,251 in 30 days (RevenueCat-verified), first built in Lovable by an 18-year-old - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/abmaxx-ai-abs-coach-46k-month-lovable/ - App: AbMaxx. An iOS fitness app that builds a personalized abs plan from a user's details, made by an 18-year-old with no coding background who started it in Lovable. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): $46,251 in the last 30 days (TrustMRR, RevenueCat-verified) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In the Starter Story interview (posted Oct 4, 2026) the founder said monthly revenue was about 55,000 that month, with 16,000 downloads in the past 28 days and just over 3,000 active paying customers; he said the first month after launch brought in just over 7,000. TrustMRR shows $19,023 MRR, 5,183 active subscriptions and $164,632 all-time revenue (as of Oct 16, 2026), and lists the app for sale. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/abmaxx - Built with: Lovable - Got customers via: Meta ads, TikTok ads, Creator content - How they got customers: Early deals with big fitness influencers didn't work and were dropped. What worked was paid ads on Meta (he cites about 2 to 2.5x return on ad spend) using content from one creator who got equity, then moving the same creatives to TikTok ads, which he says returned 4 to 5x because TikTok reaches his 15 to 30-year-old audience. - Prior audience (before launch): None: Went from zero users and no distribution (per the interview); grew with UGC (source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/this-unbelievable-app-idea-makes-50k-month) - Editor's note: The founder says he first built the app in Lovable over two months, then rebuilt it before launch with a tool the auto-transcript renders as 'work max' (possibly Rork Max; we could not confirm the name). - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/this-unbelievable-app-idea-makes-50k-month (Lino (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-10-04; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: look at app ideas that already work and remix one for a narrow niche. - From the source: launch fast and improve the product after launch instead of polishing for months. - From the source: test cheap micro-influencer videos with different hooks and formats before spending real money, then scale the winning style with UGC or paid ads. - From the source: stack named in the interview: Supabase for authentication, Sensor Tower for idea research, PostHog for analytics, RevenueCat for subscriptions. ## Visualizee: an AI rendering tool for architects at $8,204 MRR (Stripe-verified), built with Cursor and Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/visualizee-ai-rendering-8-2k-mrr-cursor-claude-code/ - App: Visualizee. Turns sketches, photos and 3D model screenshots into photoreal renders for architects and interior designers, through a chat assistant called Vizzy. - App type: Video & content - Revenue (as claimed): $8,204 MRR (291 active subscriptions; TrustMRR, Stripe-verified) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In the Starter Story interview the founder said current MRR was 8.2K and close to $10,000 a month including one-time payments. TrustMRR shows $90,076 all-time revenue (both as of Oct 16, 2026). - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/visualizee-ai - Built with: Cursor, Claude Code - Got customers via: SEO, Free trial - How they got customers: A 7-day free trial, then $35 or $80 per month. He said the landing page gets over 300 visitors a day, with 5–10 new trials daily. He uses Ahrefs for SEO and MailerLite for email automation. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Not a 'never coded' story: the founder is an experienced developer who built it on the side of a full-time job. Revenue sat near $100–150/month for about two years until he replaced a complex node editor with a chat interface and switched to monthly plans. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/i-failed-for-700-days-before-my-app-hit-10k-month (Piotr Obidowski (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-09-02; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: if a working product doesn't convert, look for friction before blaming marketing; replacing the node editor with a chat box drove the growth. - From the source: charge monthly subscriptions from day one instead of one-time payments. - From the source: offer a short free trial (7 days) so visitors reach their first result quickly. - From the source: stack named in the interview: Cursor and Claude Code to build, Supabase, Vercel, Stripe, Next.js, a third-party GPU service. ## Cat on Chair: a cat-themed Pomodoro timer at over 18K a month, coded with ChatGPT - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/cat-on-chair-pomodoro-timer-18k-month-chatgpt/ - App: Cat on Chair. A focus timer where a hand-drawn cat sits on your chair while you work and leaves a gift when you finish, built by a former product designer and his girlfriend. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): over 18K in the last 30 days (currency not stated; the video title says $18K/month) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: Close to 80K in sales over 8 to 9 months and 127K downloads. Lifetime plan 29.99, annual 19.99; most sales are lifetime. Launched Aug 27, 2025. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: ChatGPT - Got customers via: RedNote, Instagram, Threads - How they got customers: Thousands of RedNote users beta-tested it before launch. It took off when Instagram influencers featured it in app-collection posts (one passed 2 million views), and a reshare on Threads in Taiwan went viral again. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: Co-founder's existing RedNote illustration account (size not stated) (source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/18k-month-from-this-ridiculously-simple-app-idea) - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/18k-month-from-this-ridiculously-simple-app-idea (Ryan (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-07-26; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: in a crowded category, compete on feel and design instead of features (cats, furniture and rewards instead of a plain timer). - From the source: run a public beta with a community (RedNote) and fix bugs before chasing growth. - From the source: borrow retention mechanics from games, such as collectible rewards for finished sessions. - Our suggestion: pitch app-collection and 'apps I use' creators; one post can move downloads more than ads. ## ChartDetector AI: an AI stock chart analysis app at $56K a month, coded with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/chartdetector-ai-chart-analysis-app-56k-month-cursor/ - App: ChartDetector AI. A mobile app where traders photograph a stock or crypto chart and AI suggests where it may go, built by two brothers in Germany. - App type: Finance & money - Revenue (as claimed): $56K per month (founder, Starter Story interview published July 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: More than 260,000 in total revenue and over 90,000 downloads in the first 13 months; 43,700 in April 2026 with roughly 20,000 in ad spend and about $11,500 profit (around 25% margin). - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: Paid ads - How they got customers: TikTok Smart+ campaigns optimized on subscription events, broad targeting by country, at least six simple app-demo videos per campaign, a hard paywall with no free trial, and AppsFlyer for tracking. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: Growth comes almost entirely from paid TikTok ads (about 18,000 per month in spend); the founder says he works on the app about 20 hours per month. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPb-M0Vt4uI (Timo Koehler (founder), Starter Story on YouTube, posted 2026-07-23; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: start with the smallest test of the idea; theirs began as a Telegram bot that read chart images with ChatGPT's new image upload. - From the source: build the app with React Native, Expo and Supabase, using Cursor for all of the coding and RevenueCat for paywalls. - From the source: sell the outcome in onboarding, add social proof, and use a hard paywall with no free trial so ads pay back right away. - From the source: run TikTok Smart+ campaigns optimized for subscriptions at about 50 per day, check ROAS weekly, raise budget no more than 20% every three days and keep feeding in new videos. ## Stella: a manifestation app at 300K MRR two months after launch, built with Claude Code and Google AI Studio - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/stella-manifestation-app-300k-mrr-claude-code-google-ai-studio/ - App: Stella. An AI manifestation app that turns your goals into custom visualizations and daily affirmations, built by a creator with a large following. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): 300K MRR within two months (currency not stated; she adds it is 'about 350, 360' now) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: 12,000 paying customers and over 200,000 downloads, per the founder. The video title and host say $300K/month and $340K/month. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code, Claude, Google AI Studio - Got customers via: Own audience (TikTok, Instagram), ManyChat - How they got customers: She sells to her own manifestation audience: short videos that naturally feature the app, plus Instagram ManyChat replies ('comment download') that send people custom affirmations and a download link. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: 1.2M Instagram and 2.8M TikTok followers before launch (source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/she-built-this-300k-month-app-in-60-days) - Editor's note: The founder already had 1.2 million Instagram and 2.8 million TikTok followers before launch, so this is an audience-first story. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/she-built-this-300k-month-app-in-60-days (Sarah Pearl (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-07-12; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: build for a problem your audience already talks about, then put the product inside your normal content. - From the source: ship an MVP fast; she says the first version took about two days and the full app two to three months. - From the source: use comment-to-DM automation (ManyChat) to turn viewers into downloads, and ask happy users for reviews. - Our suggestion: track which video formats convert to installs, not just views, and repeat those. ## Profit AI: a Shopify profit-analytics app at 30K MRR, built with Cursor by a non-coder - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/profit-ai-shopify-analytics-30k-mrr-cursor-claude-code/ - App: Profit AI. A Shopify app that turns profit, ad-spend and cost data into a simple dashboard, built from the founder's own client spreadsheet. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): 30K MRR for the app (currency not stated; 147,000 total since the December launch) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: Recorded in May: 147,000 made to date, 122 app users, '38 or 39' paying customers. Paid plan dropped from 5,000 to 800 a month. Services revenue (just under 40K MRR) is separate and not counted here. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, OpenAI Codex, Claude Code - Got customers via: Word of mouth - How they got customers: Mostly word of mouth among the e-commerce brands he already consulted for; at recording he had not done a marketing launch yet. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: The founder also runs a services business; only the app figure is used. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/i-turned-this-spreadsheet-into-a-30k-month-micro-saas (Jack (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-06-24; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: turn a spreadsheet you already build for clients into an app: export it as CSV, give it to the AI coding tool and correct the calculations it gets wrong. - From the source: start with brands you already know as beta testers before opening it up. - From the source: offer a free plan with a 30-day trial of the paid plan so everyone sees the full app. - Our suggestion: watch installs against uninstalls closely; he said churn was matching new installs. ## ToneAdapt: a guitar tone app making over 25,000 in four weeks, vibe-coded with Cursor and Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/toneadapt-guitar-tone-app-25k-four-weeks-cursor-claude-code/ - App: ToneAdapt. A website and iOS app that tells guitarists exactly how to set up their own amp and pedals to sound like any song. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): over 25,000 in four weeks (around 11,500 on the website's Stripe plus another 14,000 in the mobile app; currency not stated, the video title says $25K/month) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: 397+ active subscribers on the mobile app in its first month. Over 100,000 users in under five months. Plans: about 10 a week or about 60 a year (currency not stated). - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, Claude Code - Got customers via: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, UGC videos, Paid ads - How they got customers: Posted short videos three times a day across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook with his own face on the brand (he had done UGC work before). Once a format converted, he remade it with variations, had UGC creators copy it, and put money behind it on Meta and TikTok ads. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: His first app ever. He says every line of code was vibe coded and he wrote none himself; built V1 in about a week over Thanksgiving break. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/i-turned-my-hobby-into-a-25k-month-app (Kyan (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-06-14; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: solve a problem from your own hobby; he was using ChatGPT for guitar tones and found it inaccurate. - From the source: check the pain in Reddit and Instagram comment sections before building. - From the source: post three times a day on every short-video platform and put your face behind the brand. - From the source: when one video converts, remake it many times, hire UGC creators to copy the format, then run it as Meta and TikTok ads. ## CutCoach: a weight-cut app for combat athletes at 20,000 a month, built with Cursor and ChatGPT by a 19-year-old - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/cutcoach-weight-cut-app-20k-month-cursor-chatgpt/ - App: CutCoach. A mobile app that gives wrestlers and combat-sport athletes a science-based plan to cut weight before a competition or fight. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): 20,000 a month (currency not stated; the video title says $20K/month) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: Over 60,000 total revenue (currency not stated) in the six months since a September launch, and around 38,000–39,000 downloads. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, ChatGPT - Got customers via: TikTok, Instagram Reels, Influencers, Paid ads - How they got customers: Started with organic posts modeled on niche social pages, then DM'd small TikTok and Instagram Reels creators in combat sports to partner; most said yes. He later ran the best influencer videos as paid ads. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: He dropped out of college to build apps. Revenue followed the wrestling season, when demand for weight cuts peaks. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/ethan (Ethan (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-04-09; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: solve a problem inside your own hobby (he is a wrestler) so you already understand the users. - From the source: design in Figma, then have Cursor build the front end first, then the back end (Supabase, Vercel). - From the source: in a small niche, partner with many small creators found by scrolling TikTok and Reels and DMing them. - From the source: turn the influencer videos that work into paid ads. ## Prayer Lock: a Christian app that locks your phone until you pray, over 20K a month, coded in three days with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/prayer-lock-christian-app-blocker-20k-month-cursor-chatgpt/ - App: Prayer Lock. An iOS app that blocks the apps you choose until you recite a short AI-generated prayer matched to how you feel that day, sold as a weekly or yearly subscription. - App type: Productivity & lifestyle - Revenue (as claimed): over 20K a month (closed December 2025 at 21,000 in sales; currency not stated, the video title says $20K/month) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: In the Starter Story interview (posted Jan 19, 2026) the founder said he closed December at 21,000 in sales, after 15K in November and 10K in October, growing over 50% a month; close to 58,000 downloads, a 43% conversion rate, 6.7K ratings and 41,000 in total proceeds. Pricing quoted as 49.99 a year or 9.99 a week. He said he spent around 9K on ads in the last 30 days and expected to close January at around 40K. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, ChatGPT, OpenAI Codex - Got customers via: UGC videos, TikTok, Instagram, TikTok ads, Meta ads - How they got customers: He tested many formats, posting around 40 times a day across 12 TikTok and Instagram accounts, until a UGC 'reaction' video with an app demo worked; his girlfriend (now wife) recorded them for free, which got him to his first 1K a month. A second creator followed, then paid ads: Meta first, then broad TikTok Spark-style campaigns on his best organic videos, after lengthening the onboarding from five to 15 minutes improved conversion. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: He calls himself not technical by background (he majored in finance) but taught himself to code after seeing OpenAI Codex in 2022, and built other apps for about three months before this one. He says he built Prayer Lock as an improved take on an existing app (PrayScreen). The auto-transcript also names a design tool rendered as 'Rourke' (possibly Rork; not confirmed). His X bio now says the app is bootstrapped to $100k/month (seen Oct 16, 2026; not part of this case). - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/mou (Mau Baron (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-01-19; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: look for niches where apps already make over 50K a month (he uses Sensor Tower estimates), then build a clearly better version of one. - From the source: code it in under two weeks, building the app feature by feature with AI instead of trying to one-shot it; he skipped accounts and a database and stores data on the device. - From the source: stop touching the product and obsess over distribution: copy the formats that work in your niche and post at least 20 times a day. - From the source: iterate on the onboarding until at least 10% of downloads start a trial, then put ad spend behind organic videos that passed 10K views (he prefers TikTok Spark Ads). - From the source: stack named in the interview: Cursor (mostly with Sonnet), ChatGPT, Codex CLI, Superwall for paywalls, Singular for attribution, PostHog for analytics, AWS hosting and Gemini Flash for the in-app prayers. ## LaunchFast: an AI Amazon product research tool at about 21.8K MRR in 90 days, built with Cursor in 48 hours - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/launchfast-amazon-product-research-21-8k-mrr-cursor/ - App: LaunchFast. An AI product research tool for Amazon private-label sellers to find, validate and source products in minutes, built by a non-technical founder. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): about 21.8K MRR (90 days after launch; currency not stated) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: About 10K MRR at day 30 and 17–18K at day 60. Pricing stated as 50 a month for the partner's coaching customers and 199 per month for the public. Chrome extension with 330 active users. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: Partnership, Coaching community - How they got customers: Instead of building an audience, he pitched the tool to an Amazon-seller coaching company with a large audience and launched through that partnership on day zero, with discounted pricing for its members. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: No personal audience; launched through a coaching company's audience (source: https://www.starterstory.com/hassam) - Editor's note: The video title says $25K MRR; the founder's own figure is about 21.8K, so we use that. Launched through a partnership with a coaching company (LegacyX) that already had the audience. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/hassam (Hassam (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-01-05; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: build for a business you already know; he turned his own Amazon selling experience into the product. - From the source: borrow distribution by partnering with someone who already reaches your buyers. - From the source: stack named in the interview: Cursor to write the code, Vercel, Supabase, Resend, Apify. - Our suggestion: agree in writing on pricing and revenue split before launching through a partner. ## Wrestle AI: an AI wrestling coach at 17,000 a month, vibe coded with Rork and ChatGPT - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/wrestle-ai-wrestling-coach-17k-month-rork-chatgpt/ - App: Wrestle AI. An app that analyzes wrestling match videos and gives technique feedback, drills and training plans, built by a college student without writing code. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): 17,000 per month, within six months of launch (currency not stated) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: MRR from monthly plans alone: 8,000; the rest comes from yearly plans. Pricing 9.99/month or 59.99/year. He says it went from idea to the App Store in about a month. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Rork, ChatGPT - Got customers via: Influencers, Pre-orders - How they got customers: His co-founder is a big wrestling influencer, and pre-orders put the app around #18 on the App Store on launch day. When that audience was saturated, he put about 500 into deals with other creators and kept scaling influencer marketing. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Co-founder is a big wrestling influencer; launch-day pre-orders came from his audience (source: https://www.starterstory.com/George) - Editor's note: He paid a Fiverr developer about 250 to add the paywall; the rest was built with Rork and ChatGPT. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/George (George Lampropoulos (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2025-12-15; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: partner with a creator in the niche and open pre-orders so launch-day downloads push you up the charts. - From the source: offer creators a small upfront fee for 4 to 5 videos with a view guarantee based on a 2 to 5 CPM, and negotiate by phone. - From the source: use public APIs for features you can't build yourself, and pay a freelancer for small tasks like the paywall. - Our suggestion: have a backup for any third-party API your core feature depends on. ## Subscribr: an AI script writer for YouTube creators at around $30,000 a month, vibe coded with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/subscribr-ai-youtube-script-writer-30k-month-claude-code/ - App: Subscribr. An AI tool that helps YouTube creators plan video ideas, packaging and scripts, sold as a subscription from about $49 to $300 a month. - App type: Video & content - Revenue (as claimed): around $30,000 a month in subscription revenue (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In the Starter Story video (posted Dec 2, 2025) the founder said monthly revenue varies but is typically around $30,000 in subscription revenue, with over $700,000 in sales in the past year and over 4,000 customers, profitable from day one. He made about $20,000 from a pre-sale of 50 lifetime licenses before the product was built. He put costs at about $3,500 a month for AI compute, $2,000 for ads and $1,500 for other services. An Indie Hackers interview of Aug 27, 2025 lists revenue at more than $62K a month. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: Pre-orders, X, Email list, SEO, Word of mouth - How they got customers: He opened a new X account, followed the YouTube creator space and shared free useful content with viral giveaways, building an email list of over 1,000 people that he emailed weekly. A pre-sale of 50 lifetime licenses, priced up every 10 sales and backed by a money-back guarantee, sold out in 2 to 3 days. Today customers come from word of mouth, social media and programmatic SEO pages that bring over 30,000 views a month from Google. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: Started a new X account and built a 1,000+ email list before the pre-sale (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KqlwjBM_tM) - Editor's note: Not a 'never coded' story: the founder has written code professionally for 25 years and was CTO of Squidoo. Subscribr launched publicly in April 2024, before Claude Code was released, so the Claude Code figure describes how he builds it now; the tool used for the very first version isn't named. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KqlwjBM_tM (Gil Hildebrand (founder), Starter Story on YouTube, posted 2025-12-02; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: build an audience first by posting free, useful things and raw build-in-public stories. - From the source: run a weekly email list and use the replies as feedback on your idea. - From the source: work out how much money would count as validation, then how many buyers and how big a list you need to get there. - From the source: pre-sell before building, with a 7-day email build-up, an offer too good to refuse, rising prices every 10 sales and a money-back guarantee until delivery. - From the source: stack named in the interview: Claude Code (about 90% of the code), Laravel, DigitalOcean hosting and several AI model providers. ## Coherence: a breathwork app that made around 85,000 in eight months, built with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/coherence-breathwork-app-85k-in-8-months-cursor-claude-code/ - App: Coherence. A breathwork app for calming the nervous system, focus and sleep, built by two brothers who validated the idea with viral posts first. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): around 85,000 in eight months (currency not stated) (total) - Currency: unstated - Details: Averaged around 11,000 a month since launch; best month 22,000. Over 15,000 downloads and 2,000 users. MVP finished in February 2025. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex - Got customers via: X threads, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube - How they got customers: Content before product: they tested ideas as X threads, turned winners into Instagram and TikTok short videos, then YouTube videos. A July video with about 8 million views changed the business. They also boost winning posts with Spark and Meta ads. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: One founder had grown a YouTube channel to ~20K subscribers in university (source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/our-mobile-app-made-85k-in-8-months) - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/our-mobile-app-made-85k-in-8-months (Jack and Nick Sweeney (founders), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2025-11-20; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: use X as an 'idea battleground'; build the app around the topic that goes viral. - From the source: film 30 to 60 short videos in one batch, then amplify the winners with a little paid spend. - From the source: ship the MVP in weeks with an AI coding tool; the founder says he didn't write a single line of code. - Our suggestion: keep one content format per platform and move winning ideas to longer formats. ## STOPPR: an app to quit sugar at 12,000 a month, a vibe-coded remix of a proven app - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/stoppr-quit-sugar-app-12k-month-cursor/ - App: STOPPR. A French app that helps women quit processed sugar, rebuilt from a successful app's onboarding with Cursor by a former quant trader. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): 12,000 per month, five months after building it (currency not stated) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: First month: 5,000. In five months: 60,000 downloads and around 900 paying customers. Costs mentioned: Cursor Ultra (200/month), Mixpanel (~100), TikTok Spark Ads (~100/month). - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: Influencers (French), TikTok Spark Ads - How they got customers: He works mainly with French influencers who talk about quitting sugar, found through a tool that lists creators who worked with other apps, and boosts videos with small TikTok Spark Ads budgets. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: Under 500 followers on X in late April 2025, around when he started building STOPPR (his own reply on X) (source: https://x.com/david_attisaas/status/1916295040445333890) - Editor's note: The founder says he copied the onboarding of an existing quit-habit app one for one, then changed the niche, colors and market. Update (Oct 17, 2026): STOPPR's iOS App Store listing is no longer available (we checked the US, French, UK, German and Canadian stores). Its Google Play listing is still up, last updated Dec 10, 2025. We found no public statement from Apple or the founder explaining why, and SaaSHub lists the app as discontinued around May 2026. The revenue above is what the founder reported in October 2025. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/i-found-a-successful-app-made-it-1-different-and-now-make-12k-month-stoppr (David Attias (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2025-10-30; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: find an app that already makes money, check its revenue estimate, and validate a new niche with Google Trends and TikTok/Instagram searches. - From the source: import screenshots of a strong onboarding into Figma and have the AI tool rebuild each screen. - From the source: target a country or audience the original app doesn't serve. - Our suggestion: make your product clearly different from the app you learned from, beyond colors. ## AppAlchemy: an AI mobile-app design tool that hit about $17K MRR in 2025 (self-reported), built with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/appalchemy-ai-mobile-app-builder-5-4k-mrr-cursor/ - App: AppAlchemy. A browser tool that generates mobile app designs from a text prompt, now also an AI builder that turns a description into a working iOS and Android app, run by one founder. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): About $17K MRR in July 2025, about four months after launch (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: In the Starter Story interview (posted Jul 9, 2025) the founder said the app made around 17K per month, four months after he started it, with more than 1K paying customers and about 20K signups, at margins of about 70%. The video shows these as on-screen graphics, not a revenue dashboard. An Indie Hackers interview of Jul 9, 2026 lists revenue at more than $10K a month. A TrustMRR listing that had shown Stripe-verified revenue has since been removed. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: Reddit - How they got customers: Almost entirely Reddit, with zero audience and no ad spend: he says posts across many subreddits put the product in front of over 1 million people. His posts lead with value (for example a case study of a successful app) and plug the product in the middle or end, two to three times a week. - Prior audience (before launch): None: Under 100 X followers, no YouTube channel at the time of the interview (source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/how-i-used-reddit-to-hit-17k-mrr-with-zero-audience) - Editor's note: This figure is from July 2025 and the current figure is likely lower: the last number we saw on TrustMRR, before the listing was removed, was $5,448 MRR (Stripe-verified, recorded Oct 16, 2026; a copy dated Oct 17 showed $5,418), and the founder wrote there that he hadn't touched marketing since early 2026 and that revenue was declining. Label changed from Verified to Self-reported: that TrustMRR listing was removed (checked Oct 19, 2026). The business had been listed for sale there, so it may have been sold, but we can't confirm that. He is a self-taught developer (learned mostly from YouTube), not a never-coded founder. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/how-i-used-reddit-to-hit-17k-mrr-with-zero-audience (Diego Roshardt (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2025-07-09; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: solve a problem you had yourself (he paid an Upwork designer for every small change) and ship the simplest MVP; his took about two weeks. - From the source: build with the most widely used frameworks and UI component libraries (Chakra UI, Ant Design), because AI tools handle them best. - From the source: warm up a Reddit account, list many related subreddits (the Reddit ads targeting tool suggests them for free), and write posts that give value before plugging the product. - From the source: post the same strong post across several subreddits, two to three times a week at most to avoid bans. - From the source: stack named in the interview: Cursor, Next.js and React, Firebase, Vercel hosting; the biggest cost is AI APIs at about 2.5K a month. ## Post Bridge: a social media scheduler at $48,821 MRR (Stripe-verified), built with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/post-bridge-social-scheduler-48k-mrr-cursor/ - App: Post Bridge. Upload a post or short video once and publish it to many social platforms at the same time, from one dashboard; the founder first built it for himself. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): $48,821 MRR (1,660 active subscriptions; TrustMRR, Stripe-verified) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: TrustMRR shows $48,821 MRR, $49,607 in the last 30 days and $542,270 all-time revenue, with 1,660 active subscriptions (as of Oct 16, 2026). Pricing listed there: Marketer $39/month, Operator $99/month. In the June 2025 podcast interview the product was about seven months old; the interview itself gives no revenue figure in the founder's own words. - Verification: Verified. Revenue read from a payment provider via a public third-party profile (e.g. TrustMRR) that matches the claim. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/post-bridge - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: X, Building in public, Word of mouth - How they got customers: He built it for his own need: posting the short videos that marketed his mobile app to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, X, Threads and Bluesky without uploading each one by hand. He documents what he does on X, and his pinned post, a free guide to growing a mobile app with organic content using Post Bridge, sends people to the tool. He competes on simplicity and a fair price rather than feature comparisons, and says word of mouth has gone further than with anything he built before. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Already had an X audience when he started; ~40K X followers by mid-2025 (source: https://tbf.fm/episodes/396-jack-friks-building-tools-that-empower-without-overwhelming/transcript) - Editor's note: AI here is how the founder learned to code and builds, not a feature of the product: he says that less than two years before the interview he only knew basic HTML and CSS, and that Cursor 'helps me a ton'. He already had an audience on X and a mobile app (Curiosity Quench) when he started Post Bridge. - Source: https://tbf.fm/episodes/396-jack-friks-building-tools-that-empower-without-overwhelming/transcript (Jack Friks (founder), The Bootstrapped Founder podcast on The Bootstrapped Founder, posted 2025-06-18; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: build the tool you need every day and keep using it yourself, so you know what to improve. - From the source: in a crowded market, compete on simplicity and a fair price; point people to the pricing page and features instead of arguing about competitors. - From the source: share a genuinely useful free guide (his pinned post on X) that shows your tool in use. - From the source: check security early; he says his sites were attacked twice after he spoke up for vibe coding, and no user data was harmed. - Our suggestion: pin your most useful post on your profile and link the product from it. ## CodeGuide: an AI documentation tool for AI coders at 42K MRR in 90 days, built with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/codeguide-ai-coding-docs-42k-mrr-cursor-bolt/ - App: CodeGuide. Generates detailed technical documentation that developers feed to AI coding tools to cut hallucinations, validated with a Bolt landing page and built in Cursor in 14 days. - App type: Developer tools - Revenue (as claimed): 42K MRR, about three months after launch (currency not stated) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: The founder said CodeGuide launched on December 24 and reached 42K MRR in about three months, with a community of more than 4,800 AI developers, and that he was projecting around 90K that month. Monthly plan quoted at 29 (currency not stated). He put running costs at around 3,500 per month, mostly the OpenAI API. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor, Claude, Windsurf, Bolt - Got customers via: X (organic), Waitlist - How they got customers: All organic from X: he posts short screen-recording demos and threads about AI coding workflows. A tweet about his Cursor workflow became a Bolt landing page that collected more than 1,800 waitlist sign-ups in two weeks before he built the product. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: Not a huge audience, per the interview; grew an X following with daily tutorial threads (source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/from-zero-to-42k-month-in-90-days-with-ai) - Editor's note: The founder ran an MVP agency before this, so he came in with product-building experience. The interview was posted in May 2025. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/from-zero-to-42k-month-in-90-days-with-ai (CJ Zafir (founder), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2025-05-21; added 2026-10-16) Steps to try: - From the source: turn a workflow you already repeat for clients into a product (his was writing documentation for AI coding tools). - From the source: validate with a quick landing page and a waitlist before building; he built his page with Bolt in under an hour. - From the source: share simple screen-recording demos on X to get early users. - From the source: stack named in the interview: Cursor as the main editor, Windsurf, Claude for UI components, Next.js, Supabase, Vercel, the OpenAI API, Clerk and ConvertKit. ## LicitaCerta: Brazilian tender alerts on WhatsApp, past R$ 10K in 30 days, built solo with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/licitacerta-tender-alerts-whatsapp-r10k-30-days-claude-code/ - App: LicitaCerta. A bot that reads Brazil's public procurement portals and sends small businesses the matching tenders on WhatsApp. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): R$ 10 mil in 30 days (Brazilian reais) (total) - Currency: BRL (Brazilian reais, as stated in the source) - Details: Founder's timeline (Oct 11 post): launched Sep 6, 2026; first sale Sep 7; 6 sales in week 1; 41 in week 3; 100 customers by day 25; 'dia 30: 10k faturados'. Product priced at R$ 49 at launch. In another post (Oct 10) he wrote '13k em 34 dias. 201 clientes'. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: Paid ads - How they got customers: Paid ads from day one: in week 1 each sale cost about R$ 90 in ads for a R$ 49 product (founder's Oct 11 post). He also mentions an affiliate program with accountants and lawyers. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 3K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure); he also runs other small SaaS products (source: https://x.com/thallisribeiro) - Editor's note: Amounts are in Brazilian reais (R$), not US dollars. His Sep 30 English post said '81 paying customers in 25 days', while the Oct 11 timeline says 100 customers by day 25; we show both as stated. He also gives away a free prompts PDF; that is not part of this case. - Source: https://x.com/thallisribeiro/status/2110420771374092363 (@thallisribeiro on X, posted 2026-10-14; added 2026-10-15) Steps to try: - From the source: go where businesses already pay; here, public tenders that small firms find out about too late. - From the source: ship a simple product and charge from day one. - From the source: deliver the result where customers already are (WhatsApp alerts). - Our suggestion: watch cost per sale against price early; his first sales cost more in ads than they earned. ## Vugola: an AI video clipping tool at ~$11.2K MRR, vibe-coded with Lovable, Claude and Codex - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/vugola-ai-video-clipping-11k-mrr-lovable-claude-codex/ - App: Vugola. An AI video editing agent that turns long videos into short clips for clippers, creators and agencies, built by a 19-year-old with no coding experience. - App type: Video & content - Revenue (as claimed): about $11,200 MRR (stated as monthly recurring revenue over the last four weeks) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: About 400 paying users. MRR from X alone first reached $2,000–3,000. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Lovable, Claude, Codex - Got customers via: X, Instagram, UGC videos - How they got customers: First $2–3K MRR from X, tying the product to viral AI trends. Then a new Instagram account posting 3–6 short videos a day (about 45 minutes a day), copying competitors' proven viral formats, with ManyChat ($15/month). - Prior audience (before launch): Small: Started posting on X with 0 followers in Nov 2025 and hit 4K followers on Jan 27, 2026, days before the Feb 1 launch (his own posts) (source: https://x.com/VadimStrizheus/status/2016191052550431092) - Editor's note: He built it for about four months on Lovable, then moved to Claude, and says he now builds with Codex. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXxESN94Y6s (Vadim Strizheus (founder), Starter Story on YouTube, posted 2026-10-11; added 2026-10-15) Steps to try: - From the source: post about your app alongside AI trends that are already going viral on X. - From the source: study competitors' viral short-video formats and copy the format with your own face and product. - From the source: post 3–6 videos a day, keeping the demo and CTA the same and changing only the hook and sound. - From the source: the only paid tool for this was a $15/month ManyChat subscription. ## Kiiwi: mechanical keyboard sounds for Mac, $310 all time, built with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/kiiwi-mac-keyboard-sounds-310-all-time-claude-code/ - App: Kiiwi. A Mac menu-bar app that makes any keyboard sound like a mechanical one, sold for a one-time $4.99, by a solo founder in Bangalore. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $310 all time ($295 of it in 48 hours) (total) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: 66 people bought in 48 hours; 1,049 visitors; 5.94% conversion; $0.28 per visitor. One-time price: $4.99 (for the first 100 buyers, then $6.99, per the TrustMRR listing). - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/kiiwi - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: Reddit - How they got customers: A free in-browser playground: most buyers typed in it first, then bought. A Reddit post asking for feedback brought 542 visits and $264 (founder's Oct 9 post). - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 190 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/iniyanai) - Editor's note: The revenue post does not name the build tool. The founder states it in his own X article of Oct 8, 2026 ('This is how I ship mac apps with Claude code', x.com/iniyanai/status/2108215878445928850): 'A lot of both gets built with Claude Code.' On Oct 9 he posted that a Reddit feedback post brought 542 visits and $264. - Source: https://x.com/iniyanai/status/2108904578380976220 (@iniyanai on X, posted 2026-10-10; added 2026-10-15) Steps to try: - From the source: let visitors try the product free on the website before buying (most buyers used the playground first). - From the source: post on Reddit asking for honest feedback on the site and app. - From the source: sell a small Mac utility for a one-time price instead of a subscription. - Our suggestion: track visitors, conversion and revenue per visitor from day one. ## GeoSports: a daily sports geography web game at ~$40K/month, first version built in a weekend with Claude - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/geosports-daily-sports-geography-game-40k-month-claude/ - App: GeoSports. A free daily web game: five sports clues a day, tap the spot on the map. Earns from ads and a Pro plan. - App type: Games - Revenue (as claimed): about $40,000 per month (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: Across GeoGames (GeoSports plus spin-offs): ~700,000 monthly active users, ~1,800 Pro subscriptions; 'closer to $30,000, $35,000 in programmatic' ads, around $1,200 a day (ads live for under 30 days at recording). - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude - Got customers via: Word of mouth, X, Instagram - How they got customers: A reply to his own X post went viral (about 40,000 players, then 150,000 the next day). He says ~98% of traffic is word of mouth, driven by a 53% score-share rate. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Sports creator with 3.5M+ followers (1.8M TikTok, 1.4M YouTube) (source: https://www.sportico.com/business/tech/2026/geosports-trivia-game-creator-viral-wordle-1234901573/) - Editor's note: This is total monthly revenue, mostly ads; it is not MRR. Sportico (May 28, 2026) reports the founder's company Rhino Studios raised $500,000 in 2025, and that development moved from Claude to his four-person team after launch. He is a sports creator with millions of followers. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9aLA4IOSZE (Frank Michael Smith (founder), Starter Story on YouTube, posted 2026-09-27; added 2026-10-15) Steps to try: - From the source: give Claude lots of detail about the idea, have it research a reference game, and write a spec first. - From the source: block about 8 uninterrupted hours to build; when stuck, ask Claude (he sent it screenshots of setup screens). - From the source: make every result easy to share; soft-launch to friends and family and see whether they share it. - From the source: keep the game free, add programmatic ads, and sell a Pro plan on the side. ## ContextBolt: an SEO tool inside Claude and Cursor at $653 MRR, built with Claude Code and Codex - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/contextbolt-seo-mcp-653-mrr-claude-code-codex/ - App: ContextBolt. A hosted MCP server that puts live SEO data (keywords, rankings, backlinks) inside AI agents, built by a solo founder in Scotland. - App type: Marketing & social - Revenue (as claimed): $653 a month (September 2026) (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: Just passed 50 paying users. Launched May 2026 at $47 MRR; ~$250 end of June; ~$500 end of July. ContextBolt SEO is $35/month with a 7-day free trial. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. Verification link: https://trustmrr.com/startup/contextbolt - Built with: Claude Code, Codex - Got customers via: SEO, Social media - How they got customers: A few semi-viral social posts brought the first paying users; since then SEO brings people to the site every day. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: The founder later posted on X (Sep 29, 2026) that he was 'about to hit $1000 MRR' and that SEO brings in most customers. - Source: https://99helpers.com/makers/contextbolt (David Hamilton (founder), 99helpers Maker Series on 99helpers, posted 2026-09-22; added 2026-10-15) Steps to try: - From the source: build the tool you want for your own workflow (he wanted keyword data without opening an SEO dashboard). - From the source: price it far below the big suites ($35/month vs $100–$450) and offer a 7-day free trial. - From the source: use early social posts for the first users, then lean on SEO for steady traffic. - Our suggestion: track MRR month by month in public, as he did ($47 → ~$250 → ~$500 → $653). ## Cal Buddy: a Hebrew AI calorie tracker at over 81K a month, built with Cursor - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/cal-buddy-hebrew-ai-calorie-tracker-81k-month-cursor/ - App: Cal Buddy. A photo-based AI calorie and macro tracker in Hebrew, built for the Israeli market by a former marketer who isn't a developer. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): over 81K (April 2026; currency not stated, video title says $80K/month) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: About 1K in the first month after the June 2025 launch; around 20,000 per month four months in, from paid ads; over 81K in April 2026. - Verification: Screenshot. Founder shared a dashboard screenshot (Stripe, RevenueCat, App Store). Not independently verified. - Built with: Cursor - Got customers via: Paid ads, Influencers - How they got customers: Paid ads first, because Israeli CPMs are much lower than in the US; creatives modeled on the most viral content from similar US apps and Israeli fitness content. Later a revenue-share partnership with a fitness influencer. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: The founder says revenue-share partnerships with big influencers ('two well known faces who represent my app') took the app from 20,000 to 80,000 per month. - Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ27QVp3SzQ (Tomer (founder), Starter Story on YouTube, posted 2026-08-09; added 2026-10-15) Steps to try: - From the source: take an app that works in the US and localize it for a smaller market you know. - From the source: build the first working version with Cursor (his took about two weeks; App Store approval took longer). - From the source: pick the channel that is cheapest in your market; for him, paid ads with creatives modeled on proven viral content. - From the source: once you have traction, offer big influencers a revenue share instead of paying per post. ## 3AK: a track-and-field training app, around 70,000 made in six months, built with Rork and Claude - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/3ak-track-field-app-70k-in-6-months-rork-claude/ - App: 3AK. An all-in-one app for sprinters: training plans, workout tracking, AI video form scoring and meal analysis, built by two college athletes with no coding background. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): around 70,000 so far (currency not stated; the host says $70,000) (total) - Currency: unstated - Details: Launched December 16; 'the first month, we made $10,000'. Around 40,000 users and a 4.7 App Store rating. Plans: $10/month or $30/year. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Rork, Claude, Claude Code - Got customers via: Own audience (track videos) - How they got customers: They had built hundreds of thousands of track and field followers with their own videos, and had been mentioning the 3AK name in videos and bios (from an earlier Shopify store) before launching the app. - Prior audience (before launch): Large: Hundreds of thousands of track and field followers from their own videos (source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/we-built-this-20k-month-app-while-in-college) - Editor's note: The video title says $20K/month; that number comes from the host, not from the founders, so we use the founders' own total. - Source: https://www.starterstory.com/stories/we-built-this-20k-month-app-while-in-college (Christian and Braylin (founders), Starter Story on Starter Story, posted 2026-06-28; added 2026-10-15) Steps to try: - From the source: pick a niche you live in and already have influence in (track and field had no dedicated app). - From the source: describe the app to Rork in plain language, and use Claude and Claude Code to check and fix it when stuck. - From the source: price for your audience; teens pay $10/month or $30/year, not $60–70 programs. - From the source: put the brand name in your content before launch so the audience already knows it. ## Vibe coded a tool for his sister in under 24h: 3 paying customers in 3 days - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/tool-for-sister-25-gbp-mrr-in-3-days/ - App: One-feature tool. A one-feature tool built for a real person first, then sold to people like her. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): £25 MRR (per month) - Currency: GBP (British pounds, as stated in the source) - Details: 3 paying customers three days after launch, going from £0 to £25 MRR. Current version has one feature. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Not specified - Got customers via: Warm network - How they got customers: Started from a real problem of someone he knows (his sister), shipped a single feature fast, and got the first paying users within days. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 480 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/imhslva) - Source: https://x.com/imhslva/status/2109702676925583520 (@imhslva on X, posted 2026-10-12; added 2026-10-14) Steps to try: - From the source: build for one real person you know, around one feature. - From the source: ship in about a day and charge from the start. - From the source: only add 'pro' workflows after the first customers pay. ## An AI video tool at $2K MRR: 'not life-changing, but real' - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/ai-video-tool-2k-mrr/ - App: AI video tool. A paid AI video tool; the founder argues customers pay for results, not repos. - App type: Video & content - Revenue (as claimed): $2K MRR (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: Paid every month for an AI video tool: $2K MRR. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Not specified (AI use not stated in the source) - Got customers via: Not specified - How they got customers: Not stated. The founder's point: what a weekend clone doesn't kill is people who want a result, plus payments and refunds handled properly. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 50 followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure) (source: https://x.com/yasuomang_zh) - Editor's note: The post doesn't say whether the app itself was built with AI coding tools; it discusses vibe-coded clones. Included as an AI product with revenue. - Source: https://x.com/yasuomang_zh/status/2109789630371615156 (@yasuomang_zh on X, posted 2026-10-12; added 2026-10-14) Steps to try: - From the source: sell an outcome (finished videos), not a tool people must assemble. - From the source: take payments, refunds and support seriously; that's part of the moat. ## Maxed AI: an AI lifting coach at ~$14K/month, built with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/maxed-ai-lifting-coach-14k-month-claude-code/ - App: Maxed AI. AI lifting coach app built solo by a first-time app builder. - App type: Health & fitness - Revenue (as claimed): ~$14K/month (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: 1,000 paying subs, 20K downloads. One plan: $24.99/year, charged upfront. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: UGC videos - How they got customers: No budget for UGC creators, so the founder became one: filmed 5–10 videos a day himself. - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Editor's note: The figures in the post do not reconcile on their face (1,000 subs on a $24.99/year plan is roughly $25K/year). Treat the monthly figure as an unverified claim until a payment-provider link is available. - Source: https://x.com/FuckViralX/status/2109329338261012821 (@FuckViralX on X, posted 2026-10-11; added 2026-10-14) Steps to try: - From the source: ship one simple paid plan (annual, charged upfront). - From the source: if you can't pay creators, film short UGC-style videos yourself, 5–10 a day. - Our suggestion: track which hooks bring installs and reuse the winners. ## A vibe-coded SaaS lands its first paying customer at $39 MRR, with the focus on SEO - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/vibe-coded-saas-first-customer-39-mrr-seo/ - App: Stealth SaaS. A new SaaS kept in stealth for ~3 months, polished and pushed through SEO. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): $39 MRR (per month) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: First paying customer: $39 MRR. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Not specified - Got customers via: SEO - How they got customers: Most of the time after launch went into fine-tuning the product, fixing small things, and working on SEO. - Prior audience (before launch): Small: About 10.6K followers on X (an Oct 2026 count, not a pre-launch figure); he already owns other products (source: https://x.com/imbktan) - Editor's note: The same wording was later reposted almost word for word by a different account with a different number. We list the earliest post we found. - Source: https://x.com/imbktan/status/2108022081271276023 (@imbktan on X, posted 2026-10-08; added 2026-10-14) Steps to try: - From the source: keep polishing the product after launch instead of rushing new features. - From the source: invest early in SEO so customers can find you without an audience. - Our suggestion: target low-competition, high-intent search terms first. ## 81 MRR on day 6: 90% of signups from an Instagram UGC bot built with Claude Code - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/day-6-81-mrr-instagram-ugc-bot-claude-code/ - App: Instagram-bot app. An app built in public; the founder automated short-form video marketing with a bot he wrote. - App type: SaaS & tools - Revenue (as claimed): 81 MRR (currency not stated) (per month) - Currency: unstated - Details: 1,847 users (+37), 81 MRR (+25) on day 6 of building in public. The post does not state the currency. - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Claude Code - Got customers via: UGC videos, Building in public - How they got customers: 90% of signups come from an Instagram bot he built with Claude Code. It runs on his laptop, makes 4 UGC videos a day and posts them for him. - Prior audience (before launch): None: 19 followers on X on day 6 of building in public, per his own post; the account was created in Aug 2026 (source: https://x.com/gladwyn1_1/status/2107622517590642980) - Source: https://x.com/gladwyn1_1/status/2107622517590642980 (@gladwyn1_1 on X, posted 2026-10-07; added 2026-10-14) Steps to try: - From the source: build a small script/bot that generates short UGC-style videos for your app. - From the source: have it post a fixed number per day (he does 4) to Instagram. - From the source: share daily numbers publicly (users, MRR) as a build-in-public log. - Our suggestion: check the platform's automation rules before posting at volume. ## A 12-year-old's vibe-coded site on track for >$1K in AdSense this year - Case page: https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/12-year-old-vibe-coded-site-adsense-seo/ - App: Kid's content site. A content site built with AI coding tools by a 12-year-old, monetized with ads. - App type: Content sites & ads - Revenue (as claimed): >$1K AdSense this year (per year) - Currency: USD (US dollars, as stated in the source) - Details: Expected to clear more than $1K in AdSense revenue this year (annual figure, not MRR). - Verification: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified. - Built with: Not specified - Got customers via: SEO, Ads - How they got customers: Organic search traffic (the post shares September's search performance). - Prior audience (before launch): Not stated in the source - Source: https://x.com/pejmanjohn/status/2107507895403429975 (@pejmanjohn on X, posted 2026-10-06; added 2026-10-14) Steps to try: - From the source: build a simple site that can rank in organic search. - From the source: monetize traffic with display ads (AdSense). - Our suggestion: publish consistently on one topic and watch Search Console for queries to expand. ## Source removed (not counted above) - Tradr: a social platform for traders at about 1.5K MRR a month after launch, built with a Claude Code stack (https://shippedandpaid.com/cases/tradr-social-platform-for-traders-1-5k-mrr-claude-code/): around 1.5k MRR (one month after launch; currency not stated). SOURCE REMOVED, checked 2026-10-22: The founder's original post on X (x.com/momofivex/status/2111157264652607638) was deleted. We found no archived copy and no other public source for the figure. Treat this figure as unconfirmed.