Launching an app builder in 2 weeks and hitting $10k MRR within a
year
Diego Roshardt quit his job with only a few months of runway and started building what would become AppAlchemy. A year later, he's bringing in $10k+ MRR.
Here's Diego on how he's doing it. 👇
Choosing a different path
I'm Diego, creator of AppAlchemy, a website for quickly creating native mobile apps directly from your browser without downloading any programs or complicated setups to your computer.
At my first college career fair, I instantly knew I didn't want to pursue the traditional career path. Launching scalable online projects sounded much more exciting. I learned to code — mostly from YouTube — and immediately started building projects.
I launched projects throughout college. Most failed. Some made money intermittently.
Then, college ended. All my friends had corporate jobs lined up. But I had nothing to show for my time: no job, no past internships, and no successful side projects.
At the time, it was scary. But I don't consider building those projects a waste of time. The work spans every business area. There's no better way to learn all those skills.
Taking the leap
After college, I cold-emailed a startup founder, showcasing some projects I had launched. They hired me as a software engineer. I worked there for a few months, but something felt off. I felt unfulfilled.
I wanted to create something of my own. But I knew I'd have to do something different this time around.
So, I left my hometown, got a studio apartment in Austin, and went all in on what became AppAlchemy. At the time, products like Lovable were going viral on Twitter. But I realized no one was doing that for mobile apps.
I knew from experience that creating mobile apps was a tedious process, requiring you to download Xcode and have a decent Mac just to get started. So, I built a simple MVP and started posting on Reddit to see if people were interested.
I only had a few months of runway, so I had to make it work. I launched it about a year ago, and it has already grown to thousands of users. It currently makes $10k+ MRR.
Launching in two weeks
Compared to my software engineer job, I had more mental energy to dedicate to this. That was helpful. It allowed me to move faster.
I launched the first version in about two weeks. On past projects, I spent too much time building features. I should have been marketing. And when I developed features, I should have based them on what actual users wanted.
For AppAlchemy, I immediately started posting on Reddit and Twitter. Growth was initially slow, with a few sporadic paid users.
And I started charging right from the start — monthly subscriptions and yearly discounted plans. Paying customers are what ultimately prove demand for a product.
Growth via Reddit
From there, I posted updates about the product, shared videos of myself using the product, and talked about vibe coding and AI tools on Reddit.
Reddit is an underrated marketing channel. People in the SaaS space recommend launching on Product Hunt and similar directories. But if your target customer isn’t an entrepreneur or early adopter, the targeting is ineffective. It leads to poor results. There is a subreddit for every imaginable niche, so it's the best way to target specific interests relevant to your product.
Most people fail with Reddit marketing because their posts are pushy and don’t feel organic to the platform. You don’t wanna make it feel like an ad. Instead, provide value in your niche, then casually mention your product in the middle of the post.
And become an active Reddit user first. Join subreddits related to your product niche or related to stuff you're passionate about. That way, you become familiar with the type of posts that do well. And you warm up your account, too. Posts from completely new accounts will almost always get filtered out automatically.
Aside from Reddit, I gained many users through word of mouth. People who liked my product talked about it on social media and shared it with their friends. Last summer, a major Twitter influencer posted about AppAlchemy, and I gained a significant influx of users overnight.
Tech stack
The original version was a simple React MVP that let users chat with an AI to build and preview a mobile app.
Today, I use Next.js as my main framework. I used Firebase for authentication and database management, but recently switched to Supabase, which has been a better experience. I use Claude Code and Cursor extensively for development, so it's important to use open tools that AI can easily interact with.
Community and clean eating
My biggest challenge so far has been isolation. I wasn't surrounding myself with like-minded people. Being an indie hacker gives you a lot of freedom, but you often spend a lot of time by yourself.
If I had to start over, I would share more about my journey online. Many recommend building in public to get users. But I believe the biggest benefit of building in public is meeting like-minded people working on interesting projects.
So that's my main advice to indie hackers: Surround yourself with people who are building things. It makes the journey more fun, and you'll learn a ton.
And one more thing. People don't often talk about eating clean in entrepreneurship, but I think it's huge. Indie hackers need to make important decisions every day. Eating garbage prevents you from having the necessary mental clarity and energy to do that well.
What's next?
My future goals are to grow AppAlchemy, level up as an entrepreneur, and have fun along the way!
Check out my Twitter to connect or follow my journey. And for anyone who wants to build mobile apps fast, you can learn more at AppAlchemy.
Leave a Comment
This highlights the importance of understanding community-driven marketing rather than relying only on traditional promotion channels. Reddit can be effective for SaaS growth because niche communities allow brands to reach highly relevant audiences through genuine discussions. Providing useful insights first and mentioning products naturally helps build trust while avoiding the feeling of direct advertising.
The impressive part isn’t the two-week build, it’s charging immediately and letting real demand decide what came next. Most founders copy the speed while ignoring the harder discipline: marketing before the product feels finished and refusing to build features without user evidence.
This is a great reminder that shipping fast, validating with real users, and marketing from day one matter more than building a perfect product. Solving a real problem, charging early, and consistently engaging niche communities can create sustainable growth far faster than endless feature development.
Love the emphasis on validating early and marketing from day one instead of endlessly building features. Your Reddit-first approach is a great reminder that understanding your audience often beats chasing every launch platform. Wishing you continued growth!
Love to see your journey, James! Can you explain what you were thinking about to get users when you were in the development process?
The Reddit vs. Product Hunt point resonates. I'm building a consumer
sleep app (not dev/SaaS-adjacent at all), and going through this
exact calculation right now — PH's audience skews toward builders
and early adopters, which is a different crowd than someone actually
lying awake at 1am Googling "can't sleep."
What's made the decision harder for me is doing this across three
markets (US, Germany, Japan) at once — the "which channel matches
your actual customer" question doesn't have one answer, it has three.
Reddit works well for the US audience, but the equivalent doesn't
really exist the same way in Japan, where audiences tend to gather
around completely different platforms.
The isolation point above is real too. Solo + multiple languages +
figuring out three separate distribution puzzles at once means most
weeks it's just you and a spreadsheet of assumptions you're trying
to validate.
The isolation point hit harder than the revenue numbers.
Most "building in public" advice focuses on users and distribution. The actual underrated benefit — meeting people who are doing the same thing — gets buried. I'm two days into early access on Ridgewell and the loneliest part isn't the slow growth, it's that most people around me don't really understand what I'm building or why it matters.
The Reddit advice is interesting because it's exactly what everyone recommends and exactly what doesn't work for me — Ridgewell is a trading tool and the finance subreddits have strict self-promotion rules that make organic posting nearly impossible without an established account history. So I'm having to find other channels.
The clean eating point is underrated and undersaid. Decision quality matters more than hours worked when you're the only one making every call. I've noticed this personally — the days I eat well and sleep enough I make better product decisions. The days I don't I second-guess everything.
Congrats on $10k MRR. The two week launch discipline is something I'm trying to carry into my own process.
your take on Reddit is interesting—was there a particular post or subreddit that gave AppAlchemy its first real wave of users?
Great story! I really liked your point about launching quickly and validating with real users instead of spending months building features. The advice on using Reddit naturally rather than treating it like an ad is especially valuable. Wishing you continued success with AppAlchemy!
The “Lovable for mobile” wedge is clean. Spotting that Xcode/Mac friction and shipping in two weeks is a much better path than another six-month feature build.
Reddit advice here is solid too: warm the account, give value, mention the product casually. That’s the part most people skip, then wonder why their launch posts die.
Charging from day one also tracks. A few early paid users beat a pile of free “cool idea” comments.
I built Make it RAIN for creators stuck on monetization after shipping, so the marketing-before-overbuilding lesson is useful on my side too.
Biggest takeaway I’m keeping: pick a niche Reddit audience that already wants the outcome, not a generic startup directory blast.
Love the emphasis on validating early and marketing from day one instead of endlessly building features. Your Reddit-first approach is a great reminder that understanding your audience often beats chasing every launch platform. Wishing you continued growth!
Reaching $125k MRR completely solo is an incredible milestone. When you started expanding from just e-commerce into SaaS teams using Zigpoll for CRO, did you have to change the core product features significantly, or was it mostly a shift in how you marketed the same tool?
inspiring story. Curious to know if you spend anything on marketing/customer acquisition at all or it was all 100% organic. Either learned a lot from this and will definitely try a few things in my journey to launch.
Quitting with only a few months of runway takes courage. Glad to see it worked out.
Building in secret taught me the wrong lesson. The product was fine; the distribution habit was missing.
If I restarted tomorrow I would publish one useful note a week from day one, even if the product was ugly. Silence feels productive. It usually just delays the first real objection.
The two-week MVP matters less than the sequencing: charge from day one, then use niche Reddit posts as demand tests. The missing number is how many paid users came from product demos versus broader AI and vibe-coding posts; that split would show whether Reddit found mobile-app buyers or just attention. Was that measured before the influencer spike?
The speed is impressive. I’m curious whether launching quickly helped you discover the right positioning, or if the positioning was already clear before development started.
Good Luck !
love seeing people succeed. big inspiration
Wow it is a amazing story, what would you recommend first doing to a person that is at the beggining of the same path that you had?
Congratulations man, will love to try the product out because I myself am an App developer
Congrats man! and thank you for sharing timelines. Most people don’t mention how long it actually took them, it looks like they succeeded overnight.
Love this post, I have am on my second attempt at building something of my own, and the thing about building solo really hits, one needs immense discipline and consistency because you don't really have people to discuss stuff with
Eating clean, working out, any thing which keeps your mind energised and focused definitely helps, really helpful article, building in public is genuinely something I hadn't considered yet, not sure how to get started either haha
But thanks for the inspiration!
Really impressive growth, especially getting to $10K MRR within a year after such a fast launch. What stood out to me is the speed of execution, launching in 2 weeks probably forced the product to stay focused instead of becoming overbuilt. I think that is a good reminder that for app builders and no-code tools, the first version does not need every feature; it just needs to solve one painful workflow clearly and prove people will pay for it.
I loved your perspective on building in public as a way to connect with like-minded people, not just as a marketing strategy. Thanks for sharing your journey, and best of luck with AppAlchemy!
Hey, have you outlined a plan for revenue generation?
Great post. I like your comment about using Reddit, don't be pushy but genuine.
If you were to recommend 1 channel for organic growth of your startup what would you suggest.
Well done, man! That's an inspiring journey. Wishing you continued success—keep up the great work and keep crushing it!
Super inspiring to see you launch so fast. I’m building Finsight AI and wondering — how did you balance speed with making sure the product solved the right problem?
Diego, hitting $10k+ MRR in a year is incredible, but your point about isolation and clean eating resonated the most.
Building a solo AI automation business from Davao, Philippines, I've realized that when you are the only employee, your physical health literally is the company's infrastructure. Just like you said, eating garbage translates directly to poor product decisions and burnout.
Curious—since you mentioned launching the first version in about two weeks, how did you discipline yourself to stop building and start shipping during those 14 days when you were entirely alone with the code? Excellent read!
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The Reddit point is underrated. A lot of founders treat it like an ad channel and get ignored. Being part of the community first changes everything.
Agreed, and I've been relearning this the last couple weeks with a Chrome extension I built solo (YouTube analytics for creators). Directory listings and cold posting barely move the needle on their own. What's actually worked is answering someone's real, specific problem first and only mentioning what I built at the end, if it's relevant. Feels slower than blasting links everywhere, but it's the only thing that's converted so far.
nice one
The “charging right from the start” point really stood out to me. I’m building a AI photo editor, I’ve been focused on removing friction—but your story is a good reminder that usage isn’t the same as validated demand. I’m now thinking about how to test willingness to pay much earlier.
2 semanas pra US$10k MRR é rápido mesmo considerando que builders de app já são um mercado validado. O que economizou mais tempo: não construir do zero, ou já ter audiência antes do lançamento? Pergunto porque estou no processo inverso — construindo vários sistemas pequenos, ainda sem essa base de audiência.
The "charging from day one" point resonates a lot. I'm not a developer — I'm a chef who started building an app four weeks ago with Claude as my copilot, learning as I went. I almost fell into the trap of "polishing" for weeks before letting anyone pay, but forcing early payment turned out to be the fastest way to find out if the thing I built actually solved a real problem, not just an interesting one to me.
Also relate hard to the isolation point. When you don't come from a technical background, it's not just "no one understands the business," it's also not having anyone to ask basic questions to at 2am. Curious if you found any communities specifically for non-traditional builders, or if it was mostly general indie hacker spaces?
Hey Diego, I feel the same exact same way about not following a traditional path. Congrats on your launch!
incredible.. wish u all the luck!
Really inspiring journey, Diego. I love seeing how many founders are creating their own paths instead of following the traditional route.
Learning to code through YouTube and immediately building projects shows a lot of initiative. I think the willingness to experiment and solve real problems is often more important than the perfect background.
Wishing you lots of success with AppAlchemy — excited to see where you take it!
Well done, man. Inspiring journey! Keep crushing it.
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Inspiring, you should teach lessons or have a booking link for business talks!
Post like your are goldmine
Taking the plunge with little cash or runway is the tough part tbh, even if you have the most amazing idea with conviction. Well done!
I'd like to find that drive again, it takes time if you've been burnt a few times putting in a lot of energy with little to show for it. But that's to be expected, if you don't try, you'll never know ;)
Incredible journey, Diego! The point about Reddit marketing is pure gold. Too many founders treat subreddits like a billboard instead of a community, so your advice on providing organic value and warming up the account is spot on. Also love the reminder about physical health and clean eating mental clarity is the ultimate unfair advantage when you're flying solo with limited runway. Congrats on hitting $10k+ MRR!
The detail doing the heavy lifting here is charging from day one, not the Reddit playbook. Free users give you feedback about a free product, and I have watched founders build six months of roadmap around people who were never going to pay. Reddit found Diego his audience, but pricing found him the truth.
Really enjoyed this. The Reddit advice resonated the most. Too many founders treat Reddit like another ad channel, when it's really a community-first platform. Providing value before mentioning your product is what separates posts that get upvoted from posts that get removed. Congrats on the growth.
okay thats great
Impressive speed to launch, and even more impressive hitting $10k MRR with an app builder. That says a lot about demand and execution.
I’m really interested about the last mile for your users:
1) How do your clients handle publishing their apps to app store and google play?
2) Do they usually run into issues with approvals, compliance or setup?
3) Do you support them in that process or is it fully self-serve?
Feels like that step can be a big bottleneck, especially for non-technical users.
okay thats great
Congrats on the milestone, Diego! Launching the first version in just two weeks is impressive, especially with how tedious mobile app dev usually is. Love the focus on validation early on. Out of curiosity, what did your initial Reddit strategy look like? Just sharing the build journey, or something else?
Nowadays, with the help of AI, everything becomes easier. We gain knowledge and know how to choose the best tools to solve the problems we face. Leveraging Reddit is a good strategy to solve the main problem for those launching something new: PAYING CUSTOMERS, especially those doing it for the first time. Congratulations on the execution and good luck with what's to come...
Really enjoyed the write-up, especially the Reddit section.
I'm in a similar position—I'm building an educational platform, but I'm completely new to Reddit. Almost every post I make gets removed by AutoModerator or the subreddit rules before anyone even sees it.
I'd love to understand your process a bit better:
Did you spend time commenting and building karma before making your first post?
Were your launch posts mostly asking for feedback, sharing your journey, or directly introducing the product?
How did you find subreddits that were actually welcoming to early-stage founders?
I'm trying to learn Reddit the right way instead of treating it like a promotion channel. Any advice would be hugely appreciated.
One thing that really stood out was I should've spent less time building features and more time talking to users. That's a lesson I feel a lot of founders learn the hard way.
Thanks for sharing such an honest journey and congrats on getting to $10k MRR.
quick question, do you think you are getting more traffic but converting and making them signup is a problem. Cause I think AEO SEO or social media may bring you traffic but converting them is double the stress and work. What are your views ?
AppAlchemy seems like a cool and excellent app. I think your earnings will increase.
Man, this is such a killer story, Diego. Huge congrats on hitting $10k MRR—doing that in just a year while going all-in on a few months of runway is seriously impressive.
Your breakdown on Reddit marketing is absolute gold. You’re so right about Product Hunt; unless your target audience is other tech founders, it’s mostly just a temporary vanity spike. Actually embedding yourself in a niche subreddit and dropping value instead of being spammy is the exact way to do it.
A couple of things really hit home for me:
The 2-week MVP: It’s crazy how easy it is to trick yourself into building "just one more feature" for months. Forcing yourself to ship and charge from day one is the ultimate reality check.
The mental/physical toll: Nobody talks about the isolation of the indie hacker grind, or how much clean eating affects your energy. When you're a solo founder, your brain is the entire company. If you're running on brain fog, the business suffers.
Quick question on the tech stack shift—how has Supabase been treating you compared to Firebase, especially when using Cursor and Claude Code? Do you find the AI handles the relational Postgres setup better than NoSQL?
Thanks for keeping it real and sharing the transparent breakdown. Rooting for you and AppAlchemy!
What I’ve learned is that you can’t be too eager to promote your product. Communities don’t want people to show up just to post ads.
It’s also important to actually interact with people in the community. Platforms like Reddit can help you learn from others, understand real problems, and get inspired with new ideas.
It's really interesting to think about the launch strategy - most of us would automatically go with Product Hunt, it's just what you do when you're launching something new, right?
But the thing is, Product Hunt is actually more geared towards entrepreneurs, not the people who are going to be using your product. So, it's worth taking a step back and thinking about who your real customers are and where they're hanging out. And then there's the issue of charging for your product from the very beginning, a lot of people are hesitant to do this because they're worried about scaring off potential customers with a free trial that doesn't convert. But maybe that's a mistake, maybe it's better to charge from day one and avoid the whole free-trial funnel altogether. It's definitely something to consider, and it's not a conversation you hear every day, so it's refreshing to see someone bringing it up.
I'm on the verge of launching on Product Hunt and I'm having some doubts, my target audience is marketers and agencies, not really the typical Product Hunt crowd. I was wondering if you skipped Product Hunt altogether or if you ran campaigns on both platforms and just got more traction from Reddit. Also, for the subreddits that worked well for you, were they more general startup and SaaS communities or narrower ones that are specifically related to what your app does?
Congrats on £10k MRR! That's pie in the sky for me! Spending too much time making features and not enough time marketing is the bane of my life! I think it must be quite common that the sort of person who tries to build a product is rarely the sort of person interested or proficient in marketing which is why we seek out groups like this.
Huge congrats on the $10k MRR milestone, Diego! Hitting that within a year with a 2-week MVP is a dream run.
Your point about charging from the very beginning is something I'm reflecting on a lot right now. I recently launched my SaaS, qrbrand.cc (custom branded QR codes). We went the opposite route: launching with a generous, no-registration-required free tier to build quick distribution. While we got good active traffic and usage, our signup-to-paid conversion is basically flat. We fell into the classic "free utility trap" where the free version is just too useful.
Looking back, do you think if you had started AppAlchemy with a free tier instead of charging from day 1, you would have struggled with the same conversion trap? Or did charging upfront act as the ultimate filter for finding your true, high-intent customers?
Good luck with the next milestones!
The part that hits hardest is finishing college with nothing to show your friends with corporate jobs lined up that's the real risk most people don't talk about, not the building part. I went through something similar, building an AI directory from scratch with no safety net. The 'failed projects aren't wasted time' point is underrated too you can't fake that operational instinct any other way. Following AppAlchemy, curious how you're handling app store review/approval friction at that speed.
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Using Reddit is not for me, I tried it but i got banned from 2 accounts
its not like i straightforwardly used my website name or something i was just slowly building presence
The Reddit over Product Hunt call is one more founders need to hear. PH puts you in front of early adopters in discovery mode, Reddit puts you in front of someone actively typing out their exact problem right now.