How to reach $4M ARR in 8 months with an indie app

Results with Adapty
From $0 to $4M ARR in 8 months

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+$200K MRR

Impala

Migrated in 1 week

Highlights

  • Team members: 1
  • Time to create the MVP: 1 day
  • Current ARR: $4M
  • Downloads: >55k
  • Main growth factor: Paywall A/B testing

The personal challenge of making the Wave app was to see how far I can go on my own.

Josh Mohrer, the creator of Wave: AI Note Taker
Josh Mohrer, the creator of Wave: AI Note Taker

Today, his AI-powered app, Wave: AI Note Taker, is a testament to his bold move, reaching $4M ARR in 8 months. This case study explores Josh’s inspiring journey, showing how he turned his passion project into a profitable business, overcoming the challenges of indie app development along the way.

Background and transition to indie development

Josh Mohrer, a former business executive, made a significant career shift to become an indie app developer. His professional journey began in the world of e-commerce, where he developed proficiency in business and technology.

Josh’s interest in e-commerce started in high school with selling items on eBay. This early experience laid the foundation for his future roles in various startups, including his notable position as the head of Uber New York. There, he played a pivotal role in developing the mobile app for ride-sharing, a project that would later influence his approach to app development.

Josh as the head of Uber New York
Josh as the head of Uber New York

Josh transitioned into app development to use his extensive business background in a new and exciting way. His first project was a simple yet effective app for the Uber office in 2015. This initial success ignited his interest in the field, prompting him to teach himself engineering and explore AI-powered applications.

Wave and first development challenges

The popularity of AI played a crucial role in Josh’s journey as an indie developer. The inspiration for the app he was planning to work on came from the notion of making AI language models more accessible. The idea was to use a third-party AI service and create a user-friendly interface for interacting with it in the most convenient and useful way possible. That’s how Wave: AI Note Taker appeared.

Wave: AI Note Taker
Wave: AI Note Taker

The working process was pretty simple and intuitive: the app recorded audio, transcribed it, and summarized the transcription. Such an approach proved to be super useful at business meetings, brainstorms,  lectures, and many other cases. As the development process advanced, new features were added like phone call recording or separate audio file transcription.

Since the 2023 prototype, Wave has grown into a multifunctional AI companion
Since the 2023 prototype, Wave has grown into a multifunctional AI companion

The first concept of the app was aimed at iOS, so Josh chose Swift. Although Swift made coding easier, creating a full-scale app was still a challenge for a non-professional developer. Josh found his solution in OpenAI’s Chat GPT.

The AI language model was incredibly powerful for coding. Even the first iteration of ChatGPT allowed Josh to work independently without consulting anyone else. He would break down large chunks of code into smaller parts and ask the AI to write each segment. This method worked so well that the first concept of the app was ready within one day!

Screenshot: Web ChatGPT Dialog
The latest version of ChatGPT is a timesaver when it comes to coding

Finding the right tools for growth

Focusing on iOS app development, Josh faced typical challenges, especially creating an infrastructure for in-app purchases. Building a server wasn’t an option, so he chose a third-party solution to integrate IAPs and add extra features. However, this solution lacked consistency, with some revenue-growing features being inconvenient third-party add-ons.

Seeking a better alternative, Josh found invaluable support from Adapty. The SDK integration took just a few days and opened up numerous possibilities. The main reason for choosing Adapty was having in one place mobile analytics, paywall builder, and A/B testing tools. All this made the launch and iteration of paywall A/B tests quick and painless – which was the key to the app’s growth.

Paywall A/B testing was the key element behind the Wave's growth
Paywall A/B testing was the key element behind the Wave's growth

Josh happened to be using Adapty’s paywall builder since its launch – the 1.0 version, despite being less functional than it is now, in his opinion was much more convenient and useful than the 3rd party solution provided by the competitor he had used.

Paywall Builder enabled Josh to effortlessly create new iterations of paywalls for A/B tests
Paywall Builder enabled Josh to effortlessly create new iterations of paywalls for A/B tests

I always try to have a live A/B test going on.

Being in a constant state of searching for a better and more effective paywall concept is a vital element of growth. The heavy use of Meta ads for acquisition proved an effective promotional strategy for Wave and made proper A/B testing possible. So from a financial perspective, early investment in user acquisition for an indie developer will be rewarded.

Reaching $4M ARR with Wave

It’s truly impressive to see what heights Josh managed to achieve with the app being a sole creator. Apart from design and ad promotion, all the aspects of the app are developed and maintained by Josh. He even does the customer support work himself, meticulously replying to every user’s email.

Answering support emails helps me better understand all the issues the users may have with the app and then easier fix them.

Thanks to Adapty and strategic ad promotion, Josh achieved remarkable success with Wave: AI Note Taker, reaching $4M ARR in 8 months. The substantial use of paywall A/B testing helped optimize subscription rates and improve conversion. The willingness to experiment and adjust strategies based on user feedback played a significant role in this achievement.

ARR growth chart for "Wave" in 8 months (short)
It took 8 months to reach more than $4M ARR for Wave
ARR growth chart for "Wave" in 8 months
It took 8 months to reach more than $4M ARR for Wave

Conclusion and advice for indie app developers

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