How to Validate Your App Idea Before Building Anything ($30K/month)

This is Alejandro and Mario, two founders who built an app that makes $30,000 a month. But here's what's crazy: they did not actually build the app first.

I basically made a fake product demo and it got 80K views.

They made a video using fake footage, posted it on TikTok, it blew up, and only then did they actually build it.

The biggest mistake most founders make is they build first and then they try to market later. But these two guys flipped that completely on its head. Content first, product later.

This one video got 500 comments begging me to build this app.

I asked them both to come onto the channel and break down this genius strategy with real examples so you could put something similar into practice today. In this video, we'll dive into the exact viral video that validated their idea before writing a single line of code, the step-by-step content-first playbook they use to hit $30,000 a month, and why validating through content first might just be the smartest way to build apps today.

All revenue at the beginning came from organic content. This one you cannot miss, guys. I'm Pat Walls and this is Starter Story.

Alejandro and Mario, welcome to the channel. Tell me about who you guys are, what you built, and what's your story.

Hi, my name is Alejandro.

And I'm Mario.

And together we built Push School, which is an app that literally makes you do push-ups before you can doom scroll on social media.

We launched this app four months ago, and it's already generating over $30,000 a month in revenue, all through organic viral videos.

But what I think is interesting is we didn't start by building the app right away. We first validated the idea through content, and I'm excited to share that process with you today.

Okay. Well, before we get into this viral validation strategy, which I think is super cool, I got to understand what is this app and what does it do?

So a huge problem our generation faces today is wasting your life doom scrolling. Pushscroll fixes the root cause by replacing doom scrolling with fitness. Before you can open social media, you need to do a short workout like push-ups, squats, or planks. Essentially, we're hijacking the dopamine you get from social media and retraining your brain to crave movement instead. In total, we have around 300,000 downloads across App Store and Play Store, of which around 4,000 people are paying customers. Our business model is simple. We charge around $30 a year.

Okay, those are some pretty impressive numbers. Before we get into how you guys did this, I got to understand a little bit more about your background. What were you guys doing before this and how did you meet?

So I was a software engineer. I left last year when I just quit without a plan to do something against doom scrolling. I built side projects in the past like a silly app that reached 5 million downloads. But after four months building another silly app, I hit a wall with distribution. I spent months making TikToks without really knowing what audience to build it for or how to do it.

I studied computer science and always chased the startup dream. In the past, I built other startups, but they all failed because I ignored distribution. So I decided to master virality first. After a week of daily uploads, one of the videos blew up, which then ended up being the Push School idea. Then I met Mario and we were a perfect match.

Okay. So I heard both of you guys talking about this idea of cracking distribution and this is the reason why I wanted to bring you guys on the channel. You essentially cracked distribution before you even wrote a single line of code. Can you tell me what happened and how this whole thing worked?

For consumer apps, it's extremely important to validate your idea first with virality. So basically you want to get one viral TikTok video. I thought of the most visual and novel idea for an app that has virality potential, and Pushscroll is what I came up with.

And for me it was clear as day. I had spent months creating videos and struggling with marketing only to try to sell the app later. Here it was the opposite. I first did the video, it went viral, and then we built the app.

There were people literally begging us in the comments to build this app. So we built it as soon as possible. We built the app in around two weeks but it was a very simple MVP. It only had three screens but this was enough to validate the idea further. We launched the app with another TikTok video and in that video we said the app would be free for all users who download within the first week. We got around 20k to 30k downloads from that, and then we scaled organic formats to $30k in revenue per month. Now we're scaling with ads and are seeing extremely good results there as well.

Okay, this is absolutely insane to me. This is why I want to bring you guys on the channel to really dive into what you did: you didn't build an app. You created a great, engaging, potentially viral video that posed the idea that if your app existed, people would download it. I want to dive in more into this specific piece of content because I think people watching this can learn a lot from something like this. Instead of building an app, they can build a video. So can you show me this video that made your app go viral and why this video worked?

First of all, if you ever do a video like this, you have to make a good video. Otherwise, you don't know if your app idea sucks or your video sucks. The most important thing in a video is the hook. The hook here was: what if you could stop your doom scrolling addiction by doing 20 push-ups? With a hook, you want to make it as clear as possible such that even a 5-year-old can understand it. You should make sure there is a curiosity gap. For my example, it was the push-ups. What do the push-ups have to do with stopping your doom scrolling addiction? And it has to be novel and original. Once you have a good hook, how do you actually showcase the app if you haven't built it yet?

People don't really care how you solve the problem. It's just that you solve the problem. If you can visualize the value your app will provide, that is good enough. So for my example, I used an AI push-up detection video I found on YouTube. Then I showed how you place the phone against the wall, and finally the scrolling part. With these three visuals, people can visualize the app idea in their head and see the value it could provide. At the end, you should add a strong call to action asking whether you should build this.

I really like this launch video you guys did. When you showed this to me, I was like, "Wow." I think that anybody watching this interview right now should go watch it. I'll put a link in the description to your launch video. What's so good about it is it's not someone showing a demo of an app on their screen. It's showing the benefits you would get if this app existed. It's not "here's how this feature works." It's showing someone doing push-ups, getting fit, and not doom scrolling. What do you think about this video really struck a chord with people?

Doom scrolling is a growing problem and many people are actually looking for a solution because it's addictive. I think that really resonated with people because it not only removes your addiction, it also makes you fit at the same time.

So I think this content-first playbook is genius. If you can crack the code in distribution, then you automatically win. I was so impressed by this that I asked Alejandro and Mario to join me again so we could dive even deeper into the strategy because I wanted to know their content research process. What was the recipe they used to find this viral app idea and how did they go about creating a piece of content that got over 80,000 views? We got together and recorded this separately and now I want to give it to you for free. This is the content-first playbook and it might change your entire view on how to build successful apps right now. If you're curious about this process and looking to launch something soon, check out our tactical playbook inside Starter Story Build on this very strategy. The content-first playbook is free right now. If you click the first link in the description, you can check it out, but it won't be free forever. Let's get back to the video.

You guys are solving a really painful problem in a clever way. It's a super cool, novel app idea and I think that was a big part of it. That brings my next question: do you think this is a repeatable process for anyone watching this right now? Could they do the same thing: create content before creating an app or validate an idea before actually building it? Do you think it's repeatable, and what would be your playbook if you had to start from scratch right now?

I do think it's repeatable. Step one is creating and warming up a new TikTok account. You have to watch all the videos in your niche, interact with them by commenting, saving, sharing, or reposting, and follow as many creators as you can. It's funny for us because we wanted to quit doom scrolling, but we ended up making ourselves addicts of self-improvement content, which is what you want. Once you've watched everything, you have to understand why they go viral. You might even find potential apps you could copy and improve. This also signals TikTok that you're not a bot and prevents you from getting shadowbanned later on.

Step two is to come up with viral ideas. Your app needs one visually heavy element. Make your app visually interesting. Your app also needs to be easy to explain. If you can't explain your app in three words, it's too complex for the short attention span of TikTok users. Your app also needs to solve a fundamental human desire or problem.

Step three is to post daily videos validating any idea you have until one of the ideas takes off. That should be a strong signal that your idea can go viral again in the future.

Step four is once you have a video, create a waitlist or a community like a Discord. Since you don't have an app yet, you'll need it to keep everyone up to date and convert them into users. This traction will be important for the launch. The MVP should be extremely simple to the point where it's embarrassing, especially because the bureaucracy of launching an app will take a few weeks and you'll be able to prove it while running a private beta or just waiting. Our MVP was literally three screens: a half-broken push-up detector, a screen to choose what apps you want to block, and a screen that blocks those apps unless you've exercised. All of this ended up being rewritten later. If it's ugly, it's okay. It doesn't have to scale. We gave it away for free to the first users, but everyone else saw a hard paywall. That's the ultimate validation that people will pay.

Step five is to post organic content yourself until you hit around $5k to $10k MRR. The reason is it gives you information to work with influencers later, to know what videos sell. Experiment with different formats every day until you find something that goes viral over and over again. With one video, you can reach $5k to $10k MRR. It happened to us. One video got 6 million views and converted to around $10K MRR.

Step six and beyond is scaling. You can scale organic through UGC influencers or paid ads. In the meantime, work on your funnel. From the moment someone watches your video until they pay, focus on fixing broken things instead of optimizing what already works. That would be our six-step playbook if we had to start from scratch and do all of this again.

Okay, cool. Thanks for sharing all that. I'm curious and I think a lot of people watching might be as well. How does this app even work? Would you be able to give me a quick demo of how your app works and how it makes money?

The main functionality is simple. You can block apps like TikTok or Instagram. For example, here I have TikTok. Then you go exercise. Every push-up you do gives you one minute of screen time. Then you can use that time to unlock TikTok temporarily. On top of that, we have difficulties and more exercises such as squats or planks. There's a full-blown journey tab to keep you engaged and workouts where you have to do a series of exercises to earn your screen time.

Okay, cool. Thanks for showing me that. I want to change topics a little bit and understand how you guys actually built this. What's the tech stack and what tools run this app?

In our case we're using Compose Multiplatform to build a cross-platform app. We use Supabase for backend database and authentication. We have Supabase Studio to show and test tables. Amplitude for analytics, Sentry for crash reports, and Claude Code for coding.

Well thanks for sharing that and being transparent around how you built this and the numbers. The last question I have for everyone who comes on the channel: you guys were just very recently successful with this app. If you could go back in time to before you built this app, before you had this $30,000 per month app, what advice would you give yourselves or what advice would you give for anyone watching this channel that wants to build apps like you guys?

Building an app, you're going to invest a lot of your time. So don't be afraid to invest money. I'm cheap, but time is money. Paying an extra $200 for advice could have a huge return on investment.

And most importantly, build your consumer product with distribution in mind first and foremost. It will make your life 10 times easier in the long run.

Well, that's great advice. Thank you Alejandro and Mario for coming on. I think what you guys did is amazing. Congratulations and I'll be looking forward to what you guys do next.

See you.

Thank you to Alejandro and Mario for coming onto the channel and sharing this whole process when they didn't have to. They did what most people are not willing to do. Instead of the exciting part of going in and building something and spending all that time, they did the hard part by focusing on distribution first. They had a viral video. They had hundreds of people begging them to build this app. They built it and all of a sudden it was making money and they had a successful app. This is exactly the type of framework that we teach inside Starter Story Build: how to come up with an idea, how to build it quickly, and how to get it out into the real world in the hands of real users. If you want to check that out, I will put a link in the description to Starter Story Build, including the free content-first playbook we did with Alejandro and Mario. Hope you enjoy it. Otherwise, I'll see you guys in the next episode. Thank you guys for watching. Peace.