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TL;DR: Aal and Yali, co-founders of Prop GPT, hit $30K MRR in 10 weeks after completely rebuilding their sports analytics app. They realized that having excellent influencer distribution means nothing if your product is overly complex; by shifting their core value proposition to “giving users the answers to the test,” they pushed trial-to-paid conversions past 50%.
The Founder’s Story
Aal and Yali were college students when they decided to build a sports betting analytics platform. Inspired by the initial wave of ChatGPT-fueled products, they spent five months engineering the first version of Prop GPT. Because Yali had previously worked with successful app builders, the team possessed a massive distribution advantage and launched with an active influencer marketing network from day one.
However, despite driving consistent downloads and free trial signups, they hit a hard revenue ceiling. They were stuck at $1,000 to $2,000 MRR because almost zero users converted to paid subscriptions after their free trial ended. Realizing their product was fundamentally broken, they shut down all marketing and spent four months in complete isolation rebuilding the app from scratch. Re-launching on April 15th, the new app exploded, hitting $30K MRR in 10 weeks and peaking at $40K MRR.
The Building Process
The founders spent five months building their first version, but faced a major product-market fit disconnect. The original app was designed as a complex analytics panel where users had to manually search sportsbooks, input specific bets, and cross-reference statistics themselves.
- The Pivotal Realization (“Answers to the Test”): By analyzing cohort data and talking to users, the founders realized that sports bettors do not want to spend hours analyzing statistics themselves. They simply wanted the bottom line. The rebuilt version shifted the entire experience to displaying clean, pre-analyzed betting recommendations and high-probability algorithmic picks immediately upon launch.
- Rapid Paywall Iteration: Using specialized tools like Superwall and Revenue Cat, the team was able to rapidly build, test, and host dynamic paywalls. This allowed them to capture credit card commitments with a seamless trial funnel, resulting in a 48% download-to-trial rate and a post-rebuild 50%+ trial-to-paid conversion rate.
The Launch & Marketing Strategy
The co-founders recommend a hybrid marketing system that pairs high-trust influencer deals with a steady stream of organic content.
The App Growth Blueprint
- Leverage Niche Influencers: Capitalize on influencer relationships. Unlike cold ads, audiences engage deeply and convert exceptionally fast when they see an authority figure they admire using a product in their daily videos. The founders spent roughly $10,000/month on sports betting influencers.
- Organic Social Velocity: Maintain a constant organic publishing cadence on TikTok and Instagram Reels. It took the founders 70 videos before one went viral, hitting 600,000 views. That single organic video skyrocketed their business from $8K to $38K ARR in just 3 days.
- Obsess Over Funnel Analytics: Use platforms like PostHog to map out exactly how users behave. If you see a massive drop-off during onboarding, look at specific screens to see where friction resides. If you notice high trial signups (45%) but abysmal paid conversions (13%), it indicates your marketing hook is highly successful, but your core product experience is failing to deliver on its promise.
The Tech Stack
- Mobile Architecture: React Native, TypeScript
- Data & Machine Learning: Python (for data-fetching and sports algorithms)
- Database: Neon Serverless Postgres ($10/mo)
- Subscription Management: Revenue Cat (1% transaction fee)
- Paywall Optimization: Superwall ($0.20 per conversion)
- Data Sources: Live Sports Data APIs ($100/mo)
- AI Processing: OpenAI LLM API ($20/mo)
- Overall Margins: ~50% (after accounting for a heavy $10,000/mo influencer marketing spend).
Key Quotes & Metrics
- MRR: $30,000 MRR within 10 weeks of relaunching (peaking at $40K MRR).
- Conversions: 48% download-to-trial conversion rate; 50%+ trial-to-paid conversion rate post-rebuild.
- Downloads: Over 40,000 total downloads, including 2,000 downloads in a single day at peak.
- Revenue Per Download: $3.30 ARPU per download.
- Core Philosophy: “Have an extremely humble attitude about your product. If your product sucks, nobody is going to buy it. You must have both product and distribution figured out if you want to build something that lasts.”
Related Frameworks & Playbooks
- mobile-app-monetization — Paywall optimization, hard paywalls, and pricing metrics
- idea-validation — Landing page buy buttons and paid intent testing
- no-audience-launch — Short-form UGC video algorithms and influencer profit-sharing