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I Cloned 3 Apps and Now Make $35K/Month
Samuel Rondo, a former optician with zero coding background, taught himself to build apps via YouTube and now generates \$35,000 per month across three SaaS products: Usimus (us.com) (\$15k/mo Link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BtHk-oNlN0
I Cloned 3 Apps and Now Make $35K/Month

TL;DR

Samuel Rondo, a former optician with zero coding background, taught himself to build apps via YouTube and now generates $35,000 per month across three SaaS products: Usimus (us.com) ($15k/mo LinkedIn scraping tool), StoryShort.ai ($20k/mo faceless video generator), and Capacity.so ($900/mo AI coding tool). His core thesis is that innovation is overrated: rather than coming up with new ideas, founders should locate successful, validated products built by solopreneurs, clone their value propositions, make them 1% better, and validate instantly with paid ads.

The Founder’s Story

Samuel worked as a retail optician when he decided to build a software tool for Instagram to scratch his own itch. He spent 15 hours studying a coding course on YouTube, applying every lesson in real-time to build his Instagram project. Over time, coding became a passion, prompting him to quit his job and build SaaS tools full-time.

Samuel’s early attempt, Usimus, was a LinkedIn scraping and email-finding tool. He did not follow his current validation framework, and it was technically challenging to maintain, competing directly against massive platforms like Apollo and Lemlist. After this painful experience, he refined a playbook focusing on product simplicity, validated demand, and low-maintenance backends.

The Cloning & Validation Playbook

Samuel operates under an ironclad rule: never build anything that doesn’t already exist and isn’t already successful or gaining market traction.

The 4-Key Idea Filters

When evaluating an idea to replicate, Samuel filters it through four criteria:

  1. Personal Utility: “I would use it myself.”
  2. Proven Traction: “I can see that it already works.” (Proven via Stripe or MRR screenshots shared by founders building in public on X/Twitter).
  3. No Heavy Marketing Spend: If an app is growing organic traffic or solopreneurs aren’t spending thousands on ads, there is clear organic demand.
  4. Extreme Simplicity: The product is straightforward to build and maintain without a complex backend that causes sleepless nights.

Research and Analysis Workflow

  • Source of Ideas: Solopreneurs sharing Stripe screenshots on X (Twitter).
  • Traffic Analysis: Analyze the competitor’s traffic sources using Ahrefs.
    • If their traffic is driven by Facebook/Meta Ads, Samuel knows he can replicate their traffic in a week by launching his own ads.
    • If their traffic is driven by SEO, he knows it’s a great opportunity but will require patience for organic keywords to compound.
  • MVP Velocity: Skip the boring boilerplate (like settings and password-reset pages). Build a bare-minimum functional version in two weeks and launch.

Samuel’s App Portfolio

  1. Usimus (us.com):
    • Purpose: LinkedIn scraping and automation tool.
    • Revenue: ~$15,000 / month.
    • User Base: ~10,000 customers.
    • Costs: ~$4,000 / month (requires expensive persistent server instances for scraping).
  2. StoryShort.ai:
    • Purpose: AI-driven video generator that automates faceless YouTube and TikTok shorts.
    • Revenue: ~$20,000 / month.
    • User Base: ~4,000 customers.
    • Costs: ~$5,000 / month.
  3. Capacity.so:
    • Purpose: AI coding and website deployment platform.
    • Revenue: ~$900 / month (newly launched).
    • User Base: ~50 users.

Marketing & Growth Playbook

Samuel deploys a structured four-step marketing framework:

  1. Validate and Test with Paid Ads: First, launch Google and Meta Ads immediately to test interest and validate pricing. If the competitors are scaling via Facebook ads, replication is fast.
  2. Build SEO for Compound Growth: As soon as ads show conversion traction, start investing in SEO to capture high-margin, compounding search traffic.
  3. Automated Faceless UGC Channels: Use StoryShort to set up multiple automated social media channels (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram) that post daily UGC-style video promos of the apps on autopilot.
  4. High-Ticket Affiliate Programs: Launch affiliate programs (especially effective for StoryShort) to incentivize creators to write articles and record tutorial videos in exchange for recurring commissions.

Tech Stack

  • Coding Language / Framework: Next.js (frontend) and Node.js (backend).
  • Editor: AI coding tools (recommends skipping traditional coding and using AI for 90% of development).
  • Hosting: Vercel.
  • Payments: Stripe.
  • SEO & Content Automation:
    • Ahrefs for keyword research.
    • Outrank.so for automated blog article generation and auto-publishing.
    • StoryShort.ai for automated video creation and social scheduling.

Key Quotes

  • “Never build something that doesn’t already exist and isn’t already successful or at least getting some traction.”
  • “You don’t need to innovate. You just need to see what is working on X, in communities, on forums, and build your own alternative.”
  • “Skip the boring parts of building a SaaS, like the password reset pages and settings pages. Just launch the minimal basic product and run ads to test demand right away.”

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