| Source | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfNRd5Rk0cM |
|---|---|
| Readwise URL | https://read.readwise.io/read/01kt2kt30n5vt9tw2gh1f8d1jh |
| Readwise ID | 01kt2kt30n5vt9tw2gh1f8d1jh |
| Date | 2025-08-31 |
| Author | youtube.com |
| Category | video |
I am the founder of Rooted. It’s beendownloaded over four million times andmade over a million in revenue.>> Meet Anna. She built an iPhone app withno coding experience that’s beendownloaded over four million times.>> I don’t have any technical background.So, I basically started taking what Ithought would be helpful, and I starteddrawing it out in a notebook.>> But what’s more important than how shebuilt it is how she found the idea. Inmy fourth year of university, I actuallygot a panic attack.
In this episode, we dive into how Anyaturned a very painful experience into anapp that has generated over a milliondollars. Specifically, Anna breaks downhow to know if a problem you experiencemight be worth turning it into an app,how she built it without being anexperienced app developer, and thefour-step framework she used to getmillions of users. Let’s dive in. I’mPat Walls, and this is Starter Story.All right, welcome Anya to the channel.Tell me about who you are, what youbuilt, and what’s your story.>> Hey, my name is Anya and I’m the founderof Rooted for Panic Attack and Anxiety.
Relief. Since launching in 2019, it’sbeen downloaded over 4 million times andmade over a million in revenue.I mean, wow, that’s insane: 4 milliondownloads on an app that you built. Canyou tell me about how this all started?How you even came up with the idea tobuild something like this?Yeah, in my fourth year of university, I actuallygot a panic attack seemingly out ofnowhere. I had no idea what they werebefore, and I was far away from home. Ihad no family doctor, and I reallystruggled to find the resources that Ineeded to get better. So, as I waslooking through the app stores andlooking online for something to help, Irealized that there’s nothing thatreally spoke to me. Things were reallyeither clinical, or there were hypnosisbased apps, and it just really wasn’twhat I was looking for. So that’s why Ifigured I had something to launch here.
I mean, I think what you did is awesome:you actually had this personalproblem, this very painful personalproblem, and then you decided to buildsomething. I guess my question is how’dyou get the confidence to know that thiswas something worth building? How didYou like validate that this could besomething that could be big?
Yeah. So my idea at the time was todownload and try existing apps. And Inoticed a common theme in the userreviews that there was this gap when itcame to identifying what a panic attackis and also solutions for how tobasically get through a panic attack inthe moment. And I put together a reallyearly version of Rooted, a prototype, anMVP type solution. And the first fewhundred users said that even thoughthere was still some lagging, some bugs,some incomplete parts, they reallywanted me to keep going with it. Andthat was super encouraging. What wouldbe your advice to someone who hasa personal problem, like a painfulissue such as mental health, or somethingsimilar? What would be your advice on how tovalidate that this is something worthbuilding?
Yeah, I’d say if you are passionateabout solving a problem, then reallylaunching with just an MVP to get thatfeedback out there. For me, I think Iwas just obsessed with getting theidea out there and I really didn’t thenI did not listen to the naysayers as much becauseI was determined to prove this outto myself. So, if you’re confident thatother people are experiencing yourproblem, it’s worth just launching anMVP to see if what you’ve created willhelp them.
Okay. Well, perfect segue on that. Let’stalk about how you built that MVP, howyou built the first version of that app.I understand that you don’t have atechnical background. You’re not aprogrammer or coder. How did you do it?How did you build something worth using?
I basically started taking what Ithought would be helpful, and I starteddrawing it out in a notebook. I wasthinking about the way I wanted theinformation to be presented. What wouldbe most helpful for me in that moment ofa panic attack? How do I keep thingssuper simple in the app when somebody’sreally overwhelmed as they’re using it?And so, I took these ideas and sketchesfrom my notebooks, and then I taughtmyself how to basically create them aswireframes in Photoshop and Illustrator.
And then, yeah, I went to an agency, and Icould not afford to work with theagency, so that certainly set me back.
Timewise, but then at one point, astudent developer said that he wouldlove to work with me, and that’s how Iwas able to finally launch that firstMVP.
Yeah. If you could just give me abreakdown of, you know, how long thistook, how much did you actually spend toget this prototype put together? Whatdid that look likewith the student developer? What I didwas I just put in all my savings. Youknow, as a non-technical founder, itjust took a few months once I actuallyhad the developer. And that’s becauseall of the content, all of thewireframes before then were alreadycreated. I did want to learn enough toat least be able to communicate what Iwanted better. I just sort of focused alot on the design, making sure all thatwas really simple. The first prototypeof Rooted was essentially the panicattack button that would walk youthrough a panic attack. And thatactually hasn’t changed a ton over theyears because it’s really the core ofRooted. It’s the aha moment that reallyresonates with users. What’s changed isthe design and the way it looks right.
Now, that core idea of how to stop apanic attack is still there and rootedafter all these years. So, I launcheda simple breathing tool, andthen the lessons on how to understandpanic attacks and anxiety and wherethey’re coming from.>> All right. So you launched this, youbuilt this, and you’re getting earlytraction. Now, this is a huge app withmillions of downloads. What did thatgrowth timeline look like for you? Howlong did it take?
So it started off quite slow. I’d say inthe first year, we reached around 10,000downloads. It wasn’t until year two orso that we reached a hundred thousand downloads.I remember after that, I guess wejust knew that there was a real demandfor it and kept going. I hit amillion downloads, I think, in yearthree.
You mentioned just a second ago that youdid this with a full-time job. How didyou do that?
Yeah. So when I first started Rooted, Iwas working four days a week, and I had toldmy employers at the time that I wasstarting Rooted. I’m doing this, like,Rooted three days a week and this other job.
Four days a week. So I basically had noweekends or social life for quite a fewyears. I don’t think there are anyshortcuts, though. I think that’s justsomething I had to go through.
Tell me about that decision to gofull-time on Rooted. What did that looklike? >> So I had already been wanting to do itfor probably a year before I did it. Uhrevenue was there; it could sustain mecomfortably for over a year. Yeah, itreally happened when there were a lot ofshifts at the other job, and it justbecame a lot less enjoyable, and I justdecided that now was the time. That was aboutthree years ago now, so maybe two and a half to threeyears into Rooted.
All right, before we get back to Anya’sstory, let’s talk about where it allstarted. Anya didn’t have a businessbackground or app developmentexperience. She just had a painfulpersonal problem and decided to build asolution for herself. And that simpledecision became a million-dollar app.
This is exactly why we launched StarterStory Build. It’s our flagship programwhere you’ll learn to build and launchyour project using AI coding tools, evenIf you have zero coding experience, injust a few weeks, you’ll go from idea toa working production app just like Anyadid. So, if you’re ready to turn yourproblem into your next project, head tothe link in the description to check outStarter Story Build. All right, let’sget back to the episode. All right,let’s jump into the growth side ofthings. I know that you grew this appfrom zero to four million plus downloads.
What are some of the tactics or maybethe top three things when it comes togrowing a mobile or an iPhone app?First, it was active social mediaengagement, but I remember that I usedto spend literal hours going throughposts, writing helpful comments, leavinglinks back to Rooted, and really tryingto be helpful in what I wrote. Secondly,I would say press releases. In the earlydays, I didn’t want to be even known aslike the anxiety girl. I didn’t wantthat to define me. Then I realized,you know, once you actually put yourname to a story, it does resonate betterwith the audiences. I would find peopleonline, journalists that wrote aboutmental health and then I would read itand reach out to them either on LinkedIn orI tried to get their email and send pitchesthat way. It was a ton of work becausenot many people would ever respond to
me. But what ended up happening is everynow and then, we’d get featured in apretty major way for small apps. So wewere in Cosmopolitan, we’ve been inWomen’s Health, we were even in Timemagazine, which was the big one. All ofthat really happened from these organiccold emails. And then the third thingwould be a huge focus on app storeoptimization. So I focused a lot onmaking sure that the product matcheswhat the users are looking for. They seeon your product page. They download theapp, they use it, and then they use thesame keywords to describe theirexperience via the user reviews. Thatwas the holy circle. And if you canget that loop going, I think it’s areally strong presence for app storeoptimization.
"That’s great. And would you have anyadvice for how to be helpful in 2025?You probably talked to a lot of peoplewho are just starting to build apps.What’s your advice on being helpful anddoing something similar to what you did?"I’d say not leading with, hey, this isMy app. Go download it, but actually,maybe even answering something like aquestion online that your app answers. Iwould almost take something like from arooted lesson. So, let’s say there’ssomebody makes a post saying that, youknow, they had this horribleexperience with anxiety on a run today.
Then I could kind of share whythat might have happened and why, youknow, it’s normal, it’s okay andwhatnot.
Okay. So, beyond the tactics which wetalked a little bit about, I want toknow now, you know, what’s the biggerstrategy? What does it take to build asuccessful app in 2025? What would beyour playbook that you’d give to someonewho is just starting out today?
Right. So, step one, build a productthat actually delivers what your pagepromises. That’ll lead not only to morepositive downloads, aka like peopleleaving positive experiences, but peoplewill also then share it. And theword of mouth engagement is quiteimportant. Step two, listen to yourusers. So user reviews are superimportant. Oftentimes everything youneed to know is written in the userReviews and sometimes your ownassumptions of what a user needs mightnot actually be what they do need. Stepthree, optimize app store presencecontinuously. Doing a release frequentlyshows that you continue to work on theapp. I do one release once every week, and that
shows that you’re constantly working onfixing bugs and improving the userexperience. And step four, partnerstrategically. Be that a wellnessorganization; we’ve done a few B2Bcontracts as well. A ton of differenttherapy groups and psychologist officesare recommending and using Rooted, andthis has been something that has beenhelpful now in 2025. One thing that I’mcurious about as someone who’s built areally successful app and has also helped a lotof people build successful apps is whatthe most important metrics to betracking are. Is it revenue downloads? Whatis it?
Well, for me, and I think especiallybeing in the mental health space, it’sbeen about user reviews. So, our rating,we’ve been able to maintain a 4.8 out offive rating. And this is really, reallyimportant to me. Users leave commentsabout how Rooted has helped them go back.
To work, go back to school, and justreclaim confidence in their lives. We’vealso realized that based on usage,we’re able to now take a panic attackand users are feeling better from thepanic attack within under 2 minutes.It’s just been really exciting towork on that and kind of see really howeffective Rooted is and what users sayabout it. I think actually our focus ontracking user reviews and the quality ofRooted over revenue has been a bigfactor as to why we’ve grown.
All right, so we talked all about howyou built this app, how you came up withthe idea, how you grew it to millions ofusers. Can we see the app? How does itactually work?>> Yeah. So, when you first open the app,you’re greeted with this blue app mascotnamed Ron. The main feature here is ifyou’re in the middle of a panic attack,you’ll see this red button. This is anSOS button. And it’ll basically ask youhow you’re feeling based on eitherwanting to feel okay in the moment orwanting to face the panic attackhead-on. And it walks you through theseprompts which help to essentiallyactivate the parasympathetic nervousThe parasympathetic nervoussystem is the one that calms us down.
There’s also this tool for deepbreathing, and probably my favoritefeatures are these lessons. They’reactually lessons on understandinganxiety, what the physical and mentaleffects are, the causes and theories, andso forth. We also have a journal toolwhere you can share what yourfeelings are, share what you’veaccomplished, what’s weighing you down,and what you’re grateful for. We also haveover 100 visualizations and sleepsounds. And then most recently, we havea games tool. These are supposed tobe really simple, relaxing games. Usershave asked for this for many years. Sothe idea is for the games to be really
simple things that you can play when youare on a plane or in a busy subway—justthings to kind of distract you whenyou’re feeling a little anxious in themoment. Now that we have as manydownloads as we have, whenever I launchsomething, I almost instantly seethousands of people using it, right? That’s justbeen incredible.>> All right. Well, thank you for showingI think what you built isawesome, and it’s an amazing tool formillions of people to use. You’ve doneit. You built an app. It’s reallysuccessful. You quit your full-time job.
You do this for a living now. Uh, whatwould be your advice to someone who’smaybe just starting out? Maybe they’vejust started building an app, or theyhave an idea for an app. What would beyour advice to someone who’s startingout?>> I would suggest that you listen to usersvery closely. They will have the answersyou need. They’ll help you know what tofocus on. And I believe, especially inthe mental health space, at the end ofthe day, that’s who we’re mostresponsible to. Launching Rooted with theMVP and getting that original feedback.I mean, to this day, I still read allthe user reviews, even though I havesomebody else do the responses now. Istill go in and I make sure I knowwhat’s going on and just to have a pulseon what users are saying. I’d alsorecommend taking care of yourself alongthe way. I think there were definitelyquite a few points where I almostreached burnout.
Something really intense, and that levelof intensity was with me at all times.Looking back, I wish Icelebrated a few of the smaller momentsmore, because now I realize that thosewere like the most awesome moments.Whereas really, I was just focused on thenext thing and ready to get to the nextthing. So I would recommend taking careof yourself and also celebrating thesmall wins.
Well, thank you, Ana, for coming on to thechannel. I think what you built isawesome. I’m so excited to share it withall of our subscribers on YouTube. Ithink what you built is really needed inthe world. So thanks for coming on.>> Thank you so much for having me.
Thanks again to Ana for coming on to thechannel. Personally, I loved hearingabout how she grew rooted from just apainful personal problem, like a panicattack, into an app that’s beendownloaded over four million times andmade over a million dollars. Butremember, it all started from findingthat simple problem and buildingsomething. You can’t skip that step ifyou want to build something that couldpotentially change your life.
This is exactly why we launched Starter StoryBuild. We’ll help you take a problemfrom your own life and turn it into aworking app using only AI tools. So, ifyou’re ready to build and launch yourapp, just head to the first link in thedescription to check out Starter StoryBuild. That’s it for this episode. Letme know what you think in the comments.Thank you again for watching. We’ll seeyou in the next one. Peace.