Source
TL;DRIndie app founder (channel: steven.builds) who scaled Puff Count, a quit-vaping app, to $44–45k/month MRR and exited to a European app studio, then built Posted (a creator-content marketplace) to $150k+/month. His thesis: marketing is 90–95% of an app’s success — the build is the easy part. He has documented one repeatable system across a large library of videos, and is the single most-represented founder in this wiki.

Note: earlier wiki pages spelled his surname “Kreida” (an auto-transcript error). It’s Cravotta. The Puff Count breakdowns how-i-built-it-40k-month-iphone-app and the-1m-mobile-app-playbook are his.

The system (four phases)

His entire catalog is one playbook, taught in pieces. The full course ties it together.

  1. Idea & validation — solve your own painful, marketable, trending problem. Validate with Sensor Tower (competitor revenue), Google Trends, and social-media virality. Browse Flippa/Acquire for proven earners. (how-i-build-apps-that-print-30k, idea-validation.)
  2. Build with no code — UI via 99designs contests (or AI tools like UX Pilot, design-app-ui-in-6-minutes-with-ai); development via Upwork (Eastern Europe, fixed-price). Vibe-code the MVP, hire a dev to finish. (outsourced-app-building, vibe-coding.)
  3. Market organically — study viral content in your niche, replicate the formats, post daily, sell the transformation not the features with sneaky CTAs, cross-post everywhere. (how-i-market-apps-that-print-30k, no-audience-launch.)
  4. Monetize & scale — long onboarding + hard paywall, A/B test in Superwall, then scale winners on paid ads at a 1:3 CAC:LTV. Source content in bulk via Posted.

Why he keeps winning

  • Marketing-first. “A developer could build the best app in the world, but if it isn’t marketable it makes zero dollars.”
  • Volume negates luck. Post a lot, find the one winner, scale it with paid.
  • Maximize LTV so you can outspend. Charge high, push the yearly plan; the app that makes most per user wins the ad auction. (studied-100-paywalls, studied-100-viral-ai-apps-printing.)
  • Data over guessing. A/B test everything by volume, optimize the whole funnel one step at a time.

His products & tools

  • Puff Count — quit-vaping tracker, $44–45k MRR, 1M users, exited.
  • Posted (postedapp.com) — results-only creator marketplace; “99designs for TikTok content.” $150k+/mo, $1.3M+ total.
  • Stack he repeats: 99designs, Upwork, Superwall, RevenueCat, AppsFlyer/Adjust, Mixpanel, Sensor Tower, paywallscreens.com, ScreensDesign, Mobbin, UX Pilot, Viral Ads Library, Facebook/TikTok Ads Libraries, TikTok/Meta ads.

His videos in this wiki

Monetization: studied-100-paywalls · paywalls-that-print-44k · app-onboarding-that-prints · 7-ways-to-make-money-from-mobile-app Marketing & ads: how-i-market-apps-that-print-30k · spent-40k-on-ads-quadrupled-saas · scale-an-app-from-0-to-10k · reach-10000-app-users · market-apps-10x-more-efficiently Research & strategy: studied-100-viral-ai-apps-printing · studied-100-viral-ai-apps-marketing Building: how-i-build-apps-that-print-30k · design-app-ui-in-6-minutes-with-ai · print-money-with-apps-full-course Original Puff Count breakdowns: how-i-built-it-40k-month-iphone-app · the-1m-mobile-app-playbook

mobile-app-monetization · paid-ads-scaling · app-market-research · creator-content-engine · outsourced-app-building · no-audience-launch

What links here