Hey everyone! It’s Yuma Ueno here, you can find me on Twitter at @stat_biz.
I’m currently deep in the trenches, working on various products, and let me tell you, it’s quite the journey.
My usual routine involves diving deep into the strategies of incredibly successful independent developers and entrepreneurs, distilling their wisdom, and then sharing it with all of you.
Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to a truly remarkable individual: entrepreneur Jack Friers! This guy is absolutely brilliant!
This is his story—a man who earns over $10,000 a month from multiple products. He’s been quite the hot topic in the indie developer community recently, with many people discussing his journey. So, let’s dive into his experiences.
🙅 Rather Be Homeless Than Work a Corporate Job #
Born in Canada, Jack Friers enrolled in computer science at a Canadian university in 2018. Sounds pretty conventional, right? But he eventually dropped out to pursue entrepreneurship!
During his time at university and working part-time jobs, he had an epiphany: “I would never work for anyone else in my life!” He yearned for the freedom to do what he wanted, when he wanted. He even confided in his friends, saying, “I’d rather be homeless than work for a company.”
But of course, one needs money to live. So, he worked at McDonald’s for about three years, diligently saving up. Once he had enough money, he decisively quit university and his part-time job, diving headfirst into his entrepreneurial ventures. Most people would advise you to keep your student status while starting a business, and only consider dropping out once things show some promise, to minimize risk. But for Jack, risk simply wasn’t a factor. In his eyes, being homeless was preferable to working for a corporation!
After dropping out, he dabbled in all sorts of businesses—writing books, selling clothes, and even launching a YouTube channel about cryptocurrency. He didn’t start with software development; anything that allowed him to be his own boss and make money was fair game. Unfortunately, after three years of relentless effort, he hadn’t gained any traction, leading to daily frustration. He had initially believed he could reach $10,000 in monthly income in about eight months, but reality hit him hard.
After three years of grinding it out, he finally turned his attention to app development. By 2023, with the emergence of generative AI like ChatGPT, the barrier to entry for coding dramatically lowered. With no prior coding experience, he taught himself using tools like ChatGPT and, after about four months, managed to cobble together his first app: “Curiosity Quench.”
📱 “Curiosity Quench”: Turning Mindless Phone Scrolling into Meaningful Activity #
Many of us today share a common habit: aimless phone scrolling. This app is designed to address this very issue. Jack himself realized he was wasting valuable time on his phone every day. He searched for numerous apps claiming to curb his phone habits but found none that truly resonated with him. So, he decided to take matters into his own hands and built “Curiosity Quench.”
At first glance, this app might seem like a simple screen time limiter, blocking addictive apps like X, TikTok, and Instagram. But it’s different. Its purpose is to help you set actionable plans based on your interests and guides you step-by-step towards achieving them. The underlying philosophy is: if you have a clear sense of purpose for what you need to do each day, you’ll be less likely to fall into mindless scrolling.
The app offers over 1,000 action plans, such as “photographing a sunset” or “playing ice hockey.” Users can set these plans themselves and follow the steps provided.
Each step includes external links that jump directly to relevant YouTube content, and the sheer volume of information is astounding. It’s likely these contents were mass-generated using generative AI tools like ChatGPT. Reportedly, this app currently earns around $3,000 per month. How did he attract users, and how does he monetize it? Let’s look at his marketing strategy.
🕺 Leveraging TikTok/Instagram Marketing for User Acquisition Success #
As expected, his secret to user acquisition lies in short-form video marketing on TikTok and Instagram.
First, even before the product existed, he posted a roughly one-minute video on TikTok, showing his face and discussing his product idea. When he saw multiple comments along the lines of “I want this!”, he knew he was onto something and immediately started developing the product. This truly highlights the importance of validating ideas beforehand!
After the product was built, he continued to heavily invest in TikTok and Instagram marketing to acquire users. He even shared his exclusive playbook on X (formerly Twitter), which we’ll pull directly from below 👇:
https://x.com/jackfriks/status/1856013303169847470
He dedicates one hour daily to marketing his app. Within that hour, he creates and publishes six videos. Here’s his summarized TikTok marketing strategy 👇:
- Start a new account (Instagram, TikTok, or both).
- For the first two days, spend 15 minutes daily specifically scrolling through content your target audience engages with.
- Save any videos that you think could be useful for promoting your app.
- On the third day, try creating your own content, using your saved videos as a reference.
- Ensure your video’s comments section, caption, and Call-to-Action (CTA) are all related to your app.
- Initially, post only one video per day.
- Observe what other apps are posting while experimenting with different video formats.
- Once you find a pattern that works, replicate it relentlessly!
- Don’t try to post a huge quantity all at once; one well-crafted video is far more effective than six hastily made ones.
- Short videos perform best. The algorithm prioritizes watch time and comments. So, focus on creating videos that spark comments and keep viewers watching until the end.
- If your TikTok or Instagram video gets less than 500 views, take a drastic two-to-three-day break from posting to re-evaluate thoroughly.
He says that if you consistently follow this for about a month, you’ll start finding videos that perform well. For him, it took over 300 videos before he discovered the “winning formula.” Now, he posts three videos daily on one account and two on another.
His TikTok and Instagram accounts are:
You’ll notice that he batch-produces similar types of videos that have performed well. These are simple videos: a sheet of paper with various hobbies listed, set to music, lasting about five seconds. Using this strategy, he successfully boosted the app’s downloads to 100,000!
Alright, we’ve covered his user acquisition strategy. Next, let’s look at:
- How his app maximizes conversion and revenue.
- How he approached marketing for his second app.
His entire approach is truly valuable and incredibly replicable!
User Onboarding Flow #
Attracting users is one thing, but if they don’t convert into paying customers, all that effort is in vain. Like other successful developers, he focused heavily on the “onboarding” process.
Upon opening the app, users are guided through several pages. Initially, the app makes you realize you’re spending too much time on social media, emphasizing, “This isn’t good” 👇.
Next, a persuasive message tells you, “This app can solve your problem!” 👇.
After that, it asks a few personal questions about your smartphone usage habits 👇.
Then, a personalized slider appears based on user input, along with a trust signal indicating that many users are benefiting from it 👇.
Finally, it displays scores across several categories, like this 👇.
Clicking “Show Potential Rating” reveals how much improvement you can expect by using the app.
And then, finally, the pricing page 👇.
This user onboarding flow is a tried-and-true formula. Alex, another incredibly successful developer I’ve previously featured, used a similar onboarding process for his app.
First, it uses language that precisely targets users’ pain points, making them realize the severity of the problem. Then, it asks a few personal questions and provides personalized results. Honestly, whether those personalized results are entirely accurate seems to have little bearing on conversion rates. The key is to make users feel that the product is tailor-made for them. After that, some user testimonials are added, and only then does it lead to the payment page. Typically, there are no free tiers; you’re prompted to pay from the outset. In Alex’s app, there isn’t even a free trial.
This process is a textbook example! The combination of “TikTok marketing + robust onboarding” truly is an unbeatable one-two punch.
📱 He Built a Product to Solve Challenges in Promoting Apps Across Social Media #
As mentioned at the beginning, he now earns from two products. His second product is a web application called “Post Bridge.”
This application allows you to simultaneously post content across various social media platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0ALsm_7yH0
As we discussed earlier, when he promoted his first app, “Curiosity Quench,” he needed to post short-form video content on several social media platforms. To streamline this process, he looked for services that could publish to multiple social media platforms with one click, but found them all quite expensive. So, he decided to take matters into his own hands, and “Post Bridge” was born. It seems that developing a product based on your own needs is indeed a highly effective strategy.
To be honest, there are countless similar apps on the market. Yet, even in such a red ocean, “Post Bridge” steadily grew its monthly revenue to $7,000. How did he achieve this? Let’s continue!
🎯 Dual-Channel Marketing with X and YouTube #
So, how did he get this product off the ground? Surprisingly, it wasn’t through short-form videos this time. He primarily promoted this product through X and YouTube. He truly is a marketing maestro, clearly segmenting his user acquisition channels: consumer mobile apps for general users use short-form videos, while web applications targeting developers and professionals leverage X and YouTube. This approach is incredibly insightful and practical!
He continuously uploads his development and marketing process to YouTube.
Jack Friers’ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@jackfriks0
The sheer volume of his videos is astonishing—over 1,100! Considering he uploaded this many in less than two years, that’s an average of two videos per day. Insane, right?! He also updates his development progress daily on X.
Thanks to these efforts, his YouTube and X following grew, consisting mainly of developers. It was at this point that he developed “Post Bridge,” a tool he himself had long hoped for. When he publicly shared the development process of this tool, it immediately went viral 👇.
https://x.com/jackfriks/status/1838309281914933698
This tweet received over 2,300 likes. While he now has 46,000 followers, he didn’t have that many back then. For instance, a tweet about “Curiosity Quench” from the same period garnered almost no likes.
https://x.com/jackfriks/status/1840382183661318286
“Curiosity Quench” itself isn’t a product aimed at his developer followers on X, so it’s understandable that it didn’t gain much traction. This clearly demonstrates that if your product resonates with your audience, it can generate an astounding response; but if the topic is irrelevant to your audience, it will fall completely flat, making no waves at all.
💰 How Post Bridge Makes Money #
Alright, let’s look at how Post Bridge is monetized. As shown below, it has no free tier, and the cheapest plan starts at $9. All plans include a 7-day free trial.
He said that after experimenting with various models, introducing a 7-day free trial and a 40% discount for annual payments significantly boosted his revenue.
Post Bridge’s user acquisition, as mentioned earlier, primarily comes from X and YouTube. He’s particularly skilled at leveraging the X platform, generating buzz through “Building in Public” to expand his user base. When his revenue grows, he deliberately posts about it on X to attract more attention 👇:
https://x.com/jackfriks/status/1862580953803071569
This creates a virtuous cycle that further expands his user base. By continuously repeating this strategy, he steadily grew his monthly revenue to $7,000.
📝 Summary #
We’ve delved into Jack Friers’ story, and his approach is truly insightful. It’s particularly interesting how he has successfully integrated several methods used by other developers we’ve previously highlighted, thriving with both consumer-facing mobile apps and business-oriented web applications.
First, he monetized a consumer app through short-form video marketing. Then, he documented his journey across various media like X and YouTube, building a following of developers. Finally, he launched a web application that highly resonated with this audience, and it immediately took off. This strategy is seamless and highly effective.
However, looking at the immense volume of content he produces, you can tell the sheer effort required behind it. He posts multiple updates on X daily, and has uploaded over 1,100 videos to YouTube. The number of short-form videos he posts on TikTok and Instagram is also staggering. This level of dedication to marketing is the crucial element. If you’re struggling with marketing, consider adopting his advice: simply start a TikTok or Instagram account and post one piece of content daily. Don’t overthink it—just start doing!
If you like, comment, and share, it would be the greatest motivation for me to continue creating!