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(Part 1/3 - 6 Figure App Exit) How to Validate 6-Figure App Ideas

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App Masters11:07Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Validate an app idea by finding apps that already earn money and have real search demand, then launch a bare-bones version fast. Early users and live data, not months of coding, show what to build next.

Key takeaways

  • Apps already listed for sale with real revenue prove that people pay to solve a problem. 0:00
    • Flippa and Acquire.com require sellers to show their revenue, so filtering them by mobile apps shows what earns.
    • He filters to iOS, because Android users pay much less for apps.
  • Real search volume shows the problem is real and not just propped up by ad spend. 0:56
    • Google Keyword Planner shows 1 to 10 million monthly searches for "Instagram story viewer", plus competition and bid prices.
    • He wants huge volume. About 40,000 searches a month with heavy competition is too hard to win a share of.
  • A niche with paying competitors and no big brand is worth entering. 2:31
    • Sensor Tower shows the top app, InSave, making about $50K a month, and it is run by an indie developer.
    • Chatbot apps all make $50K or more, but that market is a red ocean, so he advises against it.
  • Build only the main use case plus a small settings screen and release within about a week. 4:02
    • Coding for six months without releasing risks finding the market already saturated.
    • A very simple first app earned $1,000 in its first month from App Store optimization alone.
    • Apple's review rules force changes, so it is better to meet them early than face 50 screens of issues at the end.
  • Talking to users and watching their sessions shows what to improve next. 5:01
    • An in-app live chat such as Crisp lets you "babysit" early users and hear their complaints directly.
    • Smartlook gives 3,000 free session recordings, which reveal stuck users, broken purchases and bad network conditions you never see on your own device.

If you release, you will have the energy and the courage to continue.

Bechir Arfaoui

Chapter summaries

0:00 Find a proven idea with real demand

An app that sells on a marketplace and answers a problem people search for is a safe idea to copy.

  • Marketplace listings are a shortlist of ideas that earn. 0:00
    • Sellers list revenue because buyers are investors.
    • Look for big sales, but small numbers are fine too.
    • The goal is a niche with volume, not an app lifted by a funded rival's ad spend.
    • A listing with revenue and a searchable problem is a jackpot, but you must dig deeper.
  • Keyword tools turn a listing into a problem you can test. 0:56
    • Type the listing's main keyword into Keyword Planner.
    • Google volume suggests App Store volume.
    • keywordtool.io adds autocomplete, so typing "TikTok" returns longer phrases.
    • Each phrase reads as a problem an app could solve.
  • Competitor tools show who already wins the search. 2:08
    • AppTweak lists the top 10 US App Store results for the keyword.
    • Sensor Tower, free, shows each rival's revenue.
    • Utility users search for a fix, not a brand like Nike.
    • Chatbot apps sell for $100K to $200K, yet every one he checked earns $50K or more.

3:41 Ship small and listen to users

A one-use-case app released within a week gives you users to learn from.

  • Rivals' complexity is no excuse, because one use case is enough. 3:53
    • Build it yourself or hire someone on Fiverr.
    • Add a small settings list with notifications and a review prompt.
    • Three or four months of nonstop coding means you will never make it.
    • Without a release there is nothing to test for ASO or user acquisition.
  • In-app chat turns early users into a feedback source. 5:01
    • Crisp has iOS and Android SDKs for a chat pop-up.
    • Users write things like "I don't understand" or "it's expensive".
    • He calls answering them "babysitting".
    • Smartlook is a second SDK, described as Hotjar for apps.

5:34 Session recordings steer the next release

Watching real sessions every day exposes problems that decide what to fix next.

  • Daily review of recordings shows what to improve before each update 5:34
    • The main use case can look fine while the user's real problem fails at that moment.
    • He checks the US, Europe and Asia each day for odd pop-ups.
    • Without watching, you keep shipping updates while things stay broken for users.
    • He also adds subscription cancellation automation, explained later.

6:56 Ship small, then build on top

A small first version beats a feature-heavy one that never launches.

  • Trying to build everything at once delays launch 6:56
    • A client building gamification and more still has not launched.
    • The simplest apps can make a lot of money.
    • Website chat feedback led Steve to change his own site.
    • You will be discouraged, and you will cancel the project.

8:35 Pick fast tools and shortcuts

Speed to a live iOS app matters more than the technology or starting from scratch.

  • Any technology that ships fast is fine, but start on iOS 8:35
    • Flutter or Android native both work if you know them.
    • Android users won't pay right away, so you struggle.
    • He calls iOS releases "projects for validations".
    • Once money arrives, you can rewrite the app.
  • A ready-made live app saves more time than a template 10:07
    • Templates cost about $200 and still need modifying.
    • Steve turned a gallery template into a flash card app.
    • Bechir's private group lists live apps with no revenue but clean, Apple-compliant code.
    • In-app purchases and push notifications already work, and prices run from $1,000 to under $5,000.

In the growth library

Bechir Arfaoui, Serial app entrepreneur who builds and sells apps (interviewed by Steve P. Young of App Masters). Shows how to validate an app idea by mining app marketplace listings, keyword volume and competitor revenue, then shipping a minimal version within about a week. Backs it with a toolset (live chat, session recordings) for learning from the first real users.

Lessons that draw on this:

More from App Masters · The whole library, and ask it anything

Transcript342 lines
0:00

So, since we know that there is platforms where you can exit your project listed and sell it, let's see what people are generating as money on those projects because that's what they need to list their product with the money they are generating so they can be sold potential VCs or investors. So, I go to flippa.com or acquire.com and I start filtering by mobile apps. I go to iOS because I know that people using Android don't pay that much of money for apps.

0:29

What are you looking to find here? I'm looking for pure apps with big numbers huge sales so I know that there is volume in that particular niche. And you can look into small numbers too because I will explain later on how you can make sure that that market is huge for real. It's not like a VC backed up that has a lot of money to spend on ads and they can grow the revenue. No, we need to make sure that the problem is real and that problem is being solved with the app. And how to know if that problem is real, we go to Google Keyword Planner where you type the main keyword of the app you see in the listing and see if there is volume. You can see here for example in this Instagram Story Viewer, there is like between 1 million and 10 million search per month. You can see how low the competition is, CPC, highest bid, lowest bid. You can make decision, hey, this is real problem with a volume on Google. So, potentially for

1:20

sure there is volume in App Store because the problem is real. There is many other tools like keywordtool.io where you can see more complex keyword combinations for a specific subject. You can write TikTok and they will give you extra auto complete for TikTok. You can write specific word and they will give you suggestions about particular keywords that you can understand as a problem that you can solve with the app. And put that in you know that you saw an app being sold generating money in Acquire or in Flippa. So, it's a jackpot for you. You just need to dig deeper.

1:52

Is there a number, a minimum number of monthly searches that you're looking for? I go for huge numbers so I know I'm comfortable when I'm competing, you know? If we are competing around 40,000 a month with a lot of competition in the App Store, it's going to be hard. I need the huge volume so can I can squeeze my part in it. I use AppTweak to see the competition. So, in search result in the App Store, who's doing that beside the app I saw in sale, I will keep looking in the App Store who's the top 10 apps in the App Store US, for example. And here I did the search, Instagram story viewer or saver. And I see InSave as number one. I will inspect what InSave is doing in Sensor Tower. This is free, also.

2:31

Yeah. Uh they are doing 50K a month. So, okay, there is other people doing the same stuff and generating money. So, okay, this is more validation for my idea. And it's not a niche where I'm competing against uh Nike or something someone big. It's a utility app with no huge brand in the market and anyone is looking for a solution for his problem, not for a particular brand for something. You know what I like about this, too, Fisher, is that it's a indie developer.

2:58

Like, you know, it's not a company name. It's just a person's name, too. I really like that. I took the idea of ChatGPT and there is a lot of chatbots uh in the market are being sold uh also for 100K, 200K. For I saw a lot of them being sold in the marketplaces. And this is the second idea, obviously number one, but you can see others below him below the below ChatGPT. So, I took one of them and went to Sensor Tower again. And uh here you can see like all of them are making 50K plus, all of them. So, this is a huge market. Everyone is swimming in the ocean. It's It's currently it's a red ocean. I do not recommend to do a chatbot, but you can see where I'm coming from and how I think about seeing numbers and who's making money and if it's worth trying or not. Now, we understand how to search uh for ideas, who's making money, how to check if they are a competition and what they doing and what the competition is doing as a

3:49

revenue, also. So, now we we have the app idea and let's say you took a decision that competitors are making money, but their apps look complex, big, I can't really develop all of that overnight and all that kind of objections, but what you have to do is only develop the main use case and by saying develop it's you or someone you hire in Fiverr for example and you need only one single use case which is the solution to the problem of the user.

4:15

Yeah. And plus maybe setting screen where you list your settings, enable notification, review us, small list. Mhm. And go to live in the App Store. So, these three are more important than the rest. If you release, you will have the energy and the courage to continue. But if you get stuck writing code day and night for three or four months, it's not good enough. No, it's you will never make it. So, the point here is to release maybe within a week. So, you have to stress yourself out and get something out in the market and it's as written, go live fast to start testing SO and user acquisition because if you did not release, you have nothing to test and test the market for your app.

4:54

And you will write code for six months without releasing and then you discover, oh, it's too late now, the market is saturated. No, do it now. Start figuring out as you go. More recommendation here is to add live chat like crisp.chat. They have an iOS and Android SDK. You can add a chat pop-up in your app. You can talk to people when you release first, you know. They will write you, "Hey, I don't understand. Hey, it's expensive. Hey, you start figuring out solutions and problems for those people coming in." I call it babysitting.

5:20

Babysit them. It's fine. Yes. Talk to them. You keep receiving email and speak to people and try to figure out what they need and improve based on that. Number two is another SDK called Smartlook. It's It's like Hotjar for web, but they have web also. But Smartlook will record what the user is doing and you will receive 3,000 sessions for free from them before paying for Smartlook. So, 3,000 session recording is enough for you to see what people are doing and where they are stuck, if they have a or not, if your in-app purchases work or not. So, you will see a lot of weird stuff happening to people that you didn't realize because you are testing only on your device. People have weird conditions, internet cut off, slow 3G, I don't know.

6:00

There is a lot of conditions you need to use cases you need to cover and that you will discover using Smartlook videos and sometimes you will assume that your main use case is working, but then the problem that the user is looking for a solution for is not working in your app on that particular moment and you have to understand why. So, you need to see it to realize that you have it, otherwise you will keep releasing updates and stuff are not working for your users, which is not good. You need to see it and keep looking at videos every day. So, it's a it's part of my daily now, going to Smartlook, see what's happening in US, what's happening in Europe, what's happening in Asia to understand, hey, does anyone getting a weird pop-up that should be solved? You need to look into that. One more thing is to add subscription cancellation automation. I will explain this in details later.

6:45

Okay. And from all of this you make a decision where to go next because you spoke to people, you saw people problems, you saw people on video, you release your next improvement. Because now you have the app live already. I love the go live fast to start testing. If you don't believe Betcher, trust me, I've worked with a client that was taking forever. Betcher, you would you would You and I are like the same. Launch fast and he was trying to build He was trying to boil the ocean all at once and trying to build gamification, all this stuff and the app is yet to launch. And I haven't heard from him.

7:15

Stop trying to build everything all in that first version. Go fast, start testing and then build on top of it. We had the simplest app, Betcher, on that first app that we just created November, we made $1,000 just with ASO. That's it. And it's the simplest simplest app, right? And I've seen these silliest simplest apps make a lot of money. And the second point I really love because I do this, I have this Chris chat on our website, baby sit your users, especially in the beginning, cuz they're going to give you feedback. We want real-time interaction, and that little web chat that I have on our website has done wonders. Like, "Steve, I don't get this." Like, and so, like, I've changed our website based on the feedback I've gotten from people just talking to me on chat. You'll find the best users and the best feedback comes from this chat.

8:00

One more thing about the go live first is the Apple approval process. I when I started pushing releases to Apple, I realized that they don't like many things I already built. You have to work around that and solve that. Hey, this is not legal. Hey, this is not compliant. Hey, you have to change this. This pop-up is not So, you have to start learning what's not working and configuring your app to comply with Apple. Otherwise, you build Google in your computer, and then you have to deal with the 50 screen of issues. That doesn't make sense. You will be discouraged, and you will cancel the project, and you will like stay poor forever. So, you have to start small.

8:35

George asked, "Do you think choosing multi-platform technology like Flutter is a good idea? With that, I can go on Android native." It's all to align with my first recommendation, go live first. What do you master? You can release fast with Flutter, do it. You can release fast with Android native, do it. So, you have to release fast, but as I said, I don't recommend Android first because you people won't pay for your service right away. You will struggle. So, iOS is always my go-to for releasing at least projects for validations, I call them.

9:06

Release on iOS, see the market, see the feeling, but use what you can master fast. You can release fast on iOS, just do it. Doesn't matter which technology. Because once you get the money, you can rewrite the app. If you don't have money and you are poor, technology doesn't matter anymore. Yep. When I did my first app that I ever created, too, cuz I'm a I'm in the same mindset. I bought a template, and in there he had a template that technology I was using was similar to Flutter cross-platform. But, anyways, they have templates in there. I I a slideshow template, like a gallery view, way back in the day, and I made it a flash card app. So, even Flutter, I'm sure they have some bunch of templates that you can use. Start one that is similar to what you're trying to build, and just rejigger. Because better I was like trying to teach myself how to code at the same time, right? Like I coded it.

9:52

So, I was like, you know what? I can modify existing code cuz I can read the code, but starting from square one was like a blank page was really hard for me. So, now technology, chat GPT, and all this stuff makes it a little bit easier. But, yeah, you can take an existing template and just modify it and get going. It's easy. I have something much better for you, Steve, than buying a template for $200. I in the private group, I have private deals where I have app already live in the App Store. They didn't generate any money, but the developer took the effort to clean up the code, comply with Apple, and publish it live. Then, you can buy it from him and save your time and effort of buying a template, modifying, and all that kind of stuff. You just take an app ready to go. In-app purchase is working, push notification is working. You just transfer your the project to yourself, and you pay him his

10:35

money. So, this kind of deals can find in my group. I have developers from all around the world sending me their projects. Yeah, this is live. Do you buy it? Can you buy it? Okay. Yeah, that's how I operate now. I have a lot of people sending me projects. So, I publish these in the group for the community. Apps from 1,000 to it's it's always below 5,000. People who are interested, go to Becher's. Easy, just Instagram.becher is his name. B E C H I R. And if you click on this link, you'll go to the school group. Just join that private group as well.