“Audiobooks would buy my time — it would start to generate enough income and at first it was like maybe it would buy me 10 hours a week that I could work on my independent stuff, and then maybe 20 hours a week, and eventually about all of my time.”

A Foundation App Buys You Time to Keep Experimenting

Rather than treating Audiobooks as a destination, David used it as a revenue runway. Even a modest baseline income — enough to buy back time from consulting — is sufficient to fuel a continuous experimentation loop. The goal isn't to build the perfect first app; it's to earn enough to keep trying.