Founder Playbook · Starter Story
8 tactics from Adam Lidel
The Underdog: From $200K in Debt to $1M App Maker
Watch the full episode“the best way to sort of work out what apps can be created is just a simp live life go out there and then try to work out where there's a need for an app or where there are apps that aren't doing a good enough job and that's where all of my Inspirations come from”
Just Live Your Life And Watch For Apps Doing A Bad Job Of Their One Thing
Adam rejects starting from a money motive when picking app ideas. Instead he just lives his life and watches for real needs or apps doing a poor job, which is how every one of his inspirations has surfaced.
“I asked some of the people that were mowing they said well it's easy you get a piece of paper you write all of your jobs down on one side that's week one you flip it over and you write all of your jobs down down on the other side that's week two and I said why why don't you use an app for that and one guy said to me well no app exists and someone should look at making it and I thought to myself I could be that someone.”
His First App Idea Came From A Lawn-Mowing Customer Saying No App Exists
While mowing lawns to pay off debt, Adam discovered his first app idea from a customer's offhand comment that no scheduling app existed for lawn mowers. The audience surfaced the need directly, not market research.
“the best way and the only way I know how to learn something new is simply just to throw myself into and just start building so I set myself a challenge to create one app every single month”
Commit To Shipping One App Every Single Month — Velocity Is The Learning Loop
After his first lawn-mowing app flopped, Adam stopped theorizing and set a constraint: ship one new app every single month. Building was his only way to learn what actually worked, and the cadence eventually produced over 50 apps.
“start building more apps so that even if each one makes only $2 to $500 a month the total revenue is still enough to keep paying off the debt”
A Portfolio Of Tiny Apps Stacks To A Livable Income Faster Than One Hit
After realizing building-to-sell wasn't sustainable, Adam changed strategy: launch many apps so even modest per-app revenue stacks into a livable income. The portfolio approach replaced the hunt for a single breakout hit.
“I created a new pay wall and I created a new onboarding flow and that turned my revenue from generating $10,000 a month to $50,000 per month pretty much overnight so for the last couple of months it's been consistently going up and each month the business is making around about 50,000 to $60,000.”
A New Paywall And Onboarding Flow Took Revenue From $10K To $50K Overnight
After launching a YouTube channel to test his apps publicly, Adam rebuilt the paywall and onboarding flow across his portfolio. The change took monthly revenue from $10,000 to $50,000 almost overnight without launching any new apps.
“My logic was I have to work harder I have to keep persevering I to keep digging this hole that I'm in which meant lowering prices and as my prices lowered I was working more hours and it ended up resulting in a total burnout where I couldn't do any more.”
Lowering Prices To Keep Clients Is The Road To A Total Burnout
When Wix and Squarespace gutted his $10K website pricing, Adam tried to compete by dropping prices and working harder. The race to the bottom burned him out completely and his agency collapsed anyway.
“I had enough in my portfolio to generate enough Revenue that I no longer had to sell an app to keep a pipeline going I now had a consistent Revenue that was coming in month after month which now could pay down all my debts pay the rent and take my family out for dinner.”
Recurring App Revenue Replaces The Boom-Bust Build-And-Sell Grind
Adam shifted from building apps to flip them to building a portfolio where each one only had to make $2 to $500 a month. The aggregate recurring revenue replaced the boom-bust sale cycle and finally let him pay down debt consistently.
“If you don't have the passion you don't have the creativity and you don't have the drive behind you then it's going to be just as bad as being in debt just as bad as having chains on you you're going to be stuck in something that you don't want to build.”
Build From Passion — Without It, Apps Become Just Another Form Of Debt
Adam warns founders chasing app ideas purely for money. Without genuine interest in the problem, the build becomes another form of debt; revenue, he says, flows as a byproduct of putting something positive into the world.