Founder Playbook · Starter Story
7 tactics from Pre
I Make $120K/Year From 3 Mobile Apps
Watch the full episode“If I experienced this pain I could build a better product than my competitors. Also I would care more about it... if you love what you're building you'll put in the effort and put in those extra details to craft a better experience...”
Filter Every Idea Through Your Own Daily Habits So Specs Come From Lived Experience
Pre picks ideas only from activities he personally does — cold plunges, sunlight, posture — so the product specs come from lived experience instead of survey decks. The personal-pain filter doubles as a motivation moat: caring more compounds into better craft, which compounds into downloads and revenue.
“I personally love to track my activities... I looked at the app store. There wasn't a great app that tracked your specific niche activity like a cold plunge like a sauna like a cold shower. And I figured I could build this experience...”
Pick Hyper-Niche App Store Gaps Where No Quality App Already Tracks The Activity
Pre's validation step is literally opening the App Store and searching for the hyper-specific activity he already does. If no quality app exists for the narrow use case, that's the green light — a low-competition ASO slot where a focused app can become the category top result fast.
“Most founders and company's first product don't break out but it's that third that fourth that fifth iteration that really builds a great experience... I launched Go Polar as one product Then we launched another one and another one But I treated each app as a different repetition of building product”
Treat Each App As A Rep Not A Bet — Your Third Or Fourth Iteration Is The Breakout
Pre framed his wellness portfolio as a product studio because he didn't know which app would win. SunSeek shipped better than Go Polar on day one purely because of accumulated reps. The mental shift: increase ship count instead of polishing one idea forever, and let craft compound across launches.
“The reason we target the same audience is because of the overlap. So users of our one product we don't have to remarket and create a new audience and list to target. We already have that and that exists in our other app. And then when we market to them it's not marketing cold...”
Stack Apps For The Same Audience So Launch Two Isn’t A Cold-Marketing Problem
Every new app launches into a warm audience inherited from the prior apps in the same niche. Go Polar users become SunSeek users become Posture AI users — turning launch day into cross-promotion instead of cold acquisition, which is why each subsequent app ramps faster than the last.
“Right now our free to paid conversion is around 8% which is around the higher side just because these are niche apps. And our day 30 free to paid retention is 61%.”
Niche Targeting Drives 8 Percent Free-To-Paid Conversion And 61 Percent Day-30 Retention
Pre's three hyper-niche health apps convert at 8% free-to-paid with 61% day-30 paid retention — both well above category averages. He attributes the elevated numbers directly to niche targeting: users self-select as high-intent buyers because the app solves one specific personal problem they already do.
“The total cost for our tools is about 300 a month and Apple takes their 15% cut if you make under a million dollars So our margins still stay close to that 80 85% range... Total downloads are over 20,000 Most of this is organic from app store and organic search”
Hit 80-85 Percent Margins On $300-Per-Month Of Tools With Pure App-Store Organic Traffic
Three apps generating $10.4K MRR run on ~$300/month of SaaS (Figma, Supabase, RevenueCat, Sentry, PostHog) plus Apple's small-developer 15% cut, holding margins at 80-85%. Distribution is entirely free organic ASO and search — no paid acquisition, which is what makes the unit economics work at this revenue level.
“You want to think about distribution on day zero before you even launch. And there's always a creator in your niche. If there isn't, the great thing about solving for a problem that you yourself encounter is that you can create the content. You know exactly why you're building this product.”
Plan Distribution Day Zero By Finding A Niche Creator Or Becoming One Yourself
Pre treats distribution as a pre-launch problem, not a post-launch one. Because he builds for problems he personally has, he can authentically create content in the niche if no existing creator covers it — which both attracts an audience and validates the product narrative before launch day.