Founder Playbook · Sub Club by RevenueCat
13 tactics from Sebastian Röhl
From Corporate Web Developer to Full-Time Indie Hacker
Watch the full episode“the first time that I posted a picture of the main screen of habit kit this post totally blew up and I actually got 800 likes that was a lot for me back then that was the moment when I knew okay this could be more successful than lift bear”
A screenshot tweet validated PMF before launch
Before launching HabitKit, Sebastian posted a single screenshot of the main screen — a color grid of habits — on X with no launch framing, just 'here's what I'm building.' It got 800 likes organically, which was the product-market-fit signal that told him the concept had legs. A non-announcement post that shows the actual product outperforms a launch post because people respond to the thing itself, not the hype.
“after this very quiet launch of course I still got feedback from friends and a couple of Twitter followers... I continued developing cool new features because that's what developers do... I added cool stuff like statistics and new exercise types and stuff like that”
Building more features is not a growth channel
Lift Bear launched quietly with ~100 downloads in week one, then 10/week, earning $100 total in six months. Sebastian's response was to add more features — the classic developer trap. The lesson: a better feature set does not create a growth engine unless you have a channel to tell new people the feature exists. Features and distribution are separate problems that require separate solutions.
“I already knew that I shouldn't develop this app for 12 months and then release it and then see that nobody really cares about it I just was disciplined enough to buckle down and then develop it in the first two months of my free year and then launch it”
Ship the first version in two months, not twelve
Sebastian built and shipped both Lift Bear and HabitKit in roughly two months each. His rule: don't develop in isolation for a year and then launch to nobody. Two months gives you a real signal — people show up or they don't — before you've sunk twelve months into an untested concept. Setting a hard two-month ship deadline also prevents scope creep and perfectionism from delaying the learning.
“I time boxed this app business experiment to exactly 12 months it seemed reasonable to me to have this backup plan if it doesn't work out and I said to myself okay if this doesn't work out I will go back to my old job”
Time-box your indie experiment with a named exit
Sebastian set a strict 12-month deadline before quitting his job and defined success upfront as ramen profitability. The hard deadline removed the fear of open-ended commitment — it turned a terrifying leap into a bounded experiment. He hit the end of 12 months without hitting the goal, returned to his employer, and came back with more confidence and a higher salary. The experiment still paid off.
“habit kit finally started to rank in the top five for a big keyword on the App Store and Google Play that led to Crazy growth in downloads and revenue... I actually didn't change anything back then for 3 months”
Being above the App Store fold is day and night
HabitKit cracked the top 5 for a major habit-tracking keyword with no deliberate change after months of stagnation — and downloads and revenue exploded. Sebastian describes the App Store fold as a day-night divide: visibility above it means organic installs at scale; below it means near-invisibility. Getting above the fold on one big keyword, not gaming dozens of minor ones, is the highest-leverage ASO move for a solo indie app.
“I guess it's in the nature of habit tracking apps that it's heavily influenced by seasonality so at the start of the year lots of people make resolutions for the new year start new hobbies or just generally want to improve themselves”
New-year seasonality made Jan–Feb > all of prior year
HabitKit earned $60K in January–February 2024 alone — more than all of 2023's $51K — purely from the new-year resolution wave. Sebastian had not changed his marketing or the app; the App Store ranking he'd built up just caught the seasonal spike. For lifestyle and habit apps, aligning store listing updates, review prompts, and any pushes to the January window can multiply annual revenue in a single two-month period.
“I also have this other channel that we didn't talk about so I was building my apps in public and I have actually grown a following on X and nowadays LinkedIn... I got this email list thing on my to-do list”
Build in public, but also build an email list
Sebastian's X/LinkedIn audience is his insurance policy: if HabitKit's ASO ranking drops, he can announce a new app to followers and get a launch boost. But without an email list, he has no way to re-engage existing users directly. Building in public creates a community safety net; building an email list converts that community into an owned channel that survives platform algorithm shifts, shutdowns, and store policy changes.
“99 cents a month geez 99 cents a month six bucks a year... Just double it $2 a month that's still really low and nobody's gonna get mad... keep doubling it until your haters folder gets too big and then take it back a notch”
Just double your price — nobody gets mad
Sebastian had charged $0.99/month or $6/year for HabitKit and kept deferring a price increase 'until after the next feature.' The RevenueCat CEO's advice: just double it — $2/month is still low, and nobody gets mad. The heuristic for iterative pricing: raise the price, measure the tone of reviews, and only back off when pushback becomes severe. Most indie apps are underpriced by a factor of 2–5x before that threshold.
“I made it $20 a month zero change in downloads nobody was like I probably could have made it $50 and everybody would have still paid because of course it's like of the niche”
$4 to $20 — downloads did not flinch
David Barnard raised his Windows flight-sim utility from $4 to $20 — a 5x increase — after support requests became overwhelming. Downloads stayed flat. His reflection: 'I probably could have made it $50 and everybody still would have paid.' Developers price by cost-of-production instinct, not by value delivered or market tolerance. The only way to find the real price ceiling is to raise it until you hit resistance.
“there are people usually get reviews on Google Play that say $1 a month for this app never... you can't look at your price leverage on Android and iOS the same right they're very different communities”
Android users pay less — price platforms separately
At $0.99/month, HabitKit was already near-free, yet a Google Play reviewer complained it was too expensive. Android and iOS audiences have structurally different willingness to pay — applying identical pricing across both platforms ignores that reality and produces friction on Android without increasing iOS revenue. Test prices independently on each platform rather than setting a single global price and calling it done.
“when you're on the mobile platform all this payments and sales tax thing is handled by Apple and Google and that was really a good point for me to start there”
App Store handles payments so solo devs can focus on product
For solo developers building consumer apps, the App Store acts as merchant-of-record: it handles payments, sales tax, and compliance across thousands of jurisdictions automatically. On the web, a solo founder would need to deal with all of that themselves — which is prohibitive for a consumer lifestyle app. HabitKit earned $110K in the first five months of 2024 without ever managing a payment flow.
“I had this safety net that I built up before... I didn't have many financial obligations of course... I didn't have kids no loans for a house... this is hard to reason about for most people like conceptualization of risk right when you are near the bottom... you can jump off a cliff and you're only falling a foot”
Jump before the rope — risk is relative to obligations
Sebastian quit his corporate job before having a single user — with one year of savings, no debt, and no dependents. David frames the underlying logic: low-obligation founders have a rare window where the downside is recoverable. 'You can jump off a cliff and you're only falling a foot.' Jumping before you have a rope also creates motivation — it forces the business to work. The risk is not as large as it looks from inside a job.
“in my free year I learned so many great things I got so much self-confidence I developed this two cool apps and a lot of people downloaded them already and that really developed my self-confidence so going back wasn't really that bad I even got a nice raise”
Failed app built skills and earned a salary raise
Lift Bear made $100 in six months — a failure by any revenue metric. But when Sebastian returned to employment, he negotiated a pay raise and carried measurably more self-confidence into his next role. The year built transferable technical skills, product intuition, and proof-of-execution that directly improved his next negotiation. A failed indie attempt is not a sunk cost: it compounds into your salary, your next app, and your understanding of what works.