I Copied A Huge App. Now I Make $80K/Month

The Million-Dollar Localization Strategy [0:00]

• Tomer built a million-dollar app by reverse-engineering a successful US app and localizing it for his home country.
• Within 12 months of launching, his app was generating over $80,000 per month.
• He focused on a proven concept rather than seeking an entirely original idea.

  "what if you didn't need an original idea at all what if instead you could reverse engineer apps that are already working well"

App Concept and Market Fit [0:51]

• Tomer localized a popular AI calorie-tracking app, similar to "Cal AI," for the Israeli market.
• The app allows users to take a picture of their food, and it instantly provides calorie and nutritional information.
• He launched the app in Hebrew, catering specifically to local users.

  "so the app is an ai calorie tracker similarly to call ai you simply take a picture of your food and it tells you the calories and markers in seconds"

From Marketing to App Development [2:12]

• Before building his own app, Tomer worked in marketing for other businesses, which he found unfulfilling.
• He discovered the potential for localization after hearing a podcast about the founder of Cal AI, who had scaled to $1 million per month.
• Tomer realized that a popular app in one market could be a significant opportunity in a market where it wasn't yet known.

  "i found it extremely boring then i wasn't really passionate about promoting other people's products and i wanted to look for opportunities to build my own product"

AI-Assisted Development [3:15]

• Tomer, who is not a professional developer, used AI tools, specifically Cursor, to build the app.
• He was able to create a working version of the app with core features in just two weeks.
• The entire process from initial coding to app store submission took approximately two months, with the longest delays being Apple's review process.

  "cursor was just released at the time and i wanted to see if you could actually build software like it was magic with ai prompting and two weeks later after starting the experiment with cursor i had a working version"

Marketing and User Acquisition [5:48]

• Tomer leveraged his marketing background, focusing on paid ads due to lower CPMs in Israel.
• He studied viral content from similar apps in the US and popular fitness content in Israel to create effective ad creatives.
• This initial paid ad strategy helped him reach $20,000 per month within four months.

  "for me it was paid ads cpms are significantly lower than in the us so you can run paid ads profitably without a time of testing the capital"

Influencer Partnerships for Growth [6:52]

• To scale beyond $20,000 per month, Tomer partnered with major Israeli influencers and celebrities.
• Instead of paying them flat fees, he offered a revenue share percentage of the app's Israeli revenue.
• This aligned incentives, motivating influencers to promote the app more consistently and effectively, driving growth to over $80,000 per month.

  "the more money i make the more money they make it also meant that now i have two well-known faces to represent my app"

Tech Stack and Advice [8:54]

• Tomer used Cloud for coding ($200/month), PostHog for analytics ($20/month), RevenueCat for subscriptions, Superbase for database/storage ($35/month), and Expo for in-app updates ($100/month).
• His advice to aspiring founders is to have confidence and believe in their ability to figure things out, as setbacks are inevitable.
• He emphasizes not letting oneself become the bottleneck for the business.

  "don't be afraid of what you don't know you need to have a lot of self-confidence to believe that whatever gets thrown at you you'll figure it out"