Sebastian Estrada

App developer, trying to make a living building cool stuff 🥸
Road to $10K MRR - 🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ $3K

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

We did it! 2K MRR 🤯

Can’t believe this. Struggled to make something happen for months

Honestly @marclou @jackfriks inspired me to keep going

now aiming at a new target and have 14 days left on ship or die for a new project I’m super excited for

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@molaerga Thanks, 2 more to go! 😁

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

It’s happening! 😁

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

Yooo only 6 hours left on shipordie and I think my dog is going into labor 🫣

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@eliasxreyes 2 or 3 per day. But I’m more thoughtful about the themes I’m choose

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

I hit $2.3k MRR in 5 weeks.

An interior design app. No ads. Just TikTok carousels. 8.8% conversion rate.

I never went viral, at least not in the typical sense. My best carousels do tens of thousands of views. And my lifetime views are under 1 million.

Before i continue, here are my stats

Just over 1,250 downloads at an 8.8% conversion rate — 1 subscriber every 12 downloads. I charge $9.99 weekly and $19.99 monthly. No localisation, no free trial (just 1 free generation). One customer paid $70 in a single month with a subscription and multiple token top-ups.

Here are the 2 things that got me here:

1) Acquisition: I went deep instead of broad.
Everyone says open 5 accounts and spam AI UGC. I did the opposite. One account, deep in the interior design niche. I learned the styles, the materials, the terminology true interior design enthusiasts use, and I made content they'd actually want to engage with and get value from.

This caps my reach. But it attracts people who genuinely care about interior design — and those are the people who pay. I believe this is why i have revenue equal to apps with many times my downloads and tiktok views.

2) Conversion: meet them in a habit.
I used to make hooks around problems I'd assumed my users had: "I almost spent $7,000 on an interior designer, then I did this instead." Got views but no downloads. I copied what worked for apps with millions of TikTok views and giant ad budgets instead of listening to what users were openly sharing on interior design TikTok.

So i decided to stop trying to convince them. I focused on a habit they already did and just offered the opportunity to make it easier or enhance it. My onboarding became 5 pages, not 12. It focuses on aesthetics, on the features tied to their habit, and one slide that hints we aren't like other apps offering gimmicky designs (the home design apps trying to sell you "gamer" or "ancient Egyptian" styles).

This new approach is what took me from $40 to $2,335 in just 5 weeks.

Two bonus lessons:

1) Post to grow your audience. Not to sell. One of my biggest follower jumps came from a post where i didn't sell anything. Building an audience of potential customers is important. People have to see your brand multiple times before committing, and an audience compounds into that. You're also more trustworthy when thousands of people already follow you. (That said, a following probably has more value on Instagram.)

2) Master one platform first if you're solo. I chose TikTok. Another platform might work better for you — but pick one and go deep before you split your focus.

All of this got me to $2.3K MRR. As I'm finishing this post it's $2.8K MRR but too lazy to change what i wrote.

My next goal for July is $10K . I'd guess half these lessons change at that scale. But i’ll be exploring Instagram more and studying paid ads (once my payout lands in August i can test).

I’ll post about my results so follow if you want to watch the 2.8K → 10K journey play out.

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@ingoa_dev Thanks, I’ll check it out

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

can someone explain this? How come now the day is over the number reached $200 but no change in subscribers for yesterday?

Am I dumb, Did I miss something?

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

Was minutes away from my first $200 day 😭

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@BrianMRey Nice job! 💪

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@paulmira_bell Thank you!

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

Yooo only 6 hours left on shipordie and I think my dog is going into labor 🫣

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

https://t.co/qV6kAxe09b

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

Was minutes away from my first $200 day 😭

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

I basically tried making funny or story posts with the goal of going viral e.g "My landlord wouldn't let me redesign my flat, so i showed her what AI could do" or "if he knows you, he'll know what room you'll choose". I saw others go viral with this content.

other apps say things like "my wife couldn't design our room in 10 years, AI did it in seconds"

not only did it not work for me but it felt really trashy. So i focused on what interior designers were sharing which was a love for the art and sharing their favorite inspo

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@stycroft Maybe warm up was wrong or something was flagged. This was my third post on my account so also takes time

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@schlimmson I posted 130 times before it started working for me 😅 my first 20 posts were constantly below 600 views. My first 10 posts barely broke 300 views

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@AMVibecode Thanks man!

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@aleksanderwco still collecting data but so far it looks like 10-15% of revenue goes to ai (i predicted more). And my firebase bill this month was ~$7.50

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

if i'm completely honest, i set it up when i visited my brother in the US for christmas w/o vpn. So i'm maybe not the best person to advise on this.

Now i have this phone permanently on a Surfshark VPN that never turns off as i am in SEA - no sim card, mobile data permanently off, location services off.

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@LadySoleil33 i only post images of what my apps creates. No screenshot of the actual app - try to wow them with the results

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@sss124boody @yididiya_h organic

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

Let’s fucking go!! It seems every time I share something the numbers get seriously outdated within days! Feeling insanely lucky 🙏 now have to stay locked in and keep going.

3k MRR club

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@stycroft Not from US but opened a US tiktok account. Most of my customers are in the US and Europe

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@duskofoed No, only this month with this spike did i pass 1000 followers and now have a link. For most of the month i was relying on people finding it on the app store with the name i shared in my bio

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@thebuildguy glad it was helpful!

[Sebastian Estrada @SebasEstra]

@AveryChernin Sounds like a plan! Good luck! 💪 will keep an eye out for that launch