Johnny

turning ideas into shipped apps. learning the founder thing in public. -

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@Polaco23456 Started with a straight conversion, then tested one adjusted price point to get a better feel for the willingness to pay in each market.

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

Renewals just hit different

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@Polaco23456 Same app, same listing. I just localized the pricing for different markets, so DE and US have different price points.

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@JamesJames518 Yeah for sure, happy to connect! What specific signals do you use to make the content feel more native to the US? Like wording, references, trends, sounds, or even the type of content itself?

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

Day 17 of scaling my app to $5k MRR

Quick 28-day recap from my best-performing account:

837K views
56K likes
4.1K profile views
1.9K shares

Growth has slowed down a bit recently.

Biggest problem right now: audience targeting.

Almost 30% of my traffic comes from the Philippines alone.

How do you guys consistently reach US/UK audiences organically?

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@anumness Depends on the product. A great product can afford a free trial. A hard paywall can sometimes just hide bad retention.

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@kedytcom Probably just canceled right away so they don’t forget about it next year. A lot of people don’t want the renewal sitting in the back of their mind.

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@pfernan95dev Crazy growth, save some followers for me 😂

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@MarioSaputra How did you manage to get 90% US on TikTok? A VPN helped me a bit, but I still can’t get past around 20–30% US traffic.

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@maks6361 Interesting. Posting time barely seems to matter for me. Most of my posts take off hours later, usually around Asian afternoon/evening 😭 Still trying to figure out how to shift the audience.

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@vinctkng Yeah, location definitely seems to matter. I just started a second account with a VPN targeting the UK, but location doesn’t seem to be the biggest factor. Let’s see how it goes.

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@thatdadjacob Congrats, looking good!

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

When this happens mid-build… what do you do? Switch models, buy more credits, or finally take a break?

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@TheAIMargin I checked the billing setup and everything is working correctly. Billing Retry is enabled too. Most of these users are from lower-income countries, so it’s likely their payment methods had insufficient funds when the trials ended. How do you deal with this?

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

Day 16 of scaling my app to $5K MRR

Not much progress today, just one new monthly subscription and our fifth billing error in a row.

Right now, I’m focused on making the core daily loop feel as clean and premium as possible, especially the features people use every day.

I also added a feedback system for the AI.

Let’s see if better product quality improves conversion and user satisfaction.

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@pfernan95dev @DmitryFounder_ Nice, that’s interesting. Sounds fun 😂

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@DmitryFounder_ @pfernan95dev Sure, just followed you 🤝 What are you currently building?

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

@OnatAksaray Yeah, makes sense. What signals worked best for you to teach the algorithm, language, posting times, or early engagement from the target country?

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

Day 14 of scaling my app to $5k MRR

Moving slowly right now.

Most of my recent traffic has been coming from Asian countries, which converts significantly worse for me.

How do you guys specifically target the right countries organically?

[Johnny @johnny_schae]

Day 15 of scaling my app to $5K MRR.

Not much happened today. 4 trials ended without being canceled, which should have generated over $200—but all 4 payments failed due to billing errors.

Growth is definitely not a straight line. Some days the numbers jump, while other days almost nothing happens.

Still, we crossed $1K in revenue over the last 28 days last night. Next goal: $1K MRR.