Luke Patterson

senior swe | guitarist | FilAm 🇵🇭🇺🇸 | cat dad x3

shipping apps so i can play music full time instead

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

13 days ago I launched a new app. Today it crossed $1k MRR!! 🚀

A buddy of mine at the gym called me lucky. But this isn’t the full story.

11 years ago I launched my first iOS app and it made $50 in ads in one year. I learned a ton about publishing to the App Store.

4 years ago I consulted for a major restaurant group in the US. I learned a ton about react native.

2 years ago DraftKings hired me to modernize their iOS app away from Xamarin 😭🙈 I learned that I never wanted to do that ever again.

18 months ago I shipped my first paid web app. It flopped completely. $0 in sales bc I built something nobody wanted. I thought I learned my lesson

7 months ago I shipped another web app, it got a ton of views but no sales. I learned my lesson about market validation.

2 months ago I built a landing page for a non existent product. I sold it to 30 people for 50% off their first month if they prepaid before it was built. This is how I learned to validate the idea.

Today that app crossed $1k MRR and $3k in revenue. This traffic is primarily from an email list and it’s not even on android yet. There’s so much more room for this to grow and I can’t wait to scale it.

I learned so much about nurturing an audience, iterating on the product based on feedback, running a beta program and converting trials into sales. I’m not a software engineer anymore. I’m a software entrepreneur. That’s the mindset it took for me to go from $0 to $1k. I’m confident this will go much much higher.

I’m excited to keep growing it and sharing my lessons with you all! Say hi in the replies so I can follow you, I’m new here and need some friends ✌️

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

4 months later I tripled my monthly revenue and this is still the best advice I’ve ever read on this platform

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

35 days later and I passed $10k MRR 🎉

I thought when I reach that number I would feel done, but really I feel like I just started

Turns out you always move the goal posts

My advice for anyone wanting to do the same:

product market fit has the single greatest influence over your business. You don’t need a viral idea, you need a solution to someone’s problem.

Tons of people on here wanting to build an app and go viral. Those are the people chasing a get rich quick scheme. Build a business, not a meme.

Stop using solution-first ideation. Think more about what problems people have instead of your latest cool app idea. Smart fridges are “cool” but the problem they solve is just keeping food cold.

Build your business around latent demand and everything else will be so much easier.

There are no shortcuts. And talk to your customers.

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@bardonadam “free trials don’t work” w/ screenshots of revenue growth after removing the trial w/ no context on the product

Just bc one founder chose the wrong type of intro offer doesn’t mean it’s wrong for u. This causes founders to pivot constantly bc of contradictory advice

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

I went from $15k/mo to over $30k/mo when I stopped reading all the misinformation, FOMO bait, and bad advice from vibe coder indie hackers

look at my profile and you’ll see I was at $1k/mo in jan. I’ve made over $120k since then.

Get off X and focus. See you at $50k/mo

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@thekitze https://t.co/7FFscYko5n

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

I went from $15k/mo to over $30k/mo when I stopped reading all the misinformation, FOMO bait, and bad advice from vibe coder indie hackers

look at my profile and you’ll see I was at $1k/mo in jan. I’ve made over $120k since then.

Get off X and focus. See you at $50k/mo

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@nikitabier @jacob_posel This is not a strange requirement and everyone here is missing the point.

Apple is saying if you show intent to prompt the user for permissions, then you must prompt the user for permissions.

Even when they tap continue, they will still have the option to deny.

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@coffman_r @jamonholmgren I did this and then realized you can’t use a VM to build native iOS apps. So there are some niche downsides

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@woocassh discounted first use

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

$20k/mo took me <4 months, not 6. whoops

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

I’ll let you know in 6 months

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@athcanft Charge more

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@nikitabier 3-16 hours

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@anulagarwal @jackfriks

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

Updates to my iOS app consistently gets same day app reviews because of one reason

It makes Apple more money

Those of you complaining about review times, does your app have $0 revenue?

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@blakeir A sign of maturity

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

using tiktok as a search engine is the gen z & gen alpha version of googling something and adding “Reddit” at the end

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@birdabo step 1: raise $30 billion in funding

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@thekitze When you can build anything in minutes, the wasted minutes feel devastating. Inaction is driving me crazy.

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

i love when i click remember me when logging in and then on the next visit it completely forgets who i am and sends me an email for unrecognized device

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

@muratworks and spending $80k/mo on ads

[Luke Patterson @xylobylo]

if no one’s complaining about your prices then you’ve priced too low