The 28-App Portfolio: How One Developer Built a $10K/Month Side Business by Shipping Fast

Max is a full-time iOS engineer, father of two, and the creator of 28 simple mobile apps that now generate $10,000 in monthly revenue. Eight months ago, he was making $200 a month from a single pet project he had been trying to grow for years. Then he watched a video by Adam Slightless that changed his entire approach: instead of pouring all his effort into one app, he would ship dozens of them quickly and let the market decide which ones worked. "I have a record one app I've built in two hours," he says. The result is a portfolio where four apps each bring in around $1,500 a month, and the rest contribute smaller amounts—a textbook 80/20 distribution.

How to Find App Ideas That Actually Make Money

Max doesn't guess what users want. He uses ASO (App Store Optimization) tools to find keywords with proven demand. His main source is a tool called Astro, where he picks a category and looks for keywords with at least 20% popularity and 60-70% difficulty. Then he checks the top competitors using Sensor Tower or similar tools to estimate their monthly revenue. His benchmark: at least €100-200 per month from the top app. If the market can't support that, he moves on.