My mobile app made $800K in 365 days | Starter Story

Louis, a Canadian software engineer, built and launched a makeup app called Glow Up as a side project. Within a year, it generated $800,000 in revenue, hit 2 million total users, and reached #1 in the App Store’s Lifestyle category. The app lets users try on AI-generated makeup looks and charges $9.99 per week or $39.99 per year. The striking part of the story is not the technical build—it is how Louis found the idea and validated demand before writing a single line of code, a method he developed after building roughly 10 apps that all failed.

Finding the idea by reading TikTok comments

Louis’s earlier apps failed because he built them for himself, finished them, and only then tried to market them. He realized this was backward. For Glow Up, he and his co-founder started by studying the makeup niche on TikTok. They looked at the biggest hashtags in the category—makeup is one of the largest on the platform—and then read the comment sections under popular videos. The comments revealed what people actually wanted: help finding the right makeup look and the specific products to buy, without having to purchase and test products themselves. Instead of guessing, Louis used the comment section as a free focus group. He began creating content around the idea of “get your makeup look and the products you need” before building anything. The content got traction, which gave him confi