From zero to $800K: How one founder built a top app store hit by studying TikTok comments

Louis spent years building mobile apps that went nowhere. His pattern was familiar: come up with an idea, build the whole thing, then start marketing—only to get zero users. He cycled through one failed app after another. Then he tried something different. Instead of building first, he started with content. He studied what people were already asking for on TikTok, made videos about it, and only wrote code after he had proof the idea would work. The result was Lua, a makeup app that hit number one in the App Store's lifestyle category and generated $800,000 in its first year.

Finding the idea by reading comments, not guessing

The breakthrough came from a simple shift in method. Earlier apps were built for Louis himself—he had an idea and assumed others would want it. For Lua, he started with the market instead. He and his co-founder noticed the makeup niche was enormous on TikTok, so they began watching makeup videos and reading the comment sections closely.