This guy makes $3M/year from 20 different projects | Starter Story

John Rush spent a decade working for venture-capital-backed startups before realizing he was unhappy and bored. So he did something that looks reckless from the outside: he quit, became a solo founder, and started building apps. Three years later, he runs over 20 different projects that collectively generate about $3 million per year in revenue. On this episode of Starter Story, Rush walks through the exact process he uses to generate ideas, validate them before writing code, and operate a portfolio of businesses without burning out.

The operating system: validation before code

Rush’s core principle is that he never builds anything until he has paying customers. This is not a slogan—it is a hard rule. Before writing a single line of code, he creates a landing page that describes the product, its features, and its pricing. Then he drives traffic to that page, usually through small ad buys or organic posts in relevant communities. If people click the buy button—even though the product does not exist yet—he collects their email and tells them the product is coming. If nobody clicks, he kills the idea immediately.