AfterMVP
How Monai grew

Monai growth strategy

AI-powered voice-input expense tracking app for mobile (iOS)

get-monai.app By Flo
MRR $35k
Users —
Stage Growing
Category Consumer SaaS
Starter Story How This App Makes $35K/Month
Growth roadmap

10 moves, in order

  1. Pre launch / Build
    App Store — organic

    Built the first working version of Monai in 1–2 months, deliberately shipping fast to get real-world feedback. Embedded his social media handles inside the app so creators or users could find and contact him.

    App live and iterated continuously; social handles in-app later directly led to influencer outreach
  2. First 1.5 years (solo)
    Organic self driven

    Attempted to grow the app independently without a defined distribution channel. Iterated on the product, tested pricing models (premium vs. free trial), and ran A/B tests via RevenueCat.

    Reached $300 MRR after ~18 months — minimal traction
    MRR $300
  3. Influencer Discovery
    Inbound influencer outreach

    A large Colombian content creator (lifestyle/tech audience) discovered Monai organically via the social handles embedded in the app and reached out directly to Flo to propose a collaboration.

    Initiated partnership negotiation; Flo had strong leverage since the creator came inbound
  4. Partnership Structure
    Influencer partnership profit share

    Negotiated a deal structure: fixed monthly retainer plus a percentage of profits (not revenue). This gave the creator skin in the game — incentivizing high-quality, story-driven content rather than transactional video delivery. Creator owns video ideation and production; Flo owns the product.

    Sustainable, aligned long-term partnership with 3 high-quality videos/month
  5. First Influencer Video (end of 2024)
    YouTube influencer

    Creator posted a simple app walkthrough video to his main channel (Colombian lifestyle/tech audience). It was the audience's first exposure to the concept of AI-powered expense tracking.

    10x MRR within one week; ~$8K MRR within one month (from $300)
    MRR $8.0k
  6. Second Influencer Video
    YouTube influencer

    Creator posted a second short story-driven video about the app.

    +$5K MRR boost, reaching ~$13K MRR
    MRR $13k
  7. Apple WWDC Feature (June 2025)
    YouTube influencer

    Apple invited Flo and the creator to participate in WWDC together, creating a compelling narrative story. Creator built a story-driven video around this milestone.

    1.7 million views; +~$5K MRR
  8. Latest Video / $35K milestone
    YouTube influencer

    Creator made a story-driven video around a highly requested new feature, framing it as a product evolution narrative.

    Pushed MRR to over $35K
    MRR $35k
  9. Monetization Optimization
    A b testing paywall

    Used RevenueCat to A/B test paywall models. Tested freemium/premium against a hard paywall with a 7-day free trial. Hard paywall with trial won definitively.

    Improved conversion rate; adopted hard paywall as permanent model
  10. Recent Expansion
    Meta paid ads

    Repurposed the influencer's high-quality story-driven videos as creatives for Meta ads. Started running paid ads only a few weeks before the interview.

    Early positive results reported; described as a missed opportunity they wish they'd started sooner
MRR progression — $300 → $35k

How Monai got its first 100 users

Flo built the first version of Monai in roughly one to two months, shipping fast to avoid the mistake of his previous app which took two years and launched to no audience. He added his social media handles directly inside the app — a move he calls foundational — which is ultimately how the key influencer partner discovered him organically. Beyond that, for the first year and a half he attempted to grow the app largely on his own without a clear distribution channel, reaching only $300 MRR. There is no detailed description in the transcript of specific tactics used to get the very first users (e.g., a specific Reddit post, App Store launch, or social campaign). The transcript implies the early user base was small and organic, likely driven by App Store discoverability and minimal social presence, but no concrete actions are described for the first 100 users specifically.

Monai's unfair advantage

Flo had a strong mobile UX and iOS development background (former mobile UX lead), allowing him to ship a polished, well-designed product quickly. However, the primary unfair advantage in scaling was that a large Colombian content creator organically discovered the app through Flo's social handles embedded in the app and reached out first — giving Flo significant negotiating leverage and a pre-validated creative partner.

The channel that scaled Monai

influencer_partnership_profit_share

What didn't work for Monai

Solo growth efforts over the first ~1.5 years yielded only $300 MRR — no single channel is named explicitly as a failure, but the implication is that organic/self-driven distribution (without influencer leverage) simply didn't scale. Flo also mentions he was slow to start Meta ads, which he now considers a missed opportunity — they only started experimenting with paid ads recently and saw early positive results.

Watch the original

How This App Makes $35K/Month

Starter Story

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