[JOURNEY] Building iOS Apps 5000$/month MRR

**From BlackHat to building something I can actually keep.**

Been in IM for ~14 years. Last 5 freelancing as a dev — reversing, automation, browser/Android/iOS (root/JB), all of it. I'm done with the BlackHat/GreyHat grind. I want something long-term that I can scale by pushing traffic, not something that dies every time a platform sneezes.

So here's the plan, and I'm logging it publicly to keep myself honest.

**The goal:** $5,000 MRR as a hard floor. I'm giving myself **24 months**.

**The play:** A portfolio of small iOS apps monetized with subscriptions (RevenueCat), promoted mainly by reuploading/creating viral TikTok + IG Reels. Speed and volume over perfection — ship fast, validate, kill or scale.

**The stack:**
- Claude Code ($100/mo) — my dev co-pilot, since iOS/Swift is new to me
- Mac Mini M1 8GB/256GB — too small, I know. I'll push it as far as it goes; if it becomes the bottleneck I'll grab an M4 24GB/512GB
- Apple Developer Account ($99/yr)

**Traffic:** mostly TikTok/IG Reels. I plan to make the videos myself. I'm bad at it right now — that's part of what I'm here to learn.

**Where I'm starting from:** solid dev background, but iOS/Swift/SwiftUI is brand new to me. So expect a real learning curve in the first weeks. I'd rather show the messy start than fake a highlight reel.

I'll update this every week — what I planned, what I actually shipped, and what slowed me down (the 8GB Mac is going to be a recurring character).

Let's see if a tired BlackHatter can go legit and hit $5k MRR in 2 years. Following along welcome.

---

## How this log works

- I plan the week on **Monday/Tuesday**: what I want to get done.
- The same file recaps the **previous week**: what actually got done + blockers.
- One file per week, grouped by year.


### 2026
- [Week 22] — Start of the journey: learn SwiftUI, app structure, test 8GB Mac limits


---

I will try use all @nakamura knowledge as case study, so keep thumbs - it's long process to become dedicated to one thing for so long - BECOME BETTER 1% EVERYDAY.

Following you good luck with your journey

Im on a similar journey and let me tell you. Distribution should be your #1 priority. For me what works now is tiktok, haven't even expanded to other channels because I work a full time job and between that and my app it takes a lot of time. But if it wasn’t for tiktok my app would be dead right now. I dont believe in ASO.

Good luck!

darkblitzrc said:

Im on a similar journey and let me tell you. Distribution should be your #1 priority. For me what works now is tiktok, haven't even expanded to other channels because I work a full time job and between that and my app it takes a lot of time. But if it wasn’t for tiktok my app would be dead right now. I dont believe in ASO.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Yea I don't even want focus on ASO, only find basic kwords and input them (just as it should be - when app growing) it can be extra income.
I've build own Appium/iOS Manager to write macros and bulk manage 10-20 iphones same time. So I hope TT/IG repost should be easy.

I have same issue, got full time job ..

Did you buy @nakamura's ebook, or did you already know how to develop apps? I want to start a similar project too but have no idea where to begin. Been waiting for his new ebook and it still hasn't dropped… sigh.

kong888 said:

Did you buy @nakamura's ebook, or did you already know how to develop apps? I want to start a similar project too but have no idea where to begin. Been waiting for his new ebook and it still hasn't dropped… sigh.

Click to expand...

Nope, I just read his thread, analyzed, noted everything, most important informations, and let's start .. learn by doing (that's why I gave myself 24months)

obik69 said:

Nope, I just read his thread, analyzed, noted everything, most important informations, and let's start .. learn by doing (that's why I gave myself 24months)

Click to expand...

Okay, maybe I should create a SaaS post tomorrow to keep track of the progress.

following and good luck

Good luck on your journey!

losing week 22, opening week 23. This one was less about code and more about what's going on in my head.

## Recap — week 22 (the honest version)
Week 22 was a grind — but mostly an internal one. The hard part wasn't the code, it was my own mind: looping for days trying to pick the "perfect" niche, chasing something flawless, then talking myself out of every idea — *"this makes no sense", "this won't work"*. The self-doubt got bad enough to give me actual stomach pain. That's what stepping out of the comfort zone looks like for me: a fight with myself.

In the end I stopped overthinking and committed to an app idea that solves a real problem I actually deal with (and probably most people do too). Not the "perfect" idea — a real one I'll actually ship.

On the technical side: went through the SwiftUI basics with Claude. Even just mapping the differences between Node and Swift made the code finally click for me.

Blocker carried into week 23: I still haven't properly tested the Simulator or learned how to test an app end to end.

## Plan — week 23
- [ ] Finish the app I just started
- [ ] Properly learn the Simulator + how to test apps (carried from W22)
- [ ] Set up 5 fresh TikTok accounts — 1 per iPhone
- [ ] Make videos for the app — a different angle per account
- [ ] Read 1 chapter a day

## Mindset — the real work
Had a long talk with a friend (@lucky.sparks) who's been straight with me for years — he's the reason I started coding in Node.js and got my skills to where they are. Skills, yes. Money, not yet. He called out things I need to change, and I'm writing them down to hold myself to them:

- **Believe in myself.** Stop downplaying it — no more *"I'm a newbie / unprofessional / unskilled"*. Always look for the solution instead.
- **Stop being rude** and dropping inappropriate jokes.
- **Never be impressed by money.**
- **Stop complaining.**

And @lucky.sparks will probably fill in the ones I forget — or the uncomfortable ones I'd rather not bring up myself.

This will be hard, because emotions run me — fear of failure, reactions to success. I catch myself predicting failure before I even start. The goal for week 23 is to let it ride and see where it takes me, instead of killing it in my head first. Some nights I plan it all out, and by morning the old shit is back like a boomerang.

## Reading (mindset fuel)
Keeping it to 2 books for now — 1 chapter a day is enough:
- *How to Win Friends and Influence People* — Dale Carnegie
- *$100M Leads* — Alex Hormozi (just ordered, $25)

## Notes
- The real boss fight right now is emotions, not Swift.
- Pattern to break: deciding something will fail before giving it a chance.
- Reality check: I've got a side-hustle freelance client meetup this week on top of the full-time engineering job — so time is tight. Fingers crossed I deliver on the plan.
- Spend this week: 1 book ordered ($25).

See ya next Sunday.

Please use your brain when you copy from ChatGPT, atleast remove markdown formatation...

OptimumGuy said:

Please use your brain when you copy from ChatGPT, atleast remove markdown formatation...

Click to expand...

I've write dirty notes every day, and then claude put it to one format, so its easier to read for you not for me. And I use ## in coding header comment title fyi. Claude just fix grammar/spelling, and sort out everything to one template I've build (structurizing my work, otherwise it will be mess thread - still I think it is).

Hey, hope it works out!

Following you

im in same journey - just not putting it here.
Why not start with Goolge Play? its cheaper to test the app $25, intead of apple 99?

Dont you think posting ur app and just leav it on App store will grab users? why the force to advertise...just curious

Interesting to see how this goes.
Recently I saw everybody with a claude subscription is basically doing the same thing.
Try to push out many apps, promote them via organic, genAI videos on social platforms.
There is so much competition that it will be hard to be successful unless you have a solid plan or big budget for advertising.
Most reports of those people say they earn below $2k MRR after a while at most.

Keep it in mind and push through!

EDIT: I saw most apps make 80% revenue on iOS so developing on Android doesn't really make sense to me unless you use a framework that lets you deploy it easily to android as well.

AllOutAnime said:

EDIT: I saw most apps make 80% revenue on iOS so developing on Android doesn't really make sense to me unless you use a framework that lets you deploy it easily to android as well.

Click to expand...

why? if u have premium version, meaning they buying subs. or one time payment, why not have 2 channcels than only 1? not all users are IOS users, i have many friends that has android too..

what's new, how it's going, where progress report?

Closing week 23, opening week 24.

Short one this time. Freelance kinda took over my whole week.

Week 23​

• Got a decent amount done on app #1:
  • main screen,
  • daily tracking + history,
  • stats screen with different time ranges,
  • themes system (a couple free, the rest behind a paywall — finally something that's actually monetizable),
  • custom app icon.
• Had a client meeting about a freelance project — basically building an iPhone farm SaaS. Can't really share much yet since it's under NDA.
• Most of the week went into client work though, so progress on my own app slowed down quite a bit.
• Still fixing random bugs that pop up while building.

Current blockers​

• Hardware. I still don't have a personal iPhone to test on. The Simulator is fine until it isn't — notifications, keyboard, overall feel... it's just not the same. I do have around 10 devices from the farm, but they're all tied to the client's developer account, so I can't really use them.
• Focus split. Freelance pays the bills, but my own app is what I actually want to build. Time is the bottleneck.

Week 24 plan​

• Keep pushing app #1 towards release and kill the bugs I'm finding.
• Figure out what to do with the client project.
• Keep reading — one chapter a day.

What's on my mind​

Still second-guessing the app sometimes, but the plan stays the same: the first one has to ship. No endless tweaking.

Been watching a lot of indie dev / startup success stories on YouTube too, mostly looking for ideas and trying not to overthink everything.

The bigger question is whether I should keep working with this client. Saying yes probably means another ~6 months locked in, and honestly I'm not sure the upside is there.

Lots of doubts lately, but I guess that's just part of building stuff.

Reading​

$100M Leads by Alex Hormozi — 48 pages in.

See you next Sunday

this is the kind of transition that makes sense — moving from short-term tactics into something you can actually keep. small subscription apps can be powerful if you find the right pain point, but the hard part is not development alone. it's distribution, retention, and finding users who actually care enough to pay. the weekly structure is smart. with a 24-month target, consistency will matter more than any single app idea.