Je monte mon app à 10k€/mois (jour 1)

Business goal & context

• Target: €10,000/month MRR from the app Shinkka (launched Oct 2025).
• Core value proposition: help users fight attention addiction (especially social apps) through focus/concentration sessions that gamify time with a companion creature (Shinka) that earns XP, levels up, and evolves.
• Business setup: Cyril runs an app studio (Simple Studio) that builds client apps and monetizes its own apps; Shinkka is the studio’s first app and is being scaled to recurring revenue.

Team / presenters

• Cyril (main speaker; Android/mobile developer, studio founder)
• Yan (co-founder/partner; originally proposed the app idea and continues involvement; appears in the narrative as collaborator)
• Tian (named as a friend involved in the earlier launch / partnership context)

Strategy & scaling approach (playbook)

• ACR framework (explicit):
  • Acquisition: users who download the app
  • Conversion: users who subscribe (premium)
  • Retention: users who keep using (and therefore keep paying)
• Ongoing product test loop: every new feature is evaluated against whether it improves:
  • acquisition,
  • conversion,
  • retention.

Product & marketing initiatives implemented

1) Crowdfunding to accelerate non-dev work + early growth

• Method: crowdfunding campaign (Ulule, participatory campaign / “crowdfunding”).
• Raised goal: €5,000
• Outcome: does not appear to have fully reached the goal (“we hadn’t managed to reach €5000”).
• Contributor count: 45
• Funding intended uses (key constraint logic):
  • Dev already handled internally by the studio, so money mainly used for:
    • design redo (UI/UX overhaul),
    • improving creature look (commissioning a pixel artist + animation),
    • marketing/communication + initial advertising budget.

2) Visual redesign to improve perceived quality & emotional hook

• Initial MVP design: “beige, retro-ish” look; feedback said it didn’t feel professional enough.
• New direction: more digital/glass-like UI, colors blue + green, transparency, modern look.
• Tooling: used Figma to prototype/design the UI system before building.

3) Retention/emotional bonding via “Shinka” animation + personalities

• Creature animation: hired a pixel artist to animate all base Shinkas, turning static visuals into living creatures.
• Personality system: currently 3 starter Shinkas, each with different personality:
  • intended long-term: different dialogue texts + interactions to deepen attachment.
• Design intent: create an emotional link so users return to:
  • start focus sessions,
  • grow/evolve their Shinka.

4) New monetization-supporting feature: Stats page + Pro gating

• Statistics page: added as a new feature (v1; rolled out on Android first, “not even available on iOS yet”).
• Time-range filters: 24h, 7d, 31d, 365d
• Metrics shown (by time frame):
  • experience points earned
  • time spent
  • sessions
• Pro-only analytics expansion: cumulative time + total XP and richer tracking.

Monetization & pricing model (execution details)

Freemium + subscription structure

• Free tier: timer works, but limited features.
• Pro tier (“premium”):
  • timer length limit removed:
    • Free: max 25 minutes
    • Pro: up to 2 hours
  • dark mode (night use)
  • access to premium elements on the Stats page (cumulative progress)

Subscription types & trial mechanics

• Annual subscription: pay once/year → all Pro features.
• Monthly subscription: can be canceled anytime with a one-week trial period.
• Paywall flow includes reminder + trial transparency:
  • reminder that a trial exists and user will be notified before trial end,
  • encouraged to cancel to avoid charges.

Current revenue & growth metrics (explicit KPIs)

• Current MRR: €26 MRR (as of the last 28 days, also shown over the last 12 months).
• Launch date: app released Oct 16 on stores.
• MRR trend: early subscriptions came quickly; after that, few changes until the product overhaul period.
• Important product-change timeline:
  • Early Dec → end of March: “no changes to the product directly”; focus was on design + Shinka art to deliver V1 by end of March.
  • Monetization/metric changes expected from that point onward.

Tooling for monetization analytics

• Revenue4: connects paywalls to App Store / Play Store for concrete revenue data.
• PostHog: used for analytics tracking; speaker explicitly credits it (“Post Hog … it’s a great tool”).
• Environment separation:
  • production environment = real user data
  • dev environment = safe testing without risking production data loss

Onboarding & conversion optimization (core KPI focus)

Onboarding funnel metrics (user drop-off points)

• Total onboarding pages: 17
• Funnel snapshot:
  • 89 users arrived at the Welcome page
  • 7 left between Welcome and introduction (not considered a big concern)

• Major leak identified: the doctor introduction page (explains Shinka origin and feeding on concentration)

  • caused loss of ~20 users
  • attributed to: too much text / people don’t like to read
  • hypothesis: Shinkas appear too late in onboarding; should appear earlier

• Other notable drop-offs:

  • Between username and question: “fairly low numbers” (kept vague; not a major issue)
  • Between focus timer demo and notification:
    • 8 users out of 48
    • described as too many
  • Onboarding “problem feature” / paywall prep screens:
    • loss 15% of people out of 40 who reached the relevant paywall sequence

Paywall conversion issue (actionable insight)

• Observation: the paywall is considered too aggressive.
• User experience problem: “no back button / close boarding” → users feel “trapped” even though the trial/cancel is free.
• Speaker’s plan:
  • make the premium/trial explanation clearer,
  • ensure users feel they can try freely,
  • improve navigation/exit options.

Business insight (explicit benchmark)

• Paywall attribution rule-of-thumb:
  • In premium apps, the first paywall screen displayed after onboarding drives about 80–90% of premium subscriptions.
• Therefore: the biggest near-term task is improving conversion from:
  • welcome screen → paywall reach

Acquisition plan (next execution step)

• Short-form video marketing: launch TikTok (and potentially Instagram) short videos to drive downloads and increase Acquisition.

Retention plan (next execution step)

• New retention feature: Achievements (planned; details saved for next video).
• Continue improving onboarding to improve conversion, but retention is the next priority via achievements.

Concrete recommendations (derived from what they’re doing + identified issues)

• Reduce onboarding text friction:
  • shorten/reshape the “doctor” introduction (people don’t like reading),
  • move the most compelling element (Shinka) earlier in onboarding.
• Fix paywall UX to improve conversion:
  • add/ensure an easy way to exit onboarding without feeling trapped,
  • keep trial/cancellation messaging explicit and easy to understand.
• Improve product stickiness:
  • animate Shinka (already done) and add personality-driven interactions,
  • add “Achievements” to reinforce ongoing usage loops.

Key targets & timelines

• Business target: €10,000/month (MRR).
• Product timeline milestones (historical context):
  • first version released Oct 2025
  • V1 after redesign/art completed by end of March
    • from early Dec → end Mar: no direct product changes
• Feature rollout status:
  • Stats page: released a few days before the video, Android-only at the time.

Presenters / sources

• Presenter: Cyril (speaker; Simple Studio founder; mobile app developer)
• Mentioned collaborators / sources: Yan, Tian
• Tools/platforms referenced:
  • Ulule (crowdfunding)
  • Figma (design)
  • PostHog (analytics)
  • Revenue4 (revenue/paywall analytics)
  • Google Analytics (previously used; replaced/criticized)