Steven Profile picture
Jan 12, 2022 9 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Here’s how a mobile game I built 5 years ago suddenly got blown up by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Jimmy Fallon.

👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 ImageImageImageImage
I built an app called Wordle when I was 18 mostly for fun, to sharpen my coding skillz, and maybe make a quick buck. It didn’t quite take off like my previous app, Grid, did. So after a few months and ~100k total downloads, I stopped updating and promoting the app.
It’s user growth slowly declined to 1-2 downloads a day for the past 4 years…. Until 1 week ago when I logged into my dashboard and was SHOOK at what I saw Image
I figured someone ran a bot script and artificially sent downloads to the wrong app or something. But after a quick google search I realized I was very wrong. As it turns out the very talented developer @powerlanguish created an amazing in browser game called Wordle.
It caught traction and soon major publications started running articles about his Wordle game, but none of them clearly specified that this was an ‘internet browser’ only game, so naturally people went to the AppStore to search Wordle. Low and behold, those people
came across my app, also conveniently named Wordle. My Wordle app has gotten 200,000 downloads in the past 7 days and its not even slowing down yet. I reached out to @powerlanguish to see if we could donate the proceeds I have gotten. Image
I figured we could turn this very strange, once in a lifetime scenario and make it something amazing! Any suggestions on where this money should go would be much appreciated! Preferably a literacy focused non profit / organization.
If you enjoyed this thread please consider giving me a follow and checking out my latest mobile app: PuffCount.com
Can confirm that @powerlanguish and I have decided to donate the proceeds to @BoostOakland! Very excited to support such an amazing program that focuses on literacy for youth! We feel the money will make a real impact here!

Will keep you all updated throughout this process!

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More from @StevenCravotta

Jun 19
I built an app, hit $44K MRR, and sold it.

Here’s the exact tool stack to scale without a big team: Image
When building an app, you have different stages and different tools.

Let me walk you through each phase, showing the tools I use:
Phase 1: Research

This is where you come up with the idea for your app.

People love to skip this, so let me make this clear:

Do not skip the Research Phase, here’s why:
Read 18 tweets
Jun 5
Most people think building an app costs lots of money.

But what if I told you you can create an app for under $1,000?

I’ve done it, and I’m sharing the exact process.
I started at 16 with $1,000, no coding skills, and zero experience.

If I can do it, so can you.

Let’s break it down:
There are three methods to build an app on a budget:

1: Acquire an existing app
2: Reskin an app template

Both are super simple, cost-effective, and you can do them as a beginner

Here’s how:
Read 18 tweets
May 26
If your onboarding sucks, your app won't make any money.

I exited 2 mobile apps at 27 because I mastered onboarding.

Steal my $45k MRR onboarding flow:
An onboarding flow is the first experience users have with your app.

So it should turn visitors into paying customers.

Let's start with the first screen:
First, there is a “congratulations screen”

You are reaffirming the good decision your user made.

After this, I have a long onboarding flow by design.

So let’s break it down step by step:
Read 11 tweets
May 9
How I built a $40k/month onboarding flow:

The key is introducing 'positive friction' Image
An onboarding flow is the first experience users have with your app.

My onboarding flow allowed me to turn more visitors into paying customers.

Here is my 40k/mo onboarding flow breakdown:
First, there is a “congratulations screen”

We are reaffirming the good decision that the user made.

After this, we have a pretty long onboarding flow by design

So let’s break it down step by step:
Read 10 tweets
Apr 28
I built an app, hit $44K MRR, and sold it.

Here’s the exact tool stack to scale without a big team: Image
When building an app, you have different stages and different tools.

Let me walk you through each phase, showing the tools I use:
Phase 1: Research

This is where you come up with the idea for your app.

People love to skip this, so let me make this clear:

Do not skip the Research Phase, here’s why:
Read 18 tweets
Mar 12
This Bible App Makes $250K/Month

Bible Chat was #1 in Reference with 1M monthly downloads and $250K MRR.

Let's break down their strategy: Image
1. Daily TikTok = Unlimited Views

Bible Chat dropped in May 2023 and hasn’t missed a day since.

Their main account @biblechatapp has racked up 110M+ views but here’s the thing:
@biblechatapp 90%+ of these views are paid.

They boosted a single video to 80.9M views
Organic + paid = a deadly combo.

I used the same strategy to scale Puff Count to $40k MRR (now acquired) Image
Read 10 tweets

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