8 months, dozens of failed apps, one app made $5,290 in 4 days - Im building App Studio

at the start of 2025, I took the biggest risk of my life: I quit my job to become an indie developer. My goal was clear financial freedom. But the journey was way harder than ı imagined.

The first month was amazing. I'd wake up excited, thinking, "what code am ı going to write today?" By the second month, a bit of worry crept in. Money was trickling in but not enough. By the third month, real panic set in.

For 8 months, my daily routine was the same: wake up 8-9 am, code until 1 am coffe shops, home, libraries, sometimes even at 3 am, still glued to the screen. I debugged with tears in my eyes...

During that time, I built dozens of apps: a todo app, sunsafe app, sunglow app, fitness tracker, habbit tracker etc... Each one I launched thinking... "This time it'll work". Most of them got 20-30 downloads a day for the first week. Then disappeared from the App Store.

By the 5. month, even my friends stopped asking abount me. If someone said, "How are u?" I had nothing to say except, "Im working on a new app." birthday parties, weekend plans all gone... My social life was dead.

My family was worried. My mom said, "Honn, this wont work, go back to ur job." My dad quietly started checking job listings for me. Deep down, I know they were right. But ı couldnt give up.

B the end of the seventh mont, I had $400 in my bank account. Rent, bills, food... I could barely last one more month. I couldnt sleep, constantly thinking, "should ı just applt for another job?"

I promised myself one last time. One more app. If this one didnt work, ı'd return to job. This time, I apprıached it diffrently. Instead of something complex, I focused on a simple problem people face every day: converting photos into proper PDFs.

I named it Photo to PDF & JPG to PDF. I kept the interface as simple as possible. Every detail, every button, every animation, I reviewed ten times.

Even getting approved by the app store was stressful. I didnt know what ı'd do if it got rejectet but luckily, it got approved.

On launch day, I had zero expectations. I was tired of dreaming. 50 downloads came in the first day. "Same old story," I thought. The next day 200, the third day 400...

By the 4. day, when I oppened my revune dashboard, I couldnt believe my eyes: $5.290 earned. I closed the screen and reopened it, thinking it must be a mistake. It wasnt... Later, I even gave it away for free to some people on Reddit... and things grew from there...

That night, I finally slept peacefully for the first time in 8 months. The next morning, I called my parents and just said, "It happened."

I can’t even describe how I feel now. I had sacrificed everything for 8 months, fireands, social life, a stable income... gone. But now, for the first time, I feel like financial freedom is actually possible.

Why am I sharing this? Because giving up is easy. But sometimes, all it takes in one app working and ur life can completely change..