Imagine a young founder Even launching a mobile app and scaling it to $14,000 per month in only a few months—all without a massive existing audience or expensive paid ads.
That is exactly what a young entrepreneur named Evan achieved with his app, Locked. Featured on a recent episode of Starter Story, Evan completely pulled back the curtain on how he built and marketed his business. Whether you are an aspiring app developer or just love a great hustle story, here are the biggest takeaways from his journey.
🎮 The Product: Making Habit Tracking Fun
Evan noticed that a friend was struggling to stay on task, which sparked a brilliant idea. Instead of building just another boring habit tracker, Evan built Locked—a gamified health and fitness app.
When users onboard, they choose a character, earn XP for completing tasks, unlock badges, and compete on leaderboards. It even features a highly unique "motivational screen" where users are essentially yelled at by an influencer to stop living in comfort.
The Business Model: The app charges $40 per year or $7 per week. However, Evan uses a clever monetization trick: if a user tries to exit the main paywall, they are hit with a "transaction abandoned" paywall offering a discounted rate of just $20 per year.
💻 The Tech Stack: Built in 1.5 Months
Thanks to the rise of AI tools, building an app is faster than ever. Evan and his team went from idea to the App Store in just a month and a half.
Here is exactly how they built it:
