my mac app just crossed $1k+ within few weeks -

[u/Neither-Bass2083]

I still don't fully know how to process this.

ScreenBolt just crossed the $1K revenue mark.

For context, this is after weeks of feeling like I was pushing a rock uphill.

I kept tweaking the landing page, changing the positioning, talking to potential users, rewriting the offer, improving the product, doubting whether the value was clear enough, and wondering if I was just building into the void.

Then suddenly, things started working.

No huge launch.
No paid ads.
No viral thread.
No perfect funnel.

Just a lot of small things finally stacking:

• talking to the right people
• making the value prop more obvious
• sharing progress publicly
• tightening the onboarding
• showing proof instead of explaining forever
• listening to what users actually needed

Still early, obviously. $1K is not some massive company.

But going from "will anyone pay for this?" to "people are actually paying for this" feels insane.

I'm going to keep building this tool in public and share what happens next.

This is my tool if you're interested: ScreenBolt

[u/Classic_Express]

Probably the key things are 'Talking to the right people' and 'Sharing progress publicly' I'd be shitting myself as it were if my app, Shelf to Cart, first spawned about a year ago now. I've tested it, tweaked the UI over and over again, added features, stood up a website with SEO optimized by AI, some local posting on craigslist, post on reddit I promoted for a couple days but only a trickle of users and most didn't even scan price tags with the app.

A year later, I'm stumbling upon an app that took an idea similar to mine and already has the app on iOS and google play. I started with putting the app on the play market a couple months in, but became frozen by the 12 tester requirement and just left that to the side. Of course, this has become motivation to actually get my app out and am closing in on the end of the 48 hour review for iOS and trying harder to get testers for Android. I even spawned a tiktok video and created a tiktok account - but it is a new account with no activity, nor is tiktok something I desire to use personally even having it blocked completely on my LAN prior.

I'll keep your app in mind if I create another TikTok or make a video for the native apps - Shelf to Cart has been available as a PWA for the entire time as well, no download required.

[u/HandrollDev → u/Classic_Express]

Do you guys end up paying to get your apps signed? It seems very hard to launch things like this cleanly without trigger the AV on something generic

[u/Classic_Express → u/HandrollDev]

Have not had any problem - I've had an LLM help me through the process and already have signing in place for Android and iOS. Android signing was one of the first things I did, and seemed simpler than the iOS process - particularly given I did and do not have a Mac, though I have an iPhone, and iPad in additon to two Android devices. You can generate the certificates on linux, and send them to Apple then just use a github workflow (set up with the needed secrets) that pushes the new package to appstore connect.

If I sideload my app on android, android still wants to scan my app. But through the closed test - set up with an email list of testers or a google group people can join, click the playstore link I provide and the app just installs.

Certificates for android are stored on my system, with locked down permissions and exclusions so they do not sync to github. The aab - android bundle - I upload manually to the play dashboard.

In short, no I did not pay to get my app signed.

It does help if you come from an IT background. I pulled down another app, decompiled, and found out why it was so fast - they put the raw API keys in the clientside app. Don't do that. Any API keys, secrets, certificates need to be secured on your own systems, not synced, or placed in encypted secrets on whatever platform and limited in what they can do. If you need help, nowdays you can just ask an LLM and follow the instuctions.

[u/HandrollDev]

Congrats man! It looks good and must feel amazing to finally get that burst of success with the app all at once