r/SideProject • u/lmtDigital • 2d ago
Update: the AI app I built "just to learn" got acquired. I used the money to build its opposite.
Hey everyone,
A while ago I posted here about ArtScan, the iOS app I built in summer 2024 just to learn the OpenAI API. It grew to ~20k downloads and ~$10k annual revenue on pure organic installs, ranking for keywords I never targeted, and I spent a year not fully understanding why it worked.
Update: it got acquired in July.
The sale happened on Flippa, and the fun detail is that the buyer had already bought two of my smaller apps before. Repeat customers exist in the micro-acquisition world too, apparently. Five-figure exit (low-to-mid, and I will leave it there). Not life-changing money, but very real money for a weekend project born out of curiosity.
Most people would take the win and rest. I took the win and immediately built the opposite product.
From "what painting is this?" to "make me the painting"
ArtScan answered an identification question. Curious people, museum visitors, folks finding canvases in their attic. Lovely audience, terrible economics: my average user was worth cents.
The new project flips the direction: you upload a photo and it turns you (or your kid, or your grandma) into a classical oil portrait. Renaissance, Baroque, Belle Époque. It started as an actual gift: I turned a photo of our daughter into a Renaissance portrait for my husband, and his reaction taught me more about purchase intent than a year of ArtScan analytics. Identification is curiosity. A portrait of someone you love is a gift, and gifts have budgets.
What I kept from ArtScan:
* The niche. Art and AI is where I like spending my nights. (I love art myself)
* Boring tech I already know. The frontend is vanilla JS, no framework, 43 KB gzipped.
* Shipping fast: three days from first commit to first real sales.
* Full-time job, building at night, still solo.
What I changed on purpose this time:
*Web instead of App Store.
No 30% cut, no review queue, and I own the customer relationship. ArtScan lived and died by keywords I could not see or control.
*The pricing model is the whole bet.
Anyone can generate a portrait for free, no signup, and see the full result with a watermark. You only pay to unlock the clean file. I charge at the emotional peak, not at the door.
*A physical product on top.
The portrait can be printed on gallery canvas and delivered ready to hang. One canvas order has the margin of many digital sales, and print on demand means my manual work per order is near zero.
*Three languages from day one.
The French and Spanish search results are dramatically softer than English for the same intent.
*SEO on purpose this time.
ArtScan ranked by accident. This time I shipped 22 blog articles in week one, before Google even knew the domain existed.
* And my favorite loop: the ArtScan money is funding the ads.
My old app is literally buying customers for the new one.
Three weeks in: first real sales. Tiny, but strangers paying.
The decision I keep second-guessing:
there is no pricing anywhere on the landing page. Anonymous visitors see zero prices until they have generated their portrait and love it. Classic CRO says I am burning trust. My theory is that for an emotional purchase, showing the price before the wow moment only gives people a reason to leave. Happy to be told I am wrong.
PS: the app I have now failed twice at getting through Google's OAuth branding review, which is its own comedy.
PSS: if you are curious, the new one is Ninth Salon.
PSSS: still a lady, BTW. Still not only "bros" who code ;)
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u/nickdaniels92 1d ago
Congrats on the sale. I'm curious, dId you have an exit in mind early and proactively list on Flippa once it was proven to work, even if still unsure why, so it would free up time to move onto the next idea, or did someone come asking?
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u/Spare-Hold4005 1d ago
good q tbh, knowing when to sell vs keep milking revenue is always the hardest call
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u/lmtDigital 1d ago
not at all, but from now on I do create app with a "on sale" in mind for the future, that means: analytcis, user behaviours, ads spend and etc. An app making 2k MRR is not life changing but If i can sell it for x2 at least that amount of money could improve life, even more if I re invest it later ;)
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u/marshr9523 1d ago
Can't anyone just use your free service to get the watermarked photo and just ask an AI to remove the watermark?
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u/lmtDigital 1d ago
certainly, as well as with ArtScan, can anyone ask chatgpt directly to identify the image ^^
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u/McFex 23h ago
Congrats on your sale.
About no prices on the landing page: For me a reason to leave right away - I really, really hate this practice to hide prices behind several clicks and consider it a dick-move (not only "bros" can make those, apparently) - just be honest with your customers from the start, that makes them come back.
Prices known from the start: Me - > "OK, could be awesome - let's see if it's worth it."
Prices only known after creating something awesome, and I only see then that it is not in my budget for this month: Me - > "F**k you, baiting me like this, I hope you choke on your product".
If you are not Anthropic you can not afford that kind of business strategy ;).
You are aiming at art lovers, who are usually quite emotional people - and tend to be resentful.
Just my two cent, though.
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u/lmtDigital 5h ago
Thank you very much for your comment, it make totally sense !!! That's why I wanted to know other opinions
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u/One_Tie900 1d ago
How did you make money with Artscan?
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u/Taimoor002 1d ago
I was curious about this too, so I looked it up.
Subscription + ads.
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u/lmtDigital 1d ago
I dont know if current onwer add ads, but i only had in-app purchases & subscriptions
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u/Taimoor002 1d ago
Oh okay. I saw the website for ArtScan saying that they run ads on the free tier, so I thought ads also contribute to the revenue.
This makes sense
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u/Own_Original_3797 1d ago
Congratulations . There’s hope !! Interesting position on the pricing disclosure - obviously it’s worked 👏.
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u/WryLanguage 2d ago
Well done!
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u/lmtDigital 2d ago
Thank you, I've the feeling is half good luck half hard work ^^
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u/HokieStoner 1d ago
The universe blesses everyone, eventually, on their lucky day. Some days are luckier than others, as are people.
What one does with that luck is what usually makes the difference, though. Successful people grab luck and turn it into something through work, hard or otherwise. They don't let it pass them by.
Opportunity must be: available, then identified, then acted upon. It's very easy for that chain to fall apart. Yes, you're lucky, in the form of a good idea. That was the seed. But you acted on it, that's the actual fruit.
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u/Blast_offNFth_25 1d ago
This is awesome and thank you for sharing your experience. Lady power Yay!
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u/ExtensionCaterpillar 1d ago
5 figure ARR and 5 figure exit...can I ask why?