Pat Walls

Dumb iPhone apps are the new gold rush

Pat Walls says that of 12 founders he talks to weekly, half are crushing it with iOS apps. Example: a 'push scroll' app forces you to do push-ups before you can open social media.

“This is what, when I talk to 12 founders a week, I'm seeing 6 of them are crushing it with iOS apps. This is where this is coming from. So a couple examples. There's a guys that we interviewed on the channel that have an app that forces you to do push-ups before you can go on social media. Like you scroll, it blocks you, and then you have to put your phone out there and prove that you've done push-ups.”

Steal thisBuild a gimmicky productivity or health app using the iOS screen-time blocking API and market it on TikTok.

Make the viral video before you build the app

The push-up app founders reversed the usual order: they faked a viral TikTok about the app first, and only built it once one of several fake-app videos took off. Validate demand through your actual marketing channel before writing any code.

“they didn't actually build the app first. They created the viral video first. And this is a really cool story that we told is basically they created a video about them having to do push-ups before scrolling. They pretended that the app exists and they showed them having to do push-ups or whatever. And they created a bunch of other videos about other app ideas. This is the one that went viral. And then when it did, it got some hundreds of thousands of views. They went and scrambled to create the app and then it took off.”

Steal thisPost fake demo videos of several app ideas; only build the one that goes viral.

Apps are the new info products

Pat Walls argues mobile apps in health, wealth, relationships, productivity, and self-improvement have replaced info products as the go-to opportunity for solo builders right now.

“Apps are the new info products, I think. So anything in health, wealth, relationships, productivity, self-improvement— these are all great spaces. And the reason why I wanted to share the dumb apps, because they're the most funniest when you think about them. I'm not saying go build a dumb app, but build anything in these sorts of spaces right now.”

Puff Count: a vape-tracking app sold for a lot

A founder built Puff Count, an app that tracks nicotine puffs and gamifies quitting once you hit a low count. He marketed it heavily on TikTok and sold it for a large sum.

“There's a guy that just built an app that helps you track, it was called Puff Count. And I think you just track how many puffs you took. And then once you get to a certain low amount, it sort of gamifies the process of quitting nicotine. That was a cool one. He sold it for a lot of money. And that was a really cool example, did a lot of TikTok.”

AI coding reopened the app window after a decade

Building a good iPhone app used to require a team of four (designer, product, frontend, backend). AI coding tools get you ~95% of the way with a team of zero, making previously uneconomical niche apps viable.

“It's big now because in order to build an iPhone app, you needed to have a team of 4 to build a good iPhone app. You needed a designer, you needed a product person, You need an engineer, probably a backend and a frontend engineer. But with AI coding tools, you can just have an idea. It's not perfect, but it's like 95% of the way there. You can just build it with zero, basically a team of zero.”

Cal AI did $6M in January alone

Pat reports (via X, unverified) that the calorie-tracking app Cal AI, started by a high schooler, did $6 million in January alone, putting it at roughly $70M+ annualized.

“they said they did $6 million in January alone. So $70— what does that put it at? $70-something million.”

Shame is the moat: most won't put their face on camera

Pat argues the biggest video opportunity exists precisely because 99% of people are too scared to put themselves on camera, choosing to write articles or do SEO instead.

“People are afraid to put their— themselves on camera. That's actually why there's one of the biggest opportunities, because 99% of people would rather write an article or, you know, do something with like Google SEO or just do something that doesn't have to put themselves out there and put their face out there. And that's actually why YouTube, I think, will be a huge opportunity because most people are too scared to actually put a camera in front of their face and start yapping.”

Sell YouTube strategy to Fortune 500s for $50-100K/month

Pat describes an agency that builds YouTube teams for giants like Microsoft and Figma, sending them packaging (titles and thumbnails). The B2B video problem is so unsolved that clients pay $50,000-$100,000 a month just for strategy.

“he helps them build YouTube teams and he sends them packaging ideas. Do this title, do this thumbnail, do this title, do this thumbnail because you are Microsoft or some massive company. He charges, like, it's different probably per client, but he's told me some crazy numbers, like $50,000 to $100,000 per month just for YouTube strategy. And that shows you how much B2B— this is a B2B-specific play here— how much they're willing to pay to have this problem solved.”

Steal thisOffer enterprise clients done-for-you YouTube packaging (titles + thumbnails) at premium monthly retainers.

Write a Hollywood 'treatment' before filming any video

Pat builds a pre-production prep doc starting with the package (title + thumbnail), then a 'treatment' borrowed from Hollywood: a sales pitch of why someone would want to watch, written before anything is filmed. You sell the sales page of the script, not the 120-page script.

“And I learned this when I read this production book. It was like Hollywood production book. But when you sell a script in Hollywood, they have what's called a treatment. And it's basically a pitch of a video of why someone will want to watch this video. If you want to sell your script in Hollywood and convince some director to pick it up or whatever happens in Hollywood, you have to sell this. You don't give them the, 120-page script, you sell them the sales page of the script.”

Steal thisWrite a one-paragraph treatment selling why the video should exist before you film it.

Busy people are the biggest losers

Pat, a former Deloitte employee who hated urgency culture, built his company on asynchronous Notion systems with no deadlines or meetings, so he can play tennis at noon while his team works whenever suits them, as long as KPIs are hit.

“Busy people are the biggest losers. I used to be in corporate 9 to 5, and I hated when— I hated urgency culture. I hated getting emails and one-off Slack messages. I worked at Deloitte and you'd get an email and then all of a sudden you're working a deal the whole weekend. I hated that. So I knew that when I started a company, I didn't want to build my business like that at all. I wanted to build it around systems, asynchronous systems, so that I could play tennis every day at noon”

The Think Week drive that doubled Starter Story

Three years in, burnt out and splitting time across projects, Pat drove ~3,000 miles cross-country (a DIY Bill Gates 'Think Week') with no phone. He realized Starter Story, making $8K/month on 20% of his effort, was the real business, sold his $2K/month plugin, went all-in, and doubled revenue the next month.

“I heard about this Think Week by Bill Gates where you go off to a cabin and you just think about stuff. So I couldn't afford a cabin in the woods or anything at that point. And I decided, okay, I'm just gonna go get in my car, I'm gonna drive across the country, and I'm gonna think. Through that process, through that week of not being on the phone, you know, this is no social media, nothing, I couldn't even check my email, I realized that Starter Story was the, was the business I should be going all in on.”

Ego business vs. actual business: follow the money

Pat distinguishes your 'ego business' (the one you think you're supposed to build because you admire others who built it) from your actual business (what's making money and what you're truly good at). Follow the money, not the ego.

“you have your ego business. This is, this is the business you're supposed to build, the business that you look up to other people because they built those, or that's the business that you're supposed to start or whatever. But actually, follow the money. Where, what's making money? What are you truly good at making? What are you meant to build?”

Steal thisAudit your projects: drop the ego business and double down on whatever is already making money.