How I Built a $10000 App with AI and Changed My Life

Bursting with curiosity, I embarked on a wild mission ten months ago to craft a mobile app from nothing, despite never having touched app development before in my life.

That journey led me to a place I couldn’t have dreamed of—my creation now sits proudly on the App Store, quietly stacking up passive income and reshaping my world in ways that still leave me speechless.

Picture this: a guy with no coding know-how, fueled by a mix of grit and caffeine, pulling all-nighters to bring an idea to life.

Sure, I didn’t end up buying a Lamborghini or jetting off to Mars (let’s keep it real), but what I did pull off was a sleek fitness app that uses artificial intelligence to whip up meal plans, design workouts, and track progress.

It’s not just an app—it’s my proof that anyone with a spark of determination can build something valuable, even without a tech degree.

Today, I’m spilling the whole story, walking you through every sweaty step of designing, building, monetizing, deploying, and marketing this thing while juggling a full-time job.

Trust me, it wasn’t a cakewalk, but the payoff? Totally worth it.

Here’s how I turned a crazy hunch into a life-altering reality.

We strongly recommend that you check out our guide on how to take advantage of AI in today’s passive income economy.

The Spark That Started It All

Back in the day, I was just a college football receiver with a dream—an idea for an app tailored to my position, something to help players like me level up.

Problem was, I had zero clue how to turn that vision into code, so it sat dormant, scribbled in a notebook, collecting dust for two whole years.

Frustration gnawed at me every time I thought about it—why couldn’t I just make this happen?

Then one day, I stumbled across Bravo Studio, a no-code tool that promised to breathe life into my designs without me needing to write a single line of tech gibberish.

I fired up Figma, a design platform I’d heard about, and started sketching out screens—clunky at first, but they had potential.

With Bravo, I imported those designs and watched them morph into a functional front end, complete with buttons that actually clicked and pages that flowed.

I even hooked it up to a basic database, feeling like a wizard as data started popping onto the screen.

But here’s the catch: Bravo had limits, and my grand vision started bumping up against them fast.

Hitting Walls and Switching Gears

Those limits in Bravo Studio weren’t just annoyances—they were roadblocks that stopped me from adding the features I really wanted, like AI-driven workout plans.

Plus, it wasn’t free, and as a guy bootstrapping this dream, every dollar counted.

I took a step back, staring at my half-baked app, and thought, “Maybe it’s time to stop leaning on crutches and learn to walk on my own.”

Mid-2023 rolled around, and I dove headfirst into coding, fueled by a stubborn streak and a flood of online resources.

I devoured blogs, scrolled through forums, and fell down rabbit holes on platforms like Reddit, piecing together the basics of app development.

React Native kept popping up as the go-to for cross-platform apps—meaning I could hit both iOS and Android with one codebase—so I picked it over its rival, Flutter.

What sealed the deal was React Native Snack, a tool that let me tinker with code right in my browser, no complicated setup required.

I built my first tiny app there, a little sandbox victory that had me grinning like a kid with a new toy.

Leveling Up with Real Tools

Snack was fun, but as I dreamed bigger—think backends and APIs—it couldn’t keep up.

That’s when I rolled up my sleeves and set up a proper development environment, a rite of passage that felt like assembling a spaceship with no manual.

Enter Cursor, a game-changer that brought AI right into my coding space, like having a genius sidekick whispering fixes and suggestions as I typed.

With Cursor’s chatbot humming beside my code, I hammered out a finance app over six months, layering in complexity while balancing my 9-to-5 grind.

Everything hummed along perfectly in testing—smooth screens, snappy responses, no hiccups.

I felt invincible, like I’d cracked the code to this app-building thing.

Then I deployed it to the App Store, and boom—it crashed hard, leaving me staring at a brick wall of defeat.

All that work, and I couldn’t even pinpoint why it was failing in the wild.

Crashing, Burning, and Rising Again

That crash wasn’t just a glitch—it was a gut punch that had me questioning everything, especially since I’d poured nights and weekends into this for half a year.

I’d stay up until dawn, bleary-eyed, tweaking code after clocking out from my day job, only to see it crumble once it hit real users.

Exhausted and fed up, I nearly threw in the towel—why was I torturing myself like this?

But something clicked at the start of 2024: I wasn’t done yet, and that fitness app idea from my football days deserved a shot.

I scrapped everything, grabbed a pen and paper, and sketched out every feature I wanted—meal plans, workout generators, a logbook—until my notebook overflowed with ideas.

Planning became my lifeline; those detailed flowcharts and backend diagrams gave me a roadmap when I’d had none before.

Feedback stung—friends didn’t hold back—but I swallowed it, tweaked my designs, and kept pushing.

This time, I vowed to build it right, step by careful step, with AI as my trusty co-pilot.

Building the Fitness App, Brick by Brick

React Native and Expo became my foundation—flexible, powerful, and perfect for a solo rookie like me.

I leaned hard on ChatGPT and Cursor, feeding them chunks of my plan and watching them spit out code snippets I could stitch together.

AI didn’t magically build the whole app (don’t believe the hype)—it was more like a turbocharged assistant, speeding me up once I knew what I needed.

Screen by screen, I watched it take shape: a clean home page, a workout generator that flexed with user inputs, a meal planner that didn’t choke on complexity.

For the backend, I picked Firebase—think storage, authentication, and a database all in one tidy package—and later added Heroku when I hit a snag.

That snag? Someone reverse-engineered my app, nabbed my API key, and racked up a bill that had me thinking I’d struck gold with users—until I realized it was a scam.

I laughed (then cried), then spent two sleepless days learning backend basics to secure my app properly.

Lesson learned: planning and grit outweigh shortcuts every time.

Bringing AI into the Mix

The real magic came with Open AI, the brains behind my app’s smarts—generating tailored meal plans and workouts that felt personal, not robotic.

I had to play prompt engineer, tweaking inputs until the outputs hit just right, like coaxing a chef to nail your favorite recipe.

It was a puzzle—tell AI too little, and it flounders; tell it just enough, and it sings.

Rapid API jumped in too, a hub of ready-made APIs I tapped for extra workout data and recipes, all tied together with one key.

Navigation gave me headaches—React Native’s setup clashed with Expo Router’s file-based style, and my Android version flatlined for months.

After a slog through every line of code, I migrated to Expo Router, and suddenly Android sprang to life—a win that felt like summiting a mountain.

Monetizing was its own beast: I tested subscriptions, banner ads, even a paid app phase, before settling on RevenueCat to streamline it all across iOS and Android.

Every tweak, every fix, built a sturdier app—and a tougher me.

Launching and Growing the Dream

Deploying to the App Store and Google Play was like sending a kid off to school—nerve-wracking, with picky guidelines to nail (screenshots, privacy policies, the works).

Apple bounced me once for a missing policy, but their feedback was clear, and I aced the retry.

Expo’s over-the-air updates saved me from resubmission headaches, letting me push fixes live to users—a clutch move for a solo dev.

I blasted the launch across social media—Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, you name it— soaking up early feedback from friends and family to polish the rough edges.

Then came the Instagram hustle: posting two to three times a day for six months, growing from zero to over 85,000 followers.

One post exploded to 23 million views, funneling a flood of clicks to my app’s landing page and spiking downloads.

The app even climbed to third on the charts, earning a nod from the Expo team—a moment that hit me like a high-five from the universe.

Passive income started trickling in—not millions, but enough to prove this wild ride was paying off.

Reflections on the Rollercoaster

This wasn’t a straight line—there were setbacks that had me slamming my laptop shut, nights I wondered why I didn’t just stick to my day job.

But every crash, every all-nighter, every “aha!” moment stacked up to something bigger: an app that’s mine, built from scratch, helping people and padding my wallet.

It’s not about being a coding prodigy—it’s about showing up, learning as you go, and not quitting when it gets messy.

AI was my booster rocket, but I was the pilot, steering through the chaos with a pen, a plan, and a whole lot of hustle.

Looking back, I’d tell my past self: “Plan more, stress less, and trust the process.”

The app’s still growing, still earning, and I’m still tweaking—because that’s the game when you’re chasing a dream.

If I can pull this off with no experience, anyone can—just start, stumble, and keep climbing.

That’s the story of how I built a $10,000 app with AI, and I’m nowhere near done yet.

We strongly recommend that you check out our guide on how to take advantage of AI in today’s passive income economy.