This is how I found my $1M app idea

July 24, 2026

Hey there,

In college, me and my friends all got addicted to vaping.

One night I decided to quit and found out it was way harder than I thought. 

I had no idea how to quit but I knew I was hitting the vape too many times every fcking day.

But how often did I actually hit it?

That question turned into Puff Count - my app that printed $44k every month before I sold it.

I didn't stumble across the idea by researching.

The app idea was in my pocket every time I reached for a vape.

When you're the customer, everything downstream gets easier. 

You know what the app has to do because you feel the gap yourself, and you know how the onboarding should feel because you've been THE frustrated user.

That’s why I always recommend building apps around problems you have yourself.

The alternative is guessing. You build what you think they want, and you find out you were wrong after you've already spent the months.

App founders in my group who scale fastest almost all started the same way. 

  • Wrestlers building for wrestlers. 

  • Moms building for other moms.

  • Gym people building for gym people.

Living in the problem doesn't replace checking the market though. 

You still confirm 2 things before you commit:

1: Competitors in the space are making money, which proves people pay to solve this.

2: You can market it, which means content is already going viral in the niche.

So before you go hunting for a clever idea, look at your own life.

Problems you keep running into, things you wish existed. Apps you would download immediately if someone built it in front of your eyes.

You already know what to make, who it's for, and what to say to sell it.

Peace,
Steven