Jul 22, 2026 · 49 min · 13 segments
Steve Young buys apps like rental properties. He finds undermonetized apps that already have downloads, takes out a small loan, and profits from day one on money that isn't even his. In this episode…
Joseph ChoiHostI've been in the app space just a quick little intro for those who aren't familiar.
I've been in the app space since 2010, started podcasting in 2013, started YouTube in 2015.
And then really, we have a YouTube channel where we really try to share and try to do these type of interviews too.
And for me, like I love doing these interviews because I'm always like, inspired and I'm trying to learn from this for me like what I'm seeing the app space I think it's these are things that I want to riff with you to Joseph is obviously we all understand is like distribution is the moat like now that you can build anything there's been so many shifts in the app space that now with AI I feel like everybody feels like a superhero and they can do everything by themselves from a development and from marketing perspective as well but I think for me it's really about distribution and understanding distribution and And a lot of people get inspired by what they see on Twitter, what they see on YouTube, and they go, okay, I can do it.
In my opinion, you see like some app take off and you're like, oh, I'm going to just copy that strategy.
But they might understand UGCs better than you, right? They might understand influencer marketing better than you.
And for me, it's almost like, okay, I've got an app because everybody can build a product now.
Right? Not just the app unique selling point, but what is your unique angle that you can take? And for me, it's like, it's always been ASO and Apple ads.
Don't just copy what you're seeing other people do because they already have an advantage over you.
And you just think, oh, I'm going to build a similar app or I can build a better app than somebody else.
What do you think about this archetype of vibe coders and or like maybe engineers that are now trying to build their own thing with the consumer app? I feel like the first natural channel to focus on maybe is ASO.
When you look at the growth channels, what do you have? You basically have like paid social, which is like meta ads.
You have organic social, which is like tiktok and instagram organic and then you have like influencers which is like very similar to organic social and then you have aso just optimizing your store page and looking at keywords and stuff and then you have apple ads and then maybe google ads maybe chat gpt ads but is that a good overview of like the growth channels and then also do you think that aso is like a good one to start for like engineer like vibe coders
I put this sheet together and I've seen this personally with our apps and some of the clients we work with.
I think you can reach 5 million MRR and you only need one or two of these channels.
I've been in the app space just a quick little intro for those who aren't familiar.
I've been in the app space since 2010, started podcasting in 2013, started YouTube in 2015.
And then really, we have a YouTube channel where we really try to share and try to do these type of interviews too.
And for me, like I love doing these interviews because I'm always like, inspired and I'm trying to learn from this for me like what I'm seeing the app space I think it's these are things that I want to riff with you to Joseph is obviously we all understand is like distribution is the moat like now that you can build anything there's been so many shifts in the app space that now with AI I feel like everybody feels like a superhero and they can do everything by themselves from a development and from marketing perspective as well but I think for me it's really about distribution and understanding distribution and And a lot of people get inspired by what they see on Twitter, what they see on YouTube, and they go, okay, I can do it.
In my opinion, you see like some app take off and you're like, oh, I'm going to just copy that strategy.
But they might understand UGCs better than you, right? They might understand influencer marketing better than you.
And for me, it's almost like, okay, I've got an app because everybody can build a product now.
Right? Not just the app unique selling point, but what is your unique angle that you can take? And for me, it's like, it's always been ASO and Apple ads.
Don't just copy what you're seeing other people do because they already have an advantage over you.
And you just think, oh, I'm going to build a similar app or I can build a better app than somebody else.
What do you think about this archetype of vibe coders and or like maybe engineers that are now trying to build their own thing with the consumer app? I feel like the first natural channel to focus on maybe is ASO.
When you look at the growth channels, what do you have? You basically have like paid social, which is like meta ads.
You have organic social, which is like tiktok and instagram organic and then you have like influencers which is like very similar to organic social and then you have aso just optimizing your store page and looking at keywords and stuff and then you have apple ads and then maybe google ads maybe chat gpt ads but is that a good overview of like the growth channels and then also do you think that aso is like a good one to start for like engineer like vibe coders
I put this sheet together and I've seen this personally with our apps and some of the clients we work with.
I think you can reach 5 million MRR and you only need one or two of these channels.
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