Alarmy: The $11 Million Alarm Clock App 🤯

Hey Indie Hackers! I'm Niall Doherty from eBizFacts.com. I've been operating solo for over a decade now – earning about $25k/month from my own business these days – and I do a ton of research on how people make money online and different business models.

Recently, The Financial Times recently released their list of High-Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2023 🌏 and that's where I came across this app called Alarmy.

(h/t Glen for digging this up)

It's an alarm clock app for iOS and Android that comes with a twist - in order to turn off the alarm, you have to complete "missions."

This app has over 65 million downloads worldwide.

In 2021, Alarmy generated a revenue of $11.21 million, with a growth rate of 292.6% over three years 💰

The company behind the app is named DelightRoom, and it seems like Alarmy is their only product.

The app follows a freemium model, with premium pricing starting at $4.99.

Ads were their main client acquisition channel, until the founder, Jaemyung Shin, came up with the idea when he realized that putting his phone in the bathroom before bed helped him wake up on time.

He wanted to automate this pattern on his smartphone, leading to the creation of the Alarmy app ⏰

One of the standout features of Alarmy is the "photo from a location" function.
👉 Users mark a routine destination far from their bed, and the only way to dismiss the alarm is to take a photo in that place.

This unique approach sets Alarmy apart from other basic alarm clock apps.

I get the impression they’ve seen mostly organic growth over the years and here's how their flywheel might look like....

1️⃣ People would find the app on an app store.
2️⃣ Try it out
3️⃣ Find it useful
4️⃣ Leave a positive rating and/or recommend it to a friend 💬

That's it for Alarmy's story.

This might seem like just another boring alarm app on the surface, but I'm constantly amazed by the amount of money these websites or apps generate at times.

If you're interested in learning about more interesting businesses like Alarmy, I recommend checking out Glen's Twitter thread.

P.S. My team and I spend several hours researching online businesses each week. If you enjoyed this breakdown, please consider sharing it.

P. P.S. I also write a twice-weekly newsletter at ebizfacts.com about business ideas and share learnings from my own business. Sign up for my newsletter to stay updated with the latest insights and tips.