Building a $4k/mo portfolio after an undiversified marketing strategy tanked his $800k business

Louis-David Paul-Hus was building side hustles until an app hit it big, bringing in $800k within 15 months. But when his marketing channel failed, revenue went down, and he sold it for $150k.

Four months later, he already has a new portfolio of apps bringing in $4k/mo — including Archetype.

Here's Louis-David on how he got here. 👇

A hit and an exit

I'm a software developer with an entrepreneurial background. When I was a kid, I used to code games for fun.

My first business was reselling rare sneakers on Instagram. I started by going to SneakerCon, buying a T-shirt for $30 from one vendor, then selling it to another vendor for $50. I found it weird and nice to make money that way. That started my online business career.

I attended a Software Engineering university but dropped out after 1.5 years. After dropping out, I started coding apps for myself; they all failed, but I learned to create apps. After three months of building apps, I got my first startup client as a freelancer and started working for startups globally.

Two years after dropping out, I made an app that exploded within its first two weeks. We posted TikTok videos on multiple accounts, and they got millions of views. GlowUp generated $800k in sales in 15 months. I then sold it and exited for $150k.

It's been four months since I exited. I've built a couple of products for fun and am currently scaling some:

• Archetype is a mobile app that reveals your personality via MBTI, Astrology, Human Design, and more.

• Tappy is a B2B custom loyalty card for small businesses in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.

My current revenue is between $3k and $4k per month.

Two-week buildouts

The Tappy MVP was built in a day using Claude Code. I built it because I kept getting physical loyalty cards and figured there was a better way.

But my main focus right now is Archetype. I built it in two weeks using Claude Code. I used sleek.design and Claude for the UI. The stack is Swift with Firebase and Superwall.

The idea came randomly to me. I wondered what would happen if I took all those personality typology or self-discovery systems and combined them into one blueprint. I tried it, and the results were scary accurate.

As for Glowup, I built that in two weeks as a side project while I had contracts and worked for a couple of startups.

Since the app was simple and straightforward, I built it in FlutterFlow using Firebase as a backend.

The MVP was easy, but when it went live, it crashed on everyone because we got 100k users in three days — one of our APIs failed due to excessive usage. That earned us lots of 1-star reviews. I then switched to a new API and put in a paywall. Once the update hit the App Store, money started flowing in like crazy.

After that initial challenge, everything was easy.

Months later, we switched from FlutterFlow to Swift for iOS for a better user experience. We also changed from RevenueCat to Superwall for the paywall. The benefit was significant, as users loved the app and revenue grew significantly.

We also used OpenAI API, Gemini API, Sephora API, and Google Vision API for all AI responses.

The danger of a single growth channel

For Tappy, it's still early. I'm going door to door and sending cold emails. So far, it hasn't been working.

For Archetype, I'm posting TikTok videos and UGC. I'm slowly building momentum.

For GlowUp, we attracted users organically through TikTok. We started marketing before development, and this strategy helped us acquire 100k users within three days of launching.

Our VA posted five times a day on each of our seven accounts. We grew fresh accounts to 50k followers on TikTok and got 500 million views from all accounts in one year. We added an anchor link using TikTok's 'one-link' feature, allowing users to see the video and download the app in one click, which improved conversion from views to downloads.

That was our only strategy. I should have implemented other strategies, because when we stopped getting views, our revenue decreased, and I had to sell the app.

Fail and try again

My advice? Build fast, ship, try marketing, fail, try again, and one day it will work out in a way that feels effortless.

Start marketing at the same time you are building. Post a lot of content to find a format that can go viral. The bottleneck is not the product, but distribution and marketing.

What's next?

From here, I want to become a known author and politician.

It's nothing related to tech, but I hope one day I can help meaningfully in society.

First, I have to get rich with mobile apps and digital tech. Once I'm rich, I will start running for political office and help shape Quebec into a beautiful state.

You can follow along on my personal website, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn.