Making $9k/mo with a mobile app until platform risk took its toll

Emanuele Di Pietro built a portfolio of ten apps, and one took off. But then OpenAI released a mobile app for Codex, and his app, Remodex, lost most of its revenue. Now, he's trying to regain ground with that app, while launching another one called Synara.

Here's Emanuele with his story. 👇

Building 10 iOS apps from his parents' house

I had a 9-to-5 but kinda forced myself to get fired. I wanted freedom from the mundane life and the satisfaction of building something of my own — my own little kingdom.

I started web development in 2022 by taking an HTML and CSS course. From there, I applied for the Apple Developer Academy in 2023-2024 and began building iOS apps. I love the idea of people using what I build on their phones.

I've built ten iOS apps now. Monthly revenue across those apps has been going up and down recently. The best month was $9k. Now, just a couple of months later, it's at $1.5k.

I still live with my parents, so my expenses are low. And I'm making enough to keep my expenses off their backs. Sometimes I do freelance for some extra cash, but I earn mostly from X and my products.

Building a temporary solution

Most of my revenue comes from Remodex, but it was never meant to last. It was a temporary solution.

Remodex was the most-used viral solution for using Codex on a phone. But then OpenAI released their own version, as I knew they would. That's the reason for the decrease in revenue.

But it was super valuable in the interim. And I'm still trying to keep it alive with a soon-to-be-released update. Even now, it has some useful features that the Codex app doesn't have.

Other than that, I'm mostly focused on Synara, an open-source GUI/ADE for serious agentic work. You can run every coding agent in parallel and ship without losing context. It's still free, but a mobile app with a subscription is on the way!

Building v1.0 in two weeks

It took me one or two weeks to build v1.0 of Remodex, just me and my PC. I didn't sleep much, lost a ton of weight, and pushed like hell to bring the app out there as fast as possible.

Getting it done that quickly was a mind game. Sometimes I was carried by motivation. Sometimes it was momentum. Sometimes, it was just the fact that if I didn't do the work, nobody would do it for me.

Here's the stack:

• Nextjs/Tanstack

• TailwindCSS

• Convex/Supabase

• Stripe/Polar

• SwiftUI

• SwiftData

• RevenueCat

Organic growth on X

I grow all my apps organically via X. I have nearly 11k followers, which is a big help.

I started by doing a lot of detailed, well-thought-out posts at first to grow an audience and go viral in the right way. I used Grok to find viral posts in my niche. Then, I used Claude to reshape my posts to make them more interesting.

But eventually, I started doing daily videos about my process and lessons learned. As of today, it has been 352 days of recording every single day.

Tired, happy, sad, sleepy, lacking motivation... I post a video. Every single day.

X growth isn't easy. There were days when X changed their algo and I went invisible, and it seemed as though all the progress I had made was worthless. It's a rollercoaster.

But it certainly paid off. Not only for my products, but also because I get paid as a creator. X changed my life, and it keeps on changing it — mostly in a good way.

Here are a few tips if you'd like to grow your following:

• Use a clear profile picture so people know you're not a bot.

• Have a clear bio so that people know exactly who they are looking at as soon as they open the profile.

• Use images and videos because they perform better than normal text.

• Make sure your posts are spaced out about 2-3 hours from each other.

• Quote and repost your own content.

• Reply a lot.

Other than X, I launched on Product Hunt, Tinylaunch, Uneed, and a few other places. I tried promoting on Reddit once, but they're super strict, so I refused to keep going there.

The mental struggle of indie hacking

Believe it or not, my most difficult challenges have been mental. Indie hacking really messes with your mind.

You're alone, trying to compete with giants. You're the only one who can bring this forward. And the only one who can sink it. It takes some nerve to do this. There will be sleepless nights. And you'll need to do some real deep talk with yourself to make it work.

You have to push yourself, especially at first. You need to show yourself that you've got this. You need to grow your confidence.

It requires a lot of work, but it's super worth it.

Some other things that helped me were:

• Keeping this rational and coming at it from a problem-solving standpoint.

• A lot of positive self-talk.

• Talking to ChatGPT — but not in its usual sugar-coated way.

• Physical activity, like workouts and walks to blow off steam.

Go all in on AI and building in public

My advice? Go all in on AI. This is clearly where we're headed.

I'd suggest that you let AI guide you to what you need to learn to be an indie hacker. Let it help you understand. Then, let it help you build.

From there, watch YouTube videos, talk to people who have more experience, and ask for feedback.

And share your progress in public — even if you think no one cares. Because soon enough, somebody will care, and that will motivate you like never before

What's next?

My goal is to have a good life, nice cars, a nice house, financial freedom, and location freedom.

That's why I'm pushing myself so hard.

You can follow along on X. And check out Remodex and Synara!