CONTEXT: one guy is making $3.6M/year buying dying iOS apps for $2-3k and reviving them with subscriptions

QUESTIONS I had after reading this:

1. how does he find these apps?
2. how does he actually value them?
3. how does he reach the developers?
4. how does he handle the transfer?
5. how does he monetize old apps?
6. does the 220-app / 5-hour-week math actually work?

spent the weekend on each one, here’s what I found:

[ 1. finding the apps ]:

• the data layer is paid: Appfigures starts at $59/month for basic, real revenue estimates need $200+/month
• Sensor Tower and http://data.ai are enterprise pricing, not accessible to solo operators
• the filter most people miss: Apple delists apps that go 2-3 years without updates. “no update in 18+ months” is the sweet spot. miss it and the app is gone

[ 2. valuing them ]:

• third-party revenue estimates are 30-50% accurate, not 80%. for subscription apps they’re worse
• never close on the estimate, always demand a screenshot of App Store Connect revenue
• realistic price for an app doing $300-800/month with decent retention: $3-8k. the $2-3k offers buy you something marginal

[ 3. reaching developers of old apps ]:

• email is in the App Store listing, under privacy policy
• LinkedIn the company name, find the founder
• the seller you want: a 2018-2021 era app where the dev moved on to a stable job and just wants the maintenance off their plate
• typical response rate to cold offers: 5-10%. you’ll DM 100 to close 5-10

[ 4. the transfer to new owner ]:

• Apple’s developer-to-developer transfer is a real feature
• Apple review typically takes 1-4 WEEKS, not 24-48 hours
• asset purchase agreement: template + lawyer review, budget $500-1500
• http://escrow.com if you don’t trust the other side

[ 5. monetizing ]:

• “slapping on subscriptions” is marketing language. real work: paywall UI, products in App Store Connect, RevenueCat SDK, server-side receipt validation, churn loops
• ad SDKs (AdMob, AppLovin) are easier to retrofit but earn less per user
• ASO refresh helps but Apple’s algorithm has tightened. expect 20-40% lift on a stale listing, not 10x
• offshore dev for sustained quality is $800-2000/month, not $400. you can find $400 devs but the output reflects it (personally this guy has devs for $400/month for 1 app, but he goes through them 10 such as apps)

[ 6. does the 220-app / 5-hour-week math work? ]:

• 220 apps × $2-3k acquisition = $440-660k in capital. this is not bootstrapped
• 1 dev per 10-15 apps × 400/mo (800 realistically) = $88k/month in dev costs
• portfolio management, legal entity structure, accounting, IRS reporting across 220 apps is its own full-time job

the realistic version of this story is a 2-5 person operation at $3.6M, but all of them might be outsourced, not a one-person

probably this guy should spend more than 5 hours per week (I would say at least 3-4 hours per day for operations)

the unsexy answer: this is mostly research and outreach, not coding.

80% of the work is finding the right apps and convincing devs to sell. the technical layer is the easy part

P.S. before anyone says “this is illegal”, App Store transfers are an official Apple feature. same model as flipping domains, just with more steps

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Ronin (@DeRonin_): Met a guy making $3.6 million a year

With one of the cleanest digital plays I’ve ever heard of

He scrapes the App Store for apps with 50k+ downloads but no updates in 18+ months

DMs the developers with $2-3k cash offers. Most accept fast, they’ve moved on

Hires a Filipino dev