How I Made My First 100 Dollars From Building an App
So around a year ago, one random morning, I had this thought.
What if I could generate my resume the same way I generate code using AI tools like v0, Lovable, or Replit?
I kept thinking about it for some time. Overthinking as usual. But that day, instead of just letting the idea die, I opened my laptop and actually started building something.
That was the start of my first real app.
At that time, I did not even know if this would make money. I was not thinking about revenue, business models, or growth. I just wanted to see if I could build it.
Starting with a very rough idea
The first thing I did was design the website. I used v0 to generate the initial UI for the landing page. It gave me a basic structure, nothing fancy.
I downloaded that code, opened it in VS Code, and started modifying it. This was just a base. From there, I began building the actual product.
The initial version was bad. Honestly, really bad.
It was supposed to generate PDFs, but the output PDFs were something no one would actually use. The layout was broken, text alignment was off, and overall it looked unprofessional.
But instead of fixing everything silently, I decided to share it.
Posting on X changed the direction
I posted about the app on X, just casually explaining what I was building. I did not expect much from it.
One reply completely changed the direction of the app.
Someone said something like, it would be really useful if it could generate invoices instead.
That made sense. Resume generation was just one use case. PDF generation was the real core problem.
So I decided to shift the idea.
Instead of just a resume generator, I turned it into an AI PDF generator.
Turning it into a real app
After that decision, things got more serious.
I added authentication so users could actually log in. Then I created proper API routes. I started reworking the PDF generation logic from scratch.
Slowly, it started getting better.
At this point, I was not doing any marketing. No ads, no paid promotions. But somehow, my website started getting traffic from Google.
SEO was not intentional. It just happened because the site existed and people were searching for similar things.
First, I saw around 100 users.
Then 300.
Then 500.
That was the first time I realized, okay, people actually want this.
The monetization problem in India
Once users started coming in, I knew I had to monetize it.
That is when I hit a wall.
I started searching for payment gateways that work from India. Stripe does not work. Lemon Squeezy does not work. Paddle was not an option. Most global tools either do not support India or have complex setups.
Finally, I integrated Razorpay.
It worked well for local payments. But the moment I tried international payments, it became messy. It required PayPal integration, extra compliance, and a long setup process.
For an MVP, this felt too much.
Again, I went back to X and posted about this problem.
Discovering Dodo Payments
Someone replied and told me about Dodo Payments.
The idea was simple. They act as a merchant of record. I do not have to worry about international payments, taxes, or complex setups.
I removed Razorpay completely and integrated Dodo Payments instead.
That decision saved me a lot of time.
About a month after that, something happened that I still remember clearly.
I received my first payment.
2.49 dollars.
Someone bought a one time credits pack.
It might sound small, but for me, that was huge. It proved that someone was willing to pay for something I built.
That was the moment I knew this could work.
Investing back into the product
After the first payment, I decided to take it more seriously.
I purchased a custom domain for the app. That helped with trust and SEO. I also set up a proper domain email.
Then I started improving the product more aggressively.
I redesigned the dashboard.
I fixed the PDF generation flow.
I improved performance.
I handled edge cases that users were reporting.
After some time, I introduced a subscription model.
Over the next two to three months, I made around 50 dollars from subscriptions and one time purchases.
It was slow, but it was consistent.
Trying ads and getting rejected
I also experimented with ads.
I tried Monetag first, but the payouts were extremely low. It was not worth it.
Then I applied for Google AdSense.
My site got rejected multiple times.
Every rejection forced me to fix something. Content issues, policy issues, layout problems.
Eventually, after multiple attempts, it got approved.
From AdSense alone, I earned around 45 dollars.
At that point, everything combined crossed 100 dollars.
That was my first 100 dollars from building an app.
Still building, still fixing
This journey was not smooth. It still is not.
I faced bugs, payment issues, PDF failures, UI problems, and user complaints. Some days, things break randomly and I have no idea why.
But my focus has always been the same. Fix things as fast as possible so users are not affected.
Recently, I have added more features like developer APIs, agent mode templates, and UPI payments. I am still improving the product almost every day.
I am not saying this is a massive success story. It is not.
But for someone who started with a random morning thought and zero expectations, making the first 100 dollars felt real.
If you are building something right now and it feels pointless, I have been there. Just shipping and listening to users can change everything.
If you want to check out the app I built, here it is.
I am still building it. Still learning. Still fixing things.
And honestly, that is the best part.
