Shadowing Practice: I Copied A Huge App. Now I Make $80K/Month - Learn English Speaking with Video
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What if you didn't need an original idea at all?
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What if instead you could reverse engineer apps that are already working?
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Well, that's exactly what our guest did today.
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And within 12 months, he built a million dollar app.
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I launched it a year ago and now it makes over 80k per month.
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Meet Tomer.
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He saw a successful app, realized it didn't exist in his country and thought, can I build this?
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So he did.
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And it worked almost immediately.
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We started with only 1k on the first month.
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And since then, we grew consistently until the previous month, we made over 81k.
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I asked Tomer to come onto the channel to reveal exactly how he did all this.
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And in this episode, we're going to dive into what popular app he localized, how he built it in just a couple months without being a developer,
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and the genius marketing strategy that skyrocketed his app to over $80,000 a month.
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All right, let's dive in.
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I'm Pat Walls and this is Starter Story.
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All right, Tomer, welcome to the channel.
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Tell me about who you are, what you built, and what's your story.
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Hey, my name is Tomer and I've built a calorie tracking mobile app.
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I launched it a year ago and now it makes over 80k per month.
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So today I'm excited to talk about how I took a super popular app idea in the US
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and localized it to my local market.
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But yeah, Tomer, when I saw what you built, I thought, oh, that looks like a similar app.
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A lot of people watching this are thinking, oh, I know the app that he built, but it's not that app.
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But what I thought was cool about it is you took it and you took it down to your own country.
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Before we get into how you did that, how you found that idea, tell me a little bit more about what the app is, what it does.
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Pull up some of your revenue screenshots.
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I'd love to see.
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Sure.
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So the app is an AI color tracker.
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Similarly to Cal AI, you simply take a picture of your food and it tells you the calories and macros in seconds.
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And I've built it specifically for the Israeli market in Hebrew.
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So here's the revenue chart from the moment we launched the app in June 2025 until the previous month, April 26.
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We started with only 1k on the first month.
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And since then, we grew consistently until the previous month we made over 81k.
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Okay.
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I mean, first of all, congratulations.
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This is amazing.
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Let's talk about how you get here.
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What were you doing before?
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Were you always building apps?
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What's your background?
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How do you get to this point where you have an app that's making over $80,000 a month?
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Yeah, so before building this app, I was doing marketing for other businesses.
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I found it extremely boring that I wasn't really passionate about promoting other people's products.
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And I wanted to look for opportunities to build my own product.
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I stumbled upon a podcast with Zach, the founder of Cal.ai.
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And he talked about how they scaled quickly to over $1 million per month.
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And I realized that it doesn't matter that the app already exists if no one knows about it in my local market.
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And fitness and nutrition is a very big niche doesn't matter the country
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or the market so i decided
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that there is enough potential in it even in a smaller
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local market okay cool well i'm also curious on how you
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actually built something like this how'd you go about building this how long did it take to build
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and get to an app that was live in the app store yeah
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so i'm not a developer i had a little bit of coding experience from high school
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and stuff i learned by myself but nothing more than
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that cursor was just released at the time and I wanted to see
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if you could actually build software like it was magic with AI prompting.
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And two weeks later after starting the experiment with Cursor, I had a working version with all the main app features working.
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From the first line of code to being live on the App Store, it was around two months total.
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The funny thing is that the coding wasn't what took the actual time.
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What actually slowed the process was waiting for Apple to accept my developer program and pass in the App Store reviews.
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Yeah, that's something that I hear often from a lot of people who come on here.
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They say, hey, it was quick to build, but then the part that took the longest was getting Apple to review it.
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So if anyone is watching this right now and building something, get it done, get it shipped to Apple.
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It might be another month.
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There's this back and forth and you finally get it approved.
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So yeah, I want to switch topics a little bit.
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What I loved about what you did is you took this popular app and then you localized it to your country.
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I'm just curious how you came up with the idea to do this.
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Yeah, so it was March 2025 and I was actively looking for an idea.
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And when I heard the Cal AI podcast, it clicked immediately.
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Although my original plan was to build something big for the US market, the chance to take a proven winner
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and be the first to localize it to my local market
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was the simplest zero to one move for me the way I saw it.
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And if you're going to localize an app for a small market like Israel, the niche has to be huge.
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Because the market is small, you can't be in a tiny vertical.
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So fitness and nutrition is one of the biggest niches in the world.
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And I happen to know it very well personally.
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So it was a perfect fit from.
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Okay, this strategy by Tomer is absolutely genius.
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Instead of finding some crazy original new idea, he found a proven app and he built a very niche version of it in his country.
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So you might be wondering here, okay, how do I do this?
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How do I find a proven idea just like this?
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Well, we've got something for you.
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We've put together our free database of over 30 iOS app ideas that are making real money right now.
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Inside of this database, you will find all the data that you need.
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Revenue numbers, business models, starting costs, and much more.
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This is all the stuff that you might need to validate your potential idea, your app that could be the next CalBuddy.
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So if you're ready to find your idea and get started building right now, just head to the first link in the description.
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You can grab this database 100% for free.
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All right, let's get back to the episode.
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But I'm curious, does your app do anything differently?
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Did you realize as you're building it, oh, it needs to do this differently because I'm in Israel?
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I'm just curious how similar it is the calai yes
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so honestly it's not a one-to-one clone
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but the product itself isn't very different the same core experience
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as the other ai color trackers you point your camera at the meal you get calories
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and macros so the differences are in the language
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and a bunch of small modifications to fit how israelis actually eat
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and talk about food that's on the product side the real differentiation i want to be very clear about this
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because i think a lot of bidders are missing it is is the brand and distribution.
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Almost anyone can build an app with cursor in two weeks, but I think about it like this.
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If I can acquire a user for half what my competition pays, that means I have more cash flow than they do, and more cash flow means I can outspend them on growth.
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I think that's a really good point.
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It's mostly the same based on the product, but it's widely different based on the language, the content that we're creating, the design, and that makes it basically a different app.
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It's the same concept, but it's like a plumber here the US where I live
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is going to be way different than a plumber out in Israel.
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So let's talk about that.
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A lot of people are building apps right now and they don't have any users, but you went very quickly from zero to $80,000 a month.
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So walk me through that.
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What did you do to grow your app so quickly?
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Yeah, sure.
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So I think that my biggest advantage going in was that I came from marketing.
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And it's important to say that every channel works.
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UGC, influencers, paid ads, SEO.
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The question is which channel is the most efficient for your specific market.
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For me, it was paid ads.
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CPMs are significantly lower than in the US, so you can run paid ads profitably without a time of testing the capital
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so i studied the most viral content from similar apps in the us
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and the most viral fitness and nutrition content in israel based on
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that i created the creatives and i used them in the ad campaigns
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that got me to around 20k per month in four months
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and i always knew that once i have the traction
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and the social proof needed i'll start working with influencers to create a strong brand that's hard to copy
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and i knew that working with big influencers will cost a fortune just for a single story
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or real so i came up with a better idea partnering with big influencers
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They get a percentage of the revenue and as a result, the incentives are aligned.
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The more money I make, the more money they make.
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It also meant that now I have two well-known faces to represent my app.
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That's what took the app from 20k to 80k per month.
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If you're watching this and you're this far into the interview, this might be one of the coolest things that I've seen anyone
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that I've talked to on StarterStory do from a marketing perspective.
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So I'd love if you could just dive a little bit deeper into how that works
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and what have you learned after working with these big names
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obviously they're not building the apps are probably not super involved with the product day to day
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so how does that work so to make sure
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that they're on schedule they're delivering the content
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that they have to the entire agreement is based on work timelines
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so you want to create an agreement
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which says how many pieces of content they have to deliver to you
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and how many filming days or recording days they have to do each month
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so i think for me specifically i got really lucky
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because I know the fitness niche in Israel super well
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and I happen to know the guy personally that then I signed a deal with.
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So what we did is we have a rev short deal for all the revenue that comes from Israel.
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But the main thing that I think everyone should focus about here is
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that you have to get some social proof and to show
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that the app is working and users are excited and happy about it before approaching these mega big influencers or celebrities.
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Okay, so are you giving like half your business away to these influencers?
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What if you want to go find more influencers or one influencer doesn't work out?
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Are you giving away like all your business to these influencers?
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So another advantage of me waiting to making 20k per month before approaching them
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that I can negotiate a better deal and not act like it was from the get-go so they get 50-50.
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So once you do that you can get the influencers to agree on much better terms.
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Yeah, the typical model is, hey, let me pay you per post.
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But because they are getting a cut of all Israeli revenue, they actually have skin in the game.
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Maybe they talk about it not just in the one post that they're paid to do.
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Maybe they talk about it on whatever the TV show they're on or when they're getting interviewed somewhere else.
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So let's switch topics a little bit and let's talk about tech stack.
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I know that you mainly built this, but you're not a developer.
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So walk me through some of the tools that you used to build this.
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Sure.
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So I use Cloud for coding and AI agents across the business, which is $200 per month.
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I use PostHog for product analytics.
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It's $20 per month.
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RevenueCat for subsuite and management.
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Superbase for database and storage it's $35 per month.
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And Expo for in-app updates, it's $100 per month.
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And last question that we ask all founders who come on to Starter Story.
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If you could go back in time, Tomer, to before you had built a successful app, what advice would you give yourself
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or what advice would you give to the thousands of people that are going to watch this and get inspired?
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So I think the best advice is don't be afraid of what you don't know.
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You need to have a lot of self-confidence to believe that whatever gets thrown at you, you'll figure it out because there will always be setbacks and new things you'll have to learn along the way.
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And some will look super complex and scary, but you can never allow yourself to become the constraint of the business and be the one holding it back.
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Yeah, that's great advice.
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Thank you for coming on and sharing it.
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I think it's going to become a lot bigger, both your app and this new way of marketing.
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So thank you, Tomer, for coming on and sharing.
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Thank you.
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All right, Gus, producer of Starter Story, what'd you think of Cal Buddy?
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I mean, the obvious takeaway is you don't need a new idea hopefully people watching don't think like oh it's not original
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or like he's just stealing it hopefully that's not the takeaway hopefully the takeaway is like oh
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so i don't need to like rear him at the wheel you know kind of thing
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so that's my first thought yeah no what i thought was interesting about what he said is there are hundreds
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if not thousands of calorie and fitness tracking apps on the app store
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and i've personally used 10 of them and i don't look at those and think like, oh, these are all clones of each other.
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Right.
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And when he told me that people think about dieting and food differently in the U.S than they do in Israel.
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And therefore that kind of like defeats the whole argument of this clone thing.
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Like this app is better for that market than Cal AI because A, it's in Hebrew and two, it's for that market.
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So I think that this is one of like the big opportunities here is, yeah, take popular apps and localize them to other countries.
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Yeah, I know a lot of our audience, you know, we see that the data like a good chunk are not just in the US.
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So yeah, there's like a huge opportunity for someone watching to think about it for their own place
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or their own country or their own city or whatever.
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We talked to a lot of people who kind of have this approach, find a proven idea, like remix it.
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How long do you think that continues to work?
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Not just like in apps, but like restaurants or cars or whatever, like so many examples of like just the same thing over and over in the world that still work. But anyway,
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just that's something i'm thinking about is like yeah yeah well two things one is the country's thing is
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that like the markets are still wide open in lots of countries
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so talk to a lot of people on here
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that continue to mention this they go hey even
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when i was just trying to run paid ads i first started running them in argentina
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because i could get better metrics over there so there's that
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and then the second one is that new problems are always emerging
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so i think the cal ai is a good example of
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that is that ai showed up
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and now there's this new api where you can scan your food
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and get like a pretty accurate result
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so yeah i think this year 2026 is the time to
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act in the description down there we're going to put our database of 30 very very popular app ideas
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that you can copy you can localize to your country
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or do them somewhat differently these are proven apps
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that are making a whole lot of money in their categories
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and they're a great canvas to start if you want to build apps and do something similar.
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So I'll put that down there in the description.
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I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.
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We'll see you in the next one.
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Peace.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “I Copied A Huge App. Now I Make $80K/Month”. This video has 220 sentences and 2894 words to shadow. The speech runs for 13:40. The speaker talks fast, about 212 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| influencer noun | /ˈɪnflu.ənsə(ɹ)/ | A person who or a thing which influences. |
| localize verb | /ˈloʊkəlaɪz/ | To make local; to fix in, or assign to, a definite place. |
| niche noun | /nɪt͡ʃ/ | A cavity, hollow, or recess, generally within the thickness of a wall, for a statue, bust, or other erect ornament. |
| calorie noun | /ˈkæləɹi/ | A non-SI unit of energy, equivalent to 4.184 kilojoules, that can raise the temperature of a kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. This is the unit normally… |
| developer noun | /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/ | A person or entity engaged in the creation or improvement of certain classes of products. |
| cursor noun | /ˈkɜːsə/ | A part of any of several scientific or measuring instruments that moves back and forth to indicate a position. |
| takeaway noun | /ˈteɪkəweɪ/ | A restaurant that sells food to be eaten elsewhere. |
| clone noun | /kloʊn/ | A living organism (originally a plant) produced asexually from a single ancestor, to which it is genetically identical. |
| nutrition noun | /njuːˈtɹɪʃ.ən/ | The organic process by which an organism assimilates food and uses it for growth and maintenance. |
| dive verb | /daɪv/ | To swim under water. |
| plumber noun | /ˈplʌm.əɹ/ | One who furnishes, fits, and repairs pipes and other apparatus for the conveyance of water, gas, or drainage. |
| tracker noun | /ˈtɹækə(ɹ)/ | A person employed to follow and monitor a political rival. |
| macro noun | /ˈmæk.ɹoʊ/ | A comparatively human-friendly abbreviation of complex input to a computer program. |
| viral adjective | /ˈvaɪɹəl/ | Of or relating to a biological virus. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| make over verb | To renovate or to convert to a different use, particularly houses, offices, or rooms within them. | |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| come on to verb | To start to. | |
| get back to verb | Return to (an activity) | |
| give away verb | To make a gift of (something). | |
| pull up verb | /ˌpʊl ˈʌp/ | To lift upwards or vertically. |
| put together verb | To assemble, construct, build, or formulate. | |
| show up verb | To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What if you didn't need an original idea at all?
- What if instead you could reverse engineer apps that are already working?
- What were you doing before?
- Were you always building apps?
- How long do you think that continues to work?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've built · We've put · I've seen |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was just released · was paid · are aligned |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who come · business, which is · people who kind |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 57 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: nutrition /njuːˈtɹɪʃ.ən/, differentiation /dɪf.əˌɹɛn.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/, screenshot /ˈskriːn.ʃɑt/, modification /ˌmɑdɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/, traction /ˈtɹæk.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: influencer /ˈɪnflu.ənsə(ɹ)/, developer /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/, differentiation /dɪf.əˌɹɛn.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/, profitably /ˈpɹɑ.fɪ.tə.bli/, modification /ˌmɑdɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like influencer, localize, niche.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.