Illustrative concept based on the research above; it is not evidence of a launched product, customer demand or working capability.
Research current to 7 October 2026.
A paid recommendation network for solo and bootstrapped app developers: each app suggests other indie apps to its new users, and the developer gets about $1 in cash for every user who installs a recommended app.
Most apps built by independent developers never find enough users to survive. A solo developer can spend months building something useful, launch it and see almost nothing happen. Across subscription apps, only 17.3% reach $1,000 in monthly revenue within two years of launch, and the median app earns about $72 a month a year after launch. The developer loses the time they invested and often the app itself, while the people who would have used it never hear about it.
What developers do today is slow, expensive or both. They post about the app in online communities, make short videos, tweak their store listing and ask other developers for shout-outs. When they buy ads, each install can cost several dollars, and a small budget runs out before they learn anything. Meanwhile, many of these developers already have a steady trickle of new users arriving in their own apps, and that attention earns them nothing once onboarding ends. Developers need a cheap, reliable source of new users who are likely to stay, and a way to earn from the audience they already have.
7/10: Developers spend months building an app and then watch it get almost no downloads. Paying for users quickly eats a small budget, so many good apps stall or are abandoned. The same story appears again and again in developer communities, often from people who say marketing is far harder than building.
An app recommendation network that pays indie developers in cash. A developer adds a "you might also like" card to their app, earns about $1 for each new user they send to another member's app, and buys new users for their own app at the same low price.