Introduction
In this deep dive, Samuel Rondot reveals how he built three profitable apps by cloning already successful tools—earning $35,000 per month. Using a smart strategy of identifying working products, validating demand, and launching fast, he’s proving you don’t need to innovate to win. If you’re looking to build apps for profit, his exact method on cloning apps for profit is a real-world blueprint.
Founder QnA
How did you teach yourself to code?
So yeah, actually I used to be an optician and I had zero coding experience. At the time I wanted to rebuild a tool I was using for Instagram, but this time I wanted to build it myself using code. I ended up following a 15-hour course on YouTube. And every time I learn something new in the course, I immediately try to apply it to that tool I was building. So if you just watch a course, most of the time it’s not enough because you end up losing yourself in the languages that you will probably never use and you don’t really see why you are learning what you are learning. But yeah, it all started like this following a YouTube course and it quickly became a passion for me.
What’s your framework for learning how to code today?
If I were 18 years old now, I don’t think I would learn to code the traditional way. I would probably just use AI coding tools. And with AI today, you can literally build like 90% of most apps. So my framework today would be: one, pick a real project. Two, ask JPT what you need to learn to build it. So for example, you go on Google or on Twitter and you find a product you like and you take a screenshot of that page and you ask JPT, how can I build just the landing page to start? And three, build step by step asking Chat GPT for help at each roadblock. I would of course ask him to use modern technologies like Next.js, NodeJS.
What’s your strategy for finding successful app ideas?
I’m someone a bit lazy and I don’t have unlimited energy. So I have one rule that is really crucial for me: never build something that doesn’t already exist and isn’t already successful or at least getting some traction. So this way I reduce my chance of failure and I increase my chances of success. So usually, to find product ideas, my number one source of idea is Twitter—especially around communities like solopreneur in the building public etc. And then I look for things that are working or products that I personally like. Here are my four key filters. Number one, I will use it myself. Number two, I can see that it already works. And three, they are not spending thousands on marketing, meaning there is a true demand. And four, the product is simple enough to maintain. If your product passes this filter, then usually I’m confident building it.
What criteria do you use to validate an idea?
So first, the most important thing I look for is traction. The best signal you can find on Twitter is when founders share their MRR screenshot or Stripe screenshot. I know that sounds basic, but honestly, it’s the ultimate proof that the tool is working and that people are paying for it. Second, I analyze how they are getting their customers. So I use Href to check their traffic sources. Are they getting customers only from ads, or are they also ranking on SEO? If they are growing with both ads and SEO, that’s a very good sign because it shows a strong demand and it’s usually easier to replicate their success. If they rely mostly on SEO, it can be harder because SEO takes time, but it’s still doable if I’m patient. And third, I check if the product is technically something I can build and maintain easily. I don’t want to build a product that will make me lose sleep maintaining a complex back end. Simplicity is very important for me. And finally, I asked myself, do I actually like the product? Because there’s nothing worse than working on a product you don’t care about. If I don’t enjoy using it myself, I won’t have the motivation to keep going long-term. So in short: traction first, analyze traffic sources, check if I can build it easily, and make sure I like the product.
How did you apply your strategy to build StoryShort?
So actually, the first real app I built was usimus and at that time I didn’t use that strategy and it was a mistake because I ended up building an email finding tool that had four competitors—big names like Apollo, Limp, List, and stuff like that—and it was so difficult to maintain. So after us, I really decided to build something that will be easier to maintain and that’s how I ended up building StoryShort. So I saw a post from a guy building a tool to automate posting faceless video on YouTube, TikTok, etc. And the numbers were crazy. So I started to investigate: is it hard to build and where is the traffic coming from? The really good thing with this one is all the traffic was from Facebook ads, which means I can replicate it literally in a week because Facebook ads you just have to start it and you have the traffic. So I went for it. I built the tool, launched ads, and StoryShort grew very fast. So StoryShort was 100% the process I described earlier. I validated the idea. I saw there was a clear demand. It was a simple product and it was a market I was personally interested in.
Can you break down your three successful businesses?
Okay, so I built us.com. It’s a LinkedIn scraping tool that is making around $15,000 per month and has around 10,000 customers. I have storyshow.ai, which is an AI video generator for TikTok and YouTube that is making around $20,000 per month and has around 4,000 customers. And Capacity.so, which is brand new. It’s an AI coding tool that is making currently $900 per month and has around 50 users.
What growth strategies do you use?
So I always start by running ads. It’s always the first thing I do. So I do it on Google and Meta, depending on the product. Sometimes it’s better on Google, sometimes it’s better on Meta. It’s the fastest way to validate and test the market. And as soon as I get some traction with ads, I move to the second part of the growth, which is SEO. I think too many apps rely only on ads and never got a single visitor from Google. Of course, SEO takes time, but once it works, it’s almost free traffic and it compounds. I also use faceless YouTube channels to grow my apps. I even created a feature inside Story Short for this. The idea is that Story Short will automatically publish daily UGC-style video about your product on YouTube channels, TikTok and Instagram. You can create multiple channels that talk about your product every day on autopilot. So depending on your niche, this can bring crazy results over time. It works really well. And finally, I do affiliate marketing. I did it for all those three apps, especially on Story Short. It’s super important because not only does it bring clients at a fixed cost, but it also creates virality because I have many people doing YouTube videos about Story Short, writing articles. So it brings zero cost results and people are more likely to share your product if they earn a commission. So in short, my growth stack is: one, start with ads. Two, build SEO as soon as there’s traction. Three, use faceless YouTube channels to drive attention on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. And four, run an affiliate program to boost virality and get customers at a fixed price.
What tech stack do you use?
So all my apps are built with Next.js and Node.js for the coding part. I use Href for the SEO analysis and I use also AI tools for writing articles. So for the SEO, I was using SEO, which is really great, but now I just switched to a new one called outrank.so. It really automates the writing of article posts automatically on your blog. And I use Vercel for deploying my apps, Stripe for payments and yeah, that’s it.
What are the monthly costs of your apps?
Well, us cost me around $4,000 per month. And story short, cost me around $5,000 per month. So, it costs a bit less than us because Artimis you have to run instances to automate many things. So, it’s quite expensive. And capacity, I can’t tell yet, but it will be quite expensive because we have to run instances to deploy a website each time.
What surprised you most while building these businesses?
What really surprised me is that you don’t need to innovate. You just need to see what is working on Twitter, in communities, on forums, and build your own alternative, your own version of a product. If you like the product and see that it’s working, just clone the idea, build an MVP in two weeks and launch ads immediately. I think people are always overcomplicating this, but simple boring tools are what make the most money I think.
What advice would you give your past self?
My first advice would be of course to use AI coding tools. At that time, there was no coding tool, but today you can use so many AI coding tools that I think I wouldn’t have learned to code. Two, would be spend time learning Google ads and Meta—even X ads—and there are many ads you can learn. Three, launch as soon as possible. Skip the boring parts of building a SaaS like the password reset pages, setting pages. Just launch the minimal basic product and run ads to test demand right away. Once you get traction, focus on SEO. It will bring a compounding free traffic over time. And even if one day you want to sell the tool, having SEO traffic is also very valuable. And automate as much as you can—use automation tools like Outrank, Story Short, etc.—to automate posting, article creation, as much as you can. Finally, once you have growth and customers coming daily, I would finish the product, bring new features, etc.
Samuel Rondot’s Method
Samuel’s success lies in his repeatable, no-fluff method of cloning winning apps. He identifies proven tools, validates demand quickly, and builds fast using AI and modern frameworks.
- Never build anything unproven—only clone existing successful tools.
- Validate using real traction signals like MRR screenshots and Stripe proofs.
- Focus on products with simple tech and low maintenance overhead.
- Launch a basic MVP in under two weeks and run ads immediately.
- Scale with paid ads first, then build SEO and affiliate channels.
- Automate content and distribution using faceless YouTube and UGC tools.
Samuel Rondot’s Tools
Samuel leverages lightweight, modern tools to build fast and scale efficiently. From AI to SEO automation, every tool is chosen to reduce time and effort without sacrificing growth.
- Next.js & Node.js: Modern stack for fast, scalable app development.
- Vercel: Seamless deployment with instant scaling.
- Stripe: Reliable and trusted payments infrastructure.
- Href: Analyze competitors’ traffic sources for strategic replication.
- Outrank.so: AI-powered SEO content automation for compounding organic growth.
- Story Short: Automates faceless video posting across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram.
Key Notes
Samuel’s journey proves that originality isn’t required—execution is. Here are the core insights from his journey of cloning apps for profit.
- You don’t need to innovate—find what’s already working and clone it 1% better.
- Start with paid ads for instant validation before investing in SEO.
- AI tools can build 90% of your app—stop over-engineering.
- Faceless YouTube automation creates viral loops at zero marginal cost.
- Build only what’s essential at first—launch fast, optimize later.
- Profitability comes from low overhead and scalable channels like SEO and affiliates.
Conclusion
Samuel Rondot proves that cloning apps for profit is not only possible but highly effective with the right strategy. By copying validated ideas, validating fast, and scaling through ads, SEO, and automation, he’s built three apps earning $35K/month. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned builder, his method is a clear path to building profitable apps—without reinventing the wheel.