Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
So you've seen the 18 year olds making $10k a month from a vibe coded app. That part is real. But most of those posts don't explain what it actually takes to get there, so here's my honest take.
What's real: non coders can actually ship apps now. Claude Code and AI tools changed the game. You should be excited about it.
What's not real: $10k MRR in your first week of prompting. The viral success stories exist but they're rare, and most of those posts are optimized to get you to sign up for some AI app builder.
Coding is maybe 30% of the work. The other 70% is marketing, distribution, and solving a problem painful enough that people will actually pay to fix it. You still need taste, motivation, and the willingness to read docs and learn.
From my own experience: I shipped Inkigo (an AI tattoo preview app) last November. It's doing around $600 MRR and it took almost 6 months to get here. Paid ads didn't work. TikTok and Instagram didn't work. App Store search is what's actually driving it.
If you have an app idea, go for it. Just be ready to put in the work.
Shameless plug: I wrote a book called From Idea to App Store with Claude Code. It's built for non technical people. Mental model, how to plan, how to prompt, how to ship without depending on third party AI builders. Comes with a skills pack. Link in bio.
#ClaudeCode #AIapps #IndieHacker #ReactNative #BuildInPublic #VibeCoding #AppStore #IndieDev
So you've seen the 18 year olds making $10k a month from a vibe coded app. That part is real. But most of those posts don't explain what it actually takes to get there, so here's my honest take.
What's real: non coders can actually ship apps now. Claude Code and AI tools changed the game. You should be excited about it.
What's not real: $10k MRR in your first week of prompting. The viral success stories exist but they're rare, and most of those posts are optimized to get you to sign up for some AI app builder.
Coding is maybe 30% of the work. The other 70% is marketing, distribution, and solving a problem painful enough that people will actually pay to fix it. You still need taste, motivation, and the willingness to read docs and learn.
From my own experience: I shipped Inkigo (an AI tattoo preview app) last November. It's doing around $600 MRR and it took almost 6 months to get here. Paid ads didn't work. TikTok and Instagram didn't work. App Store search is what's actually driving it.
If you have an app idea, go for it. Just be ready to put in the work.
Shameless plug: I wrote a book called From Idea to App Store with Claude Code. It's built for non technical people. Mental model, how to plan, how to prompt, how to ship without depending on third party AI builders. Comes with a skills pack. Link in bio.
#ClaudeCode #AIapps #IndieHacker #ReactNative #BuildInPublic #VibeCoding #AppStore #IndieDev
