This $99 Is Gonna Make Me a Founder

There's one number that has been stuck in my head lately: $99.

Recently, I started a new project called MobileStudio. The idea actually came from something I use almost every day: Screen Studio. I really like how simple the workflow is. You record your screen, get those nice zoom effects, do some basic editing, and you have a good-looking video ready to share. The features are dead simple, and that's exactly what I like about it.

One day, I needed to create a video for a mobile app. That's when I realized how much of a struggle the workflow actually was. I started looking at different editing tools in the market and all over social media, but most of them followed almost the same process: record the video on your mobile, transfer it somewhere, open another tool, and then start editing. None of those steps are individually difficult, but as someone building a mobile app, sometimes even that extra workflow feels like too much work.

I just wanted something simple. I wanted the experience I liked about Screen Studio, but for mobile. So I thought, why not give it a try? 🤔 What if I build something like Screen Studio, but as a mobile app?

That's how MobileStudio started.

I chose the name MobileStudio because I wanted the idea to be pretty clear to people who already know Screen Studio. Once they start using MobileStudio, they can immediately understand what I'm trying to build. The concept is simple: record your mobile screen, add zoom effects, do some basic editing, and create the video without going through the whole process of recording on a phone, transferring the file somewhere else, and then starting the editing.

The idea was simple. Building it wasn't. 😅

This is the first time I'm actually learning how to build an app and facing all the problems that come with it. I would add one new feature and suddenly two existing features would break. I'd reach the uploading stage and somehow a major feature would disappear. I'd test the app on one phone and everything would work perfectly, then test it on another phone and suddenly the app would crash.

There were so many moments where I had absolutely no idea what I had broken. But somehow, I started enjoying those struggles. Every new bug gave me something to understand. Every broken feature made me curious about what was happening. Every time I fixed something, I immediately wanted to build the next feature and see what would happen.

I started enjoying the whole cycle of building, breaking, fixing, testing and building again. ❤️ I think that's what made me more interested in MobileStudio every single day. I wasn't just building an app anymore. I was learning how products actually get built when you're the person responsible for figuring out all the weird things that happen along the way.

A few real examples of what came out the other side of that cycle:

It's live — well, almost 🎉

After all those bugs, experiments, fixes and testing, I finally built the Android version and launched it on the Google Play Store. Well... almost.

The app is currently going through Google's testing process. There is a 14-day testing period before I can apply for the production release, and I'm currently on day 3 of that testing phase. Seeing the app actually sitting on the Play Store after everything that happened while building it felt really good.

It's still a very early product. There aren't hundreds of users, there isn't revenue coming in, and there isn't some huge launch story behind it. But it's real. I built something and put it somewhere people can actually use it. And for me, that's already a small milestone.

Then I hit the App Store's $99 wall

At the same time, I started working on the App Store version too. I felt like the App Store has a lot of prime users for this kind of product, so I started looking into the whole step-by-step process of getting MobileStudio there. That's when I reached the part that made me stop for a moment.

$99.

To launch on the App Store, I need to pay $99 for the Apple Developer account. The biggest fear wasn't really the $99 itself. It was everything that came with it.

What if I pay $99 and nobody uses the app? What if I spend the money and the product fails? What if I launch it and don't get even one user? What if all the work I've done so far doesn't turn into anything?

Because I'm in India, $99 is a huge amount for me. My 9–5 job currently helps me balance my family expenses and my own living expenses, so I can't just casually spend $99 on an experiment and forget about it.

I started overthinking it.

What if I don't need 100 users?

And then I had one small idea.

What if I don't need 100 users?

What if I don't even need 10?

What if just ONE person pays $99 for MobileStudio? 👀

That's it.

If one person is willing to pay $99 for this app, I can take that as my first little validation. I can build the app, launch it, and give that person lifetime access.

I'm going to build the App Store version anyway, but because of my current financial situation, I want to get some validation before I spend the money to officially launch it there. I'm not looking for 1,000 customers right now. I'm not trying to build some massive business overnight. I'm just looking for that first small signal that says, "Hey, maybe you're onto something."

And honestly, that one person would mean a lot to me.

Am I even a founder yet?

I'm still in the very early stage of trying to become a founder. Actually, I don't even know if I can call myself a founder yet. I don't have a successful product. I don't have hundreds of users. I don't have revenue. I don't have a company with a team working behind it.

I have an idea, a product I'm building, a lot of bugs to fix, and a lot of things I still don't know.

And I have a 9–5 job that currently pays for my family expenses and my life.

But I'm trying.

I'm trying to build something that gives people some value. I'm trying to solve a problem that I personally experienced. I'm trying to learn things I've never built before. And I'm trying to put something into the hands of other people and see whether it actually helps them.

Maybe that's enough to start calling myself a founder.

Maybe it isn't.

Honestly, I don't know yet.

But I think that's part of the journey.

You start with an idea. You build it. You break it. You fix it. You put it in front of someone. Then you wait to see if anyone cares.

And somewhere along that journey, you slowly become one. 🚀

So now I'm looking at this $99 a little differently.

It's not just the price of an Apple Developer account anymore. It's not just another yearly expense.

Maybe this $99 is the first little test of whether I can actually become a founder.

And honestly, I'm excited to find out. ❤️

If you want to be that first person — or just want to follow along and see where this goes — join the MobileStudio waitlist, or look through some real videos made with it so far.