It’s fine to build apps just for the money
- Profit is a purpose: nobody demands plumbers feel a spiritual connection to pipes – doing skilled work and getting paid is a completely normal arrangement, and building an app for money is no different.
- The $26,000 party trick: a 20 Questions app built in six hours, with a downright ugly UI, made enough to fund a whole trip to Japan – because a simple proposition users immediately understand beats months of soul-searching about creative purpose.
- If you’re explaining, you’re losing: start small and simple with an idea people grasp instantly, and remember that motive and quality are separate axes – wanting to get paid doesn’t make you a grifter, shipping garbage does.
- No original idea needed: open the Top Paid charts, switch a top app’s reviews from “Most Helpful” to “Most Critical,” and look for a recurring unmet outcome you can deliver a distinct way – the opportunity is the customer’s problem, not somebody else’s expression of the solution.
- Validate like a business: Sensor Tower gives modeled estimates, not the developer’s receipts, so confirm demand with interviews, a preorder or priced landing page, or a manual paid service before you build.
- AI hasn’t changed the deal: as Iris Iványi argues, people don’t want infinite freedom, they want a strong opinion to follow – tools can reduce coding and drafts, but a finished, opinionated app still has value.