Solo Healthcare App Success
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A story about a solo founder named Anya who built a successful panic attack app called Rooted without any employees or marketing spend.
"I met this woman at dinner who came up and gave me a high five saying she just made her first million. She created an app for people with panic attacks called Rooted. She built it because she personally struggled with panic attacks.
The app has over 2 million downloads without any paid marketing. When I asked how she got so many downloads, she explained she dominated the app store search by focusing specifically on 'panic attacks' while everyone else went broad with terms like 'sleep' or 'anxiety.' She focused on app store optimization, got good reviews, and it snowballed.
The most impressive part? It's just her - no employees, just a few contractors. She's now closing deals with healthcare companies to provide the app to their members - like 50,000 members at a time. When I asked about her sales team, she said she just messages people on LinkedIn and takes the meetings herself.
Most of the app is free because she wants to help as many people as possible while maintaining a sustainable business. This is her first business, she just went full-time recently, and she's doing everything contrary to what typical startup advice would suggest. She's built something with real impact, dominated her niche, and did it entirely her way."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.