Show Notes
Charlie bootstrapped his micro-saas, Links, to over $30K/month, which allowed him to quit his job... twice! In this episode, he shares exactly how he grew Liinks to $30K/month (even in a saturated market), and his advice for building a side project that might help you quit your full-time job, right now in 2026
*Side project ideas you can build with your 9-5:* https://clickhubspot.com/xls2
Say hi to Charlie: https://x.com/charliie Check out Liinks: https://www.liinks.co/
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters: Chapters
00:00:00 zero to $30K/month 00:01:03 What’s your story? 00:01:32 What’s the app? 00:02:34 Building side projects 00:03:30 Business metrics 00:04:15 Founder background 00:05:47 Finding the app idea 00:06:59 Liinks growth strategies 00:08:23 Pricing strategy and breakdown 00:09:40 Leaving the 9-5 00:10:53 Mindset behind quitting your job 00:12:45 Tech stack and tools 00:13:32 App demo 00:15:01 Final advice
This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.
More from Starter Story
Rasty built and launched his first iOS app in 3 weeks. And today, that simple idea makes $41,000 per month. The secret? Well, he didn't dance on TikTok or spam Instagram. No, his old school approach is much simpler than that. This episode is about how a founder built something absurdly simple, out-marketed much bigger players, and built a successful app.
Kourosh built an app in a very crowded market... and yet still managed to grow it to over $18K/month. His secret is insanely simple: everyone else is chasing tech-savvy power users, but Kourosh built this app for a type of custer everyone is ignoring (his dad). This video is the story of how to build a successful product in a "saturated" market.
Vadim is 19 years old and, before this year, had never shipped an app in his life. In March, he quit his marketing job to build apps… 5 months later, he hit $10K/month with over 20K users.
Max built a simple iOS app to solve his own problem at the gym. But here’s the thing… before this app, he had never shipped a single line of code in his life. In fact, he was going down the traditional route: college, internships, everything. But he found apps and decided to go all-in. Today, his app makes $14K/month and is growing. This is his app story for anyone looking to get started with apps in 2026.
6 months ago, Lino had never built an app in his life. Then he stumbled upon the app community on X, made some connections, and started building. Just 6 months later, he's grown his first app to over $50K per month and changed his life forever. In this video, he will break down his unbelievable app idea and how he grew it so fast.