From Side Hustle to $6K/Month Startup Studio in 16 Months

Background

In early 2023, two friends—one with a law and media background, the other in economics and finance—decided to leave safe jobs to follow a coding passion from their teens. Their first product idea failed before launch, but it taught them that they needed full focus to turn ideas into real products.

Launching Oscar Stories

They built Oscar Stories in two months. The AI app generates bedtime tales for kids. React Native powered the front end, with an Express server on the back end. On Product Hunt launch day they scored 500 signups, which gave them real feedback and the confidence to keep going. Over the next year they refined the AI model so language stayed simple and age-appropriate.

Tackling AI Bias

Early on they noticed bias in story content. To address this they’re working on a spin-off called LORA, backed by a small government grant. They bring in educators from Austria and a machine learning engineer to review prompts and examples, aiming to boost diversity and reduce gender stereotypes in kids’ stories.

Business Model Evolution

At first Oscar Stories was free, then they added a points system. Subscriptions followed, but users complained of fatigue. The final mix is a hybrid: one-time coin packs plus an unlimited-stories subscription. Parity pricing with a localized Portuguese option made Brazil their top market almost overnight.

Marketing Approaches

They found digital ads tough for kids’ apps, so they focused on earned media, startup fairs, and remote user testing. Wired featured them, Game City in Austria gave demo space, and tools like Rapid User Tests helped refine UX when events were impossible.

Expanding the Portfolio

Nine months after Oscar Stories they shipped Branding5, a brand-positioning tool. Five months later they launched FragDasPDF, a chatbot for German PDFs. They realized simple chat alone wouldn’t stick, so they’re building word-processing and formatting into the app for students and researchers.

Tech Stack & Team

Their core stack is Next.js with Firebase and Supabase for vector storage. They tap into Google’s Gemini Flash for AI credits and also use Python for fine-tuning models. As revenue climbed, they hired contractors for bug fixes and now maintain a small but nimble team.

Lessons Learned

They kept personal runway long enough to avoid panic. Starting while employed let them test ideas without big stakes. Early user feedback steered product changes. And flexible pricing options prevented subscription bottlenecks. They set bold goals: not just small wins, but apps that stand out in crowded markets.

Current Status

Today, Neumayer and Rubanov’s studio runs three products, serving 60K users and generating $6,000 per month. They’re refining existing tools and exploring new niches in the AI space. They now run multiple apps showing the power of rapid iteration, it works.