How one solo founder grew a transit app to $30K MRR

Executive overview

John McEvoy, a self-taught developer from Scotland, built Momego — a bus and train tracking app — entirely solo. It now has 5.2 million downloads, 400K monthly active users, and $30K monthly recurring revenue.

The growth engine was App Store Optimization (ASO): targeting hyper-local, low-competition keywords at zero ad spend. A later pivot from ads to subscriptions, combined with A/B-tested paywalls, pushed conversion from 0.5% to 8% and tripled revenue.

Solving your own problem and trusting event-based data over vanity metrics are the two levers that actually moved the needle.

The three-step ASO playbook

1. Add location-specific keywords (e.g. "MTA subway", "CTA L train") to the app title, subtitle, and keyword field — one per city or transit system served.
2. Use additional App Store localizations (e.g. Mexican Spanish) to index the same keywords with equal weight in the US store.
3. Update screenshots per localization so each city sees region-specific imagery.
4. Discover high-impact keywords by typing partial phrases into the App Store search bar and noting autocomplete suggestions — these have lower competition.
5. Validate keywords via Apple Search Ads before committing them to metadata.
6. Trigger the rating prompt at "magic moments" — e.g. when the user first sees a bus moving live on the map.

Pivoting from ads to subscriptions

• Ad revenue reached ~$8K/month, then collapsed during the pandemic.
• Rebuilt the app around an annual subscription with premium features as the hook.
• Launched the subscription model in August 2020; revenue recovered and then grew.
• Introduced A/B-tested paywalls in 2021: ~10 experiments over 2–3 months lifted conversion from 0.5% to 8%.
• Revenue jumped from ~$8K to over $30K/month.

Onboarding and paywall design

• Onboarding is minimal — location permission, 2–3 value screens, then the paywall.
• Paywall offers three options: 7-day free trial (annual), weekly plan (low commitment), lifetime plan (no subscription).
• Reverse trial: users who close the paywall are automatically given a 7-day pro trial with no payment required — a key conversion unlock.

Tech stack and costs

• Backend: Laravel (PHP) — chosen for reliability over novelty.
• Mobile: native Swift (iOS) and Flutter (Android/cross-platform).
• Analytics: Mixpanel for event tracking; RevenueCat for subscription management.
• ASO research: AppFigures.
• Infrastructure: ~20 dedicated servers via Cloudflare geographic load balancer — ~$2,500/month.
• Third-party APIs (mapping etc.): ~$1,000/month.
• Total server/API costs: ~$3,500/month against $30K revenue.

Founder advice

• Build for a problem you personally have — it sustains motivation through nights, weekends, and dead ends.
• Ditch vanity metrics (downloads, MAU) early; switch to event-based analytics to understand what users actually do.
• A/B test paywalls before assuming any conversion rate is fixed.