# Building Mobile Apps Today Before building a mobile app that you could deploy to the app store was a long, hard and costly process. This is not the case anymore. I wanted to share my thoughts on how we can build and market an app to make $ simply. This is possible because of the modern mobile stack getting democratised, and enabling a solo person to ship a production app in weeks. # The Stack - **Frontend:** [React Native](https://reactnative.dev/) gives you native look and feel for both iOS and Android from one codebase. No more maintaining two apps. - **Build & Deploy:** [Expo](https://expo.dev/) handles the painful stuff: certificates, TestFlight deployment (`npx testflight`), packaging, and routing. It abstracts away Apple's bureaucracy. - **Backend:** [Convex](https://www.convex.dev/) provides realtime database and backend functions out of the box. No spinning up servers, no managing infrastructure. - **Auth:** [Clerk](https://clerk.com/) or [WorkOS](https://workos.com/) for authentication. Clerk is simpler for consumer apps. WorkOS if you need enterprise SSO. # Platform Economics Build for iOS first. That's where the revenue is. Android users spend less on apps and in-app purchases. The 70/30 split hurts, but iOS users actually pay. # Marketing and Distribution TikTok is the growth channel right now. That is where normal consumers are at. Short-form video showing the app in action outperforms traditional app store optimization. [[Sell before building]] applies here: validate demand through content before writing code. ## Links - [[Pattern breaking ideas - the key to outlier startups]] - [[First Principles and Mental Models MoC]] What to fix - Work OS is not working - fix it and sort out. --- #tools #wp