Introduction
Meet Andrii
"I need someone to get advice from a real person who made a lot of apps. Not from ChatGPT only, but from real person."
Andrii was a QA automation engineer from Ukraine. Former journalist.
He'd taken all my courses, knew React Native inside out, and had already built a basic backend for an AI news summarizer.
But when I asked him "Why are you doing this?" he paused.
He said. "The motivation for me is to build an app which will give me some passive income. But I also want to create something useful."
Andrii wanted to build something meaningful, but he also needed financial safety.
The tech industry was collapsing in Ukraine, friends in Europe and the US told him it could take months to find a new job.
But an app wasn't just a side project, it was insurance.
This was his shot to build it himself and do it right.
Why Andrii joined
Andrii could build: he'd already created scrapers, distributed workers, summarization logic. The technical part was solid 👍
What he didn't have was a roadmap from idea to App Store.
Someone to tell him what to do next, how to avoid getting rejected, how to actually get users to care.
When Andrii listed what he needed, he was basically describing the Incubator without knowing it.
🟡 A clear roadmap from start to finish.
🟡 Weekly accountability where someone actually checks your progress.
🟡 Advice from people who'd shipped apps, not just theory.
🟡 Help avoiding the obvious pitfalls like App Store rejections.
The Incubator gave him exactly that.
He could dedicate 2-3 hours per day, more on weekends. He was ready to invest.
Your idea has no demand?
First call, Andrii showed me his keyword research for the news summarizer. We ran it through ASO tools.
Popularity: 5 out of 100.
Not good.
We checked the biggest competitor, Feedly. Same story - low search volume across the board.
"It's either that there is no demand or the demand is somewhere else," I told him.
We had a problem.
Andrii could build a technically perfect app, but if nobody was searching for it on the App Store, how would they find it?
We needed different distribution channels and this wasn't going to happen organically through app store search.
Validate distribution first
I had an idea. What if we flipped the normal process?
Instead of building for months and hoping people show up, what if we validated distribution first?
Start with a Telegram channel or newsletter posting news summaries. If people actually subscribe, we know there's interest. Then build the app and redirect them there.
The key was localized content.
Not "tech news" but "Barcelona tech news." Run Meta ads targeting people in Barcelona interested in business. If an ad says "Are you from Barcelona?" with local images, the success rate is way higher than generic global messaging.
Test it cheap - can you get newsletter subscribers for $1 each? If yes, you've found distribution.
If no, pivot before wasting months building.
Testing and building
Andrii set up a landing page on Kit and ran Facebook ads for Barcelona tech news. Spent about $7, got 28 people to view the page. Zero subscribers.
Not great, but not terrible for a first test. I suggested trying Facebook lead generation ads = let people subscribe right in the ad without leaving to a landing page. Also try bigger cities. London, maybe something from the US.
While testing ads, he was building the app itself.
I gave him some quick UI feedback - remove the padding on article details so it's full screen, use markdown formatting for the AI summaries to get better text hierarchy.
Small things that would make it feel more polished.
The rejections: adding what Apple wanted
Week 6, Andrii submitted to the App Store.
Rejected. "Minimal functionality."
We talked through what to add. I suggested swipeable cards - like Tinder for news. Give users a morning recap of the top 10 stories, swipe through them quickly, then browse the full feed if they want more.
He resubmitted.
Rejected again.
This time we didn't panic. Add keyword selection on the first screen to prove personalization from day one. Dial down the swipe animation. Add an input field for users to suggest their own news sources.
Andrii implemented everything in 2 days. Third submission. Approved. 🥳
The Adam Lyttle feedback
We brought in Adam Lyttle for chat with the whole cohort. Andrii demoed the app, the swipeable cards, the personalization, everything.
Adam got straight to the point.
He could see the technical effort, but who would actually pay for AI-generated news summaries?
Even newspapers struggle to monetize.
Ads need massive user numbers, subscriptions need clear value.
Nobody wants to hear that your app may not be that amazing. But then he gave two suggestions
- First, audio playback
Imagine a personal news bulletin playing while you commute. No swiping, just listening.
- Offline mode
Pre-download everything you want to read on the train when there's no reception.
👆 Narrow down your app as much as possible.
Frank from the group jumped in immediately. He pays for Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, AND Apple News.
If he could just hear a 5-minute summary every morning? He'd pay for that.
Adam's closing words hit hardest though. This is your first app, and you've done what 99% of people never do - actually ship something.
The hardest belt in karate isn't the black belt, it's the white belt.
That first step most people never take.
And that is the win!
What Andrii learned
By the end of the Incubator, Andrii had launched QuickNews AI. Users could download it.
To sum up, here's what changed:
1. Distribution matters more than features Started by trying to validate distribution first, not building for months then hoping people show up.
2. Rejection is part of the process Got rejected twice by Apple. Didn't give up. Added features, improved the app, got approved on the third try.
3. You need real feedback, not just ChatGPT "I need someone to get advice from experience, not from ChatGPT only," he said at the start. The Incubator gave him that.
4. Technical excellence ≠ product success Adam's feedback: "Technically everything is impressive. It's then how do you make code into a product."
5. The first app is the learning curve "I achieved something I always dreamed about - from ideation to submitted and approved on the store."
In his own words
🟡 What did you learn?
"I got rejected two times. This program helped me to improve the app, not to give up and continue working to fit all the requirements from Apple. That was really motivating."
"The program helped me understand building an app is not something that takes years. It can be made in two months effectively if you have a roadmap, if you have a good strategy."
🟡 Who should join?
"People who want to not just watch a course but really go through the process from A to Z—from ideation, from proving your idea to submitting and resolving real problems on different stages. People who want to build, not just dream."
🟡 And when I asked if the investment was worth it:
"Yeah, it was really worth it. Because it's really unique - unique cohort, group of people, unique way of collaboration, unique way of building the app, changing your mind, getting support anytime you need it."
Where Andrii is now
QuickNews AI is on the App Store.
He's working on distribution - setting up SEO, exploring Telegram channels, considering text-to-speech features based on user feedback.
The hardest belt in karate is the white belt. The first belt.
Because 99% of people never have the courage to actually get it.
"Even having a full-time job and a kid - which is essentially a second job - it's doable if you're motivated."
Andrii got his belt.
