REPLICATION GUIDE · AI Businesses

Pomodoro focus timer app

Cat on Chair offers a free, ad-free Pomodoro/count-up timer, cat rewards and friend focus.

● Already earning  $20K/mo  ·  Copy it for about $40K

Replication snapshot

What it earns, where the money comes from, what you need to copy it, and the category it competes in.

Monthly revenue$20K/mo
Copy budget$40K
Growth channelsWord of mouth, Email marketing
Tools to copyHubSpot
CategoryAI Businesses

How to copy this business and make money

Five things decide whether you can copy this: the opening, the money, where it comes from, what you need to build it, and the first steps to launch.

QUICK LOOKFree summary — what it sells, and the total budget
Interview 15–20 adult students/workers; test a clickable prototype before art. Build a local-first SwiftUI iOS MVP: Pomodoro/count-up, original cat, rewards, tasks and history. Total copy budget: $40K.

Want to see how that $40K splits line by line, what each line buys, and when to stop? The full breakdown is below.

PROVEN · ALREADY MAKING MONEY

Thousands of people are already making money with this playbook

If you want to make money, read this part. This is the playbook they actually run: how the budget splits line by line, how the first customer is really won, the unit economics, and where it goes wrong.

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$251Mmonthly revenue
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  • Budget line by line: where every dollar goes, and what you can cut
  • Acquisition cost per customer and how fast it pays back
  • The risks and stopping rules — know where it breaks before you start

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Open-source stack you can start from

Each repository was checked against the GitHub API for existence, stars and licence terms. Fork one instead of starting from zero. Where it says AGPL, read the terms before shipping a paid product.

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Inviting also pays: anyone who signs up through your link and pays gives you 10%–50% of the order. How inviting pays →

What this business does

Cat on Chair offers a free, ad-free Pomodoro/count-up timer, cat rewards and friend focus. For students/workers, generic timers can feel cold/boring and hinder focus; problem untested. Apple lists developer Ryan Yao and seller Cat On Desk Design Inc. July 2026 Starter Story reports 127K downloads and calls Yao a former product designer who built it with his illustrator girlfriend (role unknown). Yao reports >$18K gross sales in 30 days tied to Apr 13 and nearly $80K over 8–9 months. Year, exact dates and ISO currency unknown; founder-reported, not verified current revenue. Revenue/scale unknown. App active; FAQ: Android development unsupported for now. Store: iOS 17+, iPhone/iPad/Watch, Mac M1+/macOS 14+; Mac experience unverified.

Replication breakdown

01

Why it works — and where your opening is

Generic timers record intervals, while some strict blockers may make interruptions feel punitive; whether that matters to target users is a hypothesis to test. Cat companionship, earned gifts, fish, and a room collection turn completed sessions into visible progress and a small ritual. Tasks, reminders, and optional blocking add utility around the timer; the free tier lets people try it before paying. In the July 2026 interview, Ryan Yao says the concept came from his girlfriend’s cat-on-a-chair necklace and that customization drew on Animal Crossing. Original illustration could make the product memorable, but timer and reward mechanics are copyable; no patent, network effect, or exclusive-data moat is verified. Public sources show no retention cohort or causal productivity results.
02

The money: revenue, cost, and margin

Monthly revenue$20K/mo
Revenue per employee$108K /yr

Estimated from technical complexity, people, tools, and delivery scope.

Replica model: $40,000 USD startup ×2 = $80,000 USD/month; neither is company spend, income, forecast or guarantee. In Starter Story’s July 26, 2026 interview, Yao reported >$18K gross sales in a 30-day window linked to Apr 13 (year/dates unknown), nearly $80K over 8–9 months, mostly lifetime. Interview dollars lack ISO currency and are not converted to USD; not verified MRR, net receipts or profit. Starter Story’s AI profile lists ~$18K/month as of 2026 from one source, best-effort and not independently confirmed. Current receipts, costs, margins and profit are unknown. Apple fees, refunds, taxes, staff, support, art and acquisition reduce gross sales; no product AI/API/GPU operating spend is disclosed. Revenue is not profit.
03

Where the revenue comes from

Free, ad-free app monetizes through optional Pro subscriptions, lifetime/family unlocks, and digital item purchases. US App Store, checked Oct. 18, 2026: $2.99/month, $9.99/quarter, $19.99 annual Pro, $24.99 annual Family Share, $29.99 individual lifetime, $39.99 family lifetime; items $2.99–$3.99. US examples; regions vary. In the July 2026 interview, Yao said lifetime purchases provided most sales then; that is a dated founder report. Terms effective Aug. 24, 2025 say Apple processes purchases, subscriptions renew until canceled, and refunds follow Apple policy. The founder cited Xiaohongshu beta recruitment, an Instagram feature above 2M views, and Taiwan Threads sharing; historical examples, not proof of repeatable conversion.
04

Tools you need to replicate it

The official privacy policy, effective July 16, 2026, names PostHog analytics, AppsFlyer attribution and deep links, RevenueCat purchases, and Apple iCloud, Screen Time, and Speech Recognition. Sessions, tasks, settings, and custom sounds are stored locally, with optional iCloud sync; audio may reach Apple if on-device recognition is unavailable. Apple’s App Store disclosure lists Usage Data and Diagnostics as not linked to identity, but Apple says it has not verified the disclosure. Starter Story’s AI tool page attributes ChatGPT, RevenueCat, AppLyra, and a feedback board to Yao; the transcript says “ChaiGPT Pro,” and board names conflict (“Zerjoid” versus “ThirdDroid”). Internal stack and signed project DPA are unknown.

Success stories from this field

Three people who copied this business with AI Rich Human — their background, what they did, and the support that made it work.

Story by · Arjun Saleh

Arjun Saleh — from call-center agent to copying a $20K/mo business: Pomodoro focus timer app

I did this for my daughter. I was tired of choosing between rent and her school fees. I read scripts to angry customers for 3 years, monitored every second, burned out at twenty-eight. Then a friend sent me a link to AI Rich Human. I expected another "get rich online" course and almost closed the tab. Instead I found real businesses that already make money — named companies with real revenue — and, for Pomodoro focus timer app, a copy-and-execute plan broken down to the numbers. Their breakdown answered the three questions I actually had: how much to put in (about $40K), what to build it on (HubSpot), and where the customers come from (Word of mouth, Email marketing). Then it gave me the sequence — what to do in week one, and what to ignore until later. I worked through the checklist in order. HubSpot first, then Word of mouth, Email marketing, then the outreach script — and two paying clients inside a month. The headline budget of about $40K is not a day-one number; I spent the minimum that could produce one customer and let the rest come out of earnings. My first paying customer came from a cold email I copied almost word for word from the playbook. I was scared to hit send. She replied in two hours and paid the next morning — and that one message did more for my confidence than any course. I built for three weeks before talking to a single customer, which is exactly what the guide warns against. My first five conversations changed the offer completely. I wish I had done those five calls in week one. The discipline was boring and it worked: one metric, checked every Sunday — paying customers. Growth meant more of the same channel. A flat week meant a different offer, not a different business. I expected a course and got a technical partner. Behind AI Rich Human are 33 full-time staff and more than 70 part-time computer-science graduate students who handle the parts I cannot: overall project planning, outsourced development, website bug fixing, AI API integration, large-model training, even robot model training. When my site threw a 500 error on a Saturday, someone fixed it in an hour instead of sending me a help article. I undercharged for two months out of fear. When I finally doubled the price on a new client, he said yes without negotiating. The cheap clients had been the difficult ones all along. My brother laughed when I told him. My old manager said I was throwing away a stable job. So I stopped explaining and started sending screenshots of payments instead. Nobody argues with a bank notification. There is no office and no boss. Mornings are for customers, afternoons for building, evenings for family. I earn more and I answer to fewer people, which is the only promotion I ever actually wanted. Today my copy of it pays me every month. The business I copied runs about $20K/mo — I am not at that scale, and I don't need to be: I was earning around $1,500 a month as a call-center agent in Belfast, and this already beats that, with room to grow. I am not a genius and I cannot code. What changed was copying a proven plan with a team behind me. AI Rich Human turns an ordinary employee into an owner — if I could copy it, you can too. The first month I paid both without panic, I cried. The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-129-catonchair-app?lang=en
Story by · Ingrid Haddad

Ingrid Haddad — from line cook to copying a $20K/mo business: Pomodoro focus timer app

There is a version of this story where I never clicked the link. I clicked it out of boredom at one in the morning. I worked the line in a restaurant kitchen for 6 years — split shifts, burns, tips split three ways. A colleague forwarded me AI Rich Human during a lunch break. I scrolled past the hype and landed on the part that mattered: actual companies, actual revenue, and a step-by-step breakdown of Pomodoro focus timer app written for someone with no budget and no team. The plan was brutally specific: a launch budget of about $40K, the exact tools it runs on (HubSpot), the revenue channels that actually convert (Word of mouth, Email marketing), and the first steps to land a paying customer. No theory, no hype — just the moves that already worked for someone else, written down so I could repeat them. What actually saved me was the team. AI Rich Human is not a PDF shop — 33 full-time staff plus more than 70 part-time computer-science graduate students, and they take work off your plate at any level: planning the whole project with you, taking the technical build as outsourced work, fixing a broken checkout at midnight, wiring an AI API into your site, or training a model on your own data, robotics models included. When my payment page died on a Friday night, a real engineer answered. I blocked out evenings and did exactly what the sheet said: HubSpot set up, Word of mouth, Email marketing opened, the first-customer email sent. Two clients signed within three weeks. I never needed the whole $40K up front — I put in just enough to get one person to pay, then recycled that money. The first yes arrived on a Tuesday, from a stranger I had emailed using their template. I rewrote maybe four words. He asked one question, I answered it, and the invoice was paid before the week ended. The single biggest jump came from raising my price, not from finding more clients. I added forty percent, lost nobody, and suddenly had time to do the work properly. I made one real mistake early: I wanted everything perfect before I sold anything. Two weeks passed — I had a logo, a website, and zero customers. The plan says it plainly: sell first, build second. The moment I sent five rough cold messages, the business started moving. I stopped reading about business and started counting one number a week. If paying customers went up, I repeated whatever I had done. If they didn't, I changed the price or the pitch. That was the whole system. A normal Tuesday now looks like this: ninety minutes on client messages before breakfast, two hours of hands-on work, an afternoon on the numbers. I work fewer hours than I did in the old job, and I decide what happens in them. That part I still can't get used to. People at work found out and made jokes about "internet money". I stopped defending it and just showed the payout screen. The jokes stopped when the numbers got boring and regular. My version is small and it is mine. It earns less than the $20K/mo the original does — but more than the $1,800 a month I made as a line cook in Nairobi, and it grows while I sleep. I cannot code and I have no rich uncle. I had a plan, a link, and a team I could call. That was enough, and it can be enough for you. Boredom turned out to be the most profitable decision I made that year. The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-129-catonchair-app?lang=en
Story by · Mateo Vargas

Mateo Vargas — from administrative assistant to copying a $20K/mo business: Pomodoro focus timer app

Two things were true at once: I was exhausted, and I was comfortable. Comfort was the problem. For 9 years I was an administrative assistant — booking rooms, filing invoices, and a salary that never moved. I found AI Rich Human through a search I had almost given up on. What kept me there was not a promise but a spreadsheet: Pomodoro focus timer app, what it costs to start, which tools it runs on, and how the first customer actually arrives. My mother asked, twice, whether this was a scam. The third time she asked, it was to find out how much I was making. I did not convince anyone with words — the transfers did it. What I got was not a course but a build sheet — the launch budget (about $40K), the stack (HubSpot), the channels that actually convert (Word of mouth, Email marketing), and the order to do things in. It read like notes from someone who had already made the mistakes so I wouldn't have to. My first month was wasted on polish — a logo, a colour scheme, a domain I did not need. Nobody bought anything. Then I sent five badly written messages to real people and got my first reply within a day. Sell first, decorate later. So I followed it, step by step. I set up HubSpot, opened Word of mouth, Email marketing first, and used their first-customer script to land my first two paying clients within a few weeks. The plan lists a full launch budget of about $40K, but nobody spends that on day one — I started with the smallest slice that could produce a paying customer, and reinvested from the revenue. I sent eleven messages before anyone answered. The twelfth person — a small studio owner — replied "how much?" and paid that afternoon. Eleven rejections cost me nothing but an evening. I still get up early, but now the first hour belongs to me, not to a commute. Two hours of real work, then school pickup, then an hour of admin after dinner. Same number of hours, completely different life. Nobody warns you about pricing. My first price was so low that I was busy all day and still broke. On the third client I raised it by forty percent and nobody blinked. That same client later sent me two referrals. The part nobody advertises: there is a bench behind the plan. 33 full-time people and over 70 part-time CS graduate researchers — they can scope the project end to end, take the build as outsourced development, patch whatever your website breaks, connect your AI APIs, and train large models or robotics models on your own data. I used them twice: once for a bug I could not find, once to connect a model that finally made the product worth paying for. I also learned to trust numbers over fear. Every week I tracked one thing: paying customers. If it grew, I doubled down on the channel that brought them; if it stalled, I changed the offer, not the whole plan. A year ago I was a administrative assistant in Leeds on about $2,000 a month. Today this copy pays me more than that, and the business I copied is doing $20K/mo — proof the ceiling is far above me. Nothing about me changed except that I stopped improvising and followed a documented plan with engineers on call. Nothing about my old life was broken. I just wanted a version of it that I owned. The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-129-catonchair-app?lang=en

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