$18K/MONTH FROM A POMODORO TIMER

Cat on Chair sounds almost too simple:

A Pomodoro timer where a cat sits beside you while you work.

Yet the app reached 127K+ downloads, nearly $80K in sales over 8–9 months, and more than $18K in sales during one 30-day period.

THE BIG LESSON

The opportunity was not creating another productivity feature.

It was turning a familiar utility into something people emotionally wanted to use, collect, customize, and share.

The timer was ordinary.

The experience around it was not.

1. THE PRODUCT

A POMODORO TIMER FOR CAT LOVERS

The core function is familiar:

1. Start a focus session
2. Work for a set period
3. Take a break
4. Repeat

But when the session starts, a cat jumps onto a chair and stays with you while you focus.

THE CAT BECOMES YOUR COMPANION

Ryan and his girlfriend asked:

“How can we replicate the physical feeling of having a cat beside you?”

That question shaped the product.

Instead of feeling like a cold timer, Cat on Chair tries to create the calm, comforting experience cat owners recognize.

FINISH A SESSION. GET A GIFT.

When users successfully finish a focus session, the cat leaves them a gift.

If the session fails, the cat can leave trash instead.

It turns productivity into a small reward loop:

Focus → Complete → Receive → Collect → Return.

COLLECT CATS, FURNITURE & WORLDS

The experience expanded with customization:

• Different cats
• Furniture
• Backgrounds
• Animated scenes
• Collectible gifts

Ryan's girlfriend was an Animal Crossing fan, helping inspire the idea of making the environment personal and collectible.

THE APP GREW BEYOND A TIMER

The product eventually included:

1. Focus timer
2. Gift collection
3. Cat interactions
4. Custom environments
5. Focus history timeline
6. Stickers
7. To-do lists

The timer remained the utility, while the surrounding system increased engagement.

2. THE BUSINESS MODEL

FREE TO ENTER

Cat on Chair is free to download and use.

That gives users an easy way to experience the core product before paying.

Monetization comes from Pro features and paid plans rather than charging everyone before they experience the app.

THE PAID PLANS

The app offered:

• Lifetime: $29.99
• Annual: $19.99
• Family sharing: up to 6 people

Ryan said most sales came from the lifetime plan.

The model combines a large free audience with optional paid upgrades.

THE NUMBERS

Reported results included:

• 127K+ total downloads
• Nearly $80K sales in 8–9 months
• $18K+ sales in one 30-day period
• Around 24K first-time downloads in that period

The app turned a narrow idea into a meaningful indie software business.

APP STORE MOMENTUM

At its peak in Taiwan, Cat on Chair reportedly reached:

#3 — Free Productivity Apps

#11 — All Free Apps

The product initially found stronger traction in Chinese-speaking and Taiwanese markets before the team began targeting a wider global audience.

3. FROM DESIGNER TO BUILDER

HE WASN'T AN APP DEVELOPER

Ryan worked as a product designer at technology startups.

He said he left a roughly $200K job because he felt he was using only part of his potential.

His ambition was to stop designing pieces of other people's products and start shipping products of his own.

AI CHANGED WHAT HE COULD BUILD

Ryan had wanted to ship an iOS app, but coding had been the barrier.

Around 2025, he felt AI coding had become viable enough to make that possible.

His existing advantage was product design.

AI helped him extend that advantage into software development.

YOUR OLD SKILL BECOMES YOUR EDGE

Ryan did not compete by becoming the world's best programmer.

He used AI for implementation while leaning heavily on what he already understood:

Product design, interaction, visual quality, taste and user experience.

His existing skill became the product's differentiation.

4. THE BUILD TIMELINE

MAY 2025: START BUILDING

Ryan started around May 2025.

The first goal was small: make a working Pomodoro timer.

After several weeks, they had the basic timer working.

Only then did they begin developing the cat concept, animations and interaction mechanics around it.

AUGUST: FIRST REAL VERSION

By August, the first version was ready enough for testing.

Ryan recruited dozens of beta testers through RedNotes.

They spent roughly a month:

• Gathering feedback
• Fixing bugs
• Improving mechanics
• Iterating the experience

AUGUST 27: LAUNCH

Cat on Chair launched on August 27.

It received around 3,000 downloads in its first week.

But launch did not mean the product was finished.

Serious bugs still existed, including problems with data synchronization between devices.

THE REALITY AFTER LAUNCH

Even after a month of beta testing, users still discovered major problems.

Ryan said the app did not become relatively stable until around December or January.

The lesson:

Beta testing reduces risk.

Real users reveal problems testing cannot.

5. HOW IT GREW

START WHERE YOU ALREADY HAVE ACCESS

Ryan's girlfriend already shared her illustrations on RedNotes and had followers there.

So they did not begin by searching for the perfect growth channel.

They started with an audience and platform already available to them.

That became the app's first distribution advantage.

THE FIRST SMALL VIRAL MOMENTS

Cat on Chair experienced several smaller viral moments on RedNotes.

Its visual design made the product easy to notice in feeds.

People did not need a long explanation to understand it:

A cute cat + a beautiful environment + a productivity timer.

THEN INSTAGRAM EXPLODED

The major breakout happened when Instagram creators featured Cat on Chair in app-collection posts.

One post reportedly generated more than 2 million views.

That exposed the app to a much larger audience without the founders needing to build a conventional paid marketing campaign.

INSTAGRAM → THREADS → TAIWAN

Someone in Taiwan discovered the app and shared it on Threads.

It went viral again.

The sequence became:

RedNotes → Instagram → Taiwan → Threads → New users

Ryan said this chain of events essentially doubled downloads and revenue overnight.

THE PRODUCT WAS THE AD

Cat on Chair had a built-in distribution advantage:

It looked interesting enough to share.

A screenshot could communicate the personality immediately.

Influencers could place it inside an “apps you should try” post without needing to explain complicated functionality.

6. WHY THIS TIMER WON

THE FEATURE WAS NOT UNIQUE

There are thousands of Pomodoro timers.

Ryan knew meaningful innovation in the basic timer itself would be difficult.

So the team did not ask:

“How can we build a better timer?”

They asked how the entire experience surrounding the timer could feel different.

UTILITY × EMOTION

The core formula became:

Pomodoro utility
+
Cat companionship
+
Beautiful illustration
+
Customization
+
Collection mechanics
=
A productivity product with personality.

The competitive advantage emerged from the combination.

RECREATE A REAL-WORLD FEELING

Many of the best features came from one question:

“How do we reproduce the physical experience of having a cat with you?”

That led naturally to cats sitting beside users, gifts, personalities, sounds, animations and interactions.

The concept became a feature generator.

GIVE EVERY CAT A PERSONALITY

The cats were not treated as interchangeable graphics.

They received personalities and backstories.

This makes collecting different cats more meaningful because each one can feel like a character.

Small narrative details make a digital object easier for users to become attached to.

USERS EXPANDED THE IDEA

Users wanted deeper interaction with the cats.

So the team added behaviors such as a meow animation when users tap the cat or say its name aloud.

The product evolved through a loop:

Ship → Observe → Listen → Add → Repeat.

DESIGN BECAME THE MOAT

Ryan credited his girlfriend Stephanie's illustration style as a major part of the product.

The visual identity made Cat on Chair feel handcrafted.

Competitors can copy a timer.

They can copy a checklist.

A coherent world, characters, taste and personality are much harder to reproduce convincingly.

WHEN SOFTWARE CREATES EMOTION

One user told Ryan that after her real cat passed away, she found a similar-looking cat inside the app.

Using it made her feel like she could see her cat again.

That story shows how the product had moved beyond functionality and created a genuine emotional connection.

7. GAME MECHANICS

REMIX, DON'T JUST INVENT

Ryan recommends studying products you already use, then looking outside their category for mechanics worth borrowing.

For Cat on Chair, games became an important source of inspiration because games are designed around motivation, rewards, progression and retention.

THE RETENTION LOOP

Cat on Chair combines several recurring loops:

1. Focus to earn gifts
2. Collect rewards
3. Customize the environment
4. Unlock or switch cats
5. Review progress
6. Return for another session

Productivity creates progress inside the virtual world.

PRODUCTIVITY BECOMES PLAY

Traditional productivity software often focuses on efficiency.

Cat on Chair mixes productivity with mechanics normally associated with games and virtual pets.

That remix changes the emotional reason for opening the app:

You are not only completing work.

You are returning to your little world.

8. THE AI BUILD STACK

CHATGPT FOR CODING

Ryan said he primarily used ChatGPT Pro for the coding side of development.

AI helped bridge the gap between his product-design experience and the technical work required to ship an iOS application.

It expanded what one small team could execute.

A SMALL SOFTWARE STACK

Ryan also mentioned tools for operating the app:

• RevenueCat — paywalls and subscriptions
• ASO optimization software — App Store growth
• Droids — user feedback board

The business was built by a tiny team using specialized tools rather than a large organization.

AI DID NOT CREATE THE DIFFERENTIATION

AI helped Ryan build the software.

The memorable parts came from human choices:

• The cat concept
• Stephanie's illustrations
• Character personalities
• Reward mechanics
• Product taste
• Emotional details

AI increased execution capacity. Taste determined what was worth executing.

9. THE REPEATABLE PLAYBOOK

STEP 1 — START WITH SOMETHING YOU USE

Ryan recommends starting with an app category you already use or genuinely care about.

You understand the problem better because you experience it yourself.

You also have stronger instincts about what feels annoying, boring, missing or unnecessarily complicated.

STEP 2 — STUDY THE COMPETITION

Go deeper than downloading competing apps.

Study:

1. App Store reviews
2. Negative reviews
3. Social media comments
4. Feature requests
5. User communities

Look for repeated frustrations and desires the existing products are ignoring.

STEP 3 — BORROW FROM ANOTHER CATEGORY

Ask what another industry does exceptionally well.

Examples:

Productivity × Games
Finance × Social
Fitness × Collectibles
Education × Storytelling
Planning × Virtual pets

Innovation can come from moving an effective mechanic into a category where users do not expect it.

STEP 4 — ADD YOUR UNFAIR SKILL

Ask:

“What can I bring that most competitors cannot?”

For Ryan, it was product design.

For someone else it might be:

• Data analysis
• Industry expertise
• Community access
• Storytelling
• Sales knowledge
• Domain-specific workflows

STEP 5 — CREATE A DISTINCTIVE WORLD

Ryan recommends developing a recognizable visual style, either through collaboration with an illustrator or other creative methods.

The goal is not decoration.

The interface, characters, language and interaction should feel like one coherent product identity.

STEP 6 — SHIP AND LET USERS SHAPE IT

Cat on Chair was imperfect when it launched.

There were bugs. Features were still evolving. Users asked for new interactions.

The product improved through real-world feedback.

Do not wait until every possible feature exists.

Ship the core experience, then learn.

10. THE BIGGER SHIFT

BUILDING IS BECOMING CHEAPER

When AI makes basic software easier to build, simply having working features becomes less special.

More people can create timers, trackers and utilities.

That increases the importance of concept, taste, audience understanding, emotional design, distribution and product identity.

NICHE CAN BE AN ADVANTAGE

Cat on Chair did not target everyone who wants to be productive.

It combined two specific interests:

People who want to focus
+
People who love cats and playful design.

A narrow identity can make a product more relevant, memorable and shareable to the right audience.

BUILD SOFTWARE PEOPLE WANT TO EXIST

The hosts observed that Ryan seemed motivated by wanting the product itself to exist, not simply by chasing a lucrative market.

That care showed up in the details.

Ironically, those details helped create the uniqueness that eventually made people want to share the app.

THE FORMULA

Familiar utility
+
Specific niche
+
Personal skill advantage
+
Cross-industry mechanics
+
Distinctive visual identity
+
Emotional experience
+
Organic shareability
+
AI-powered execution
=
A small app capable of becoming a serious business.

FINAL LESSON

Ryan's final advice was simple:

Keep trying. Stay consistent.

It took him years to discover what he enjoyed and what he was good at. Building the app with AI was not smooth or effortless either.

The breakthrough came from continuing until skill, technology, product and personal interest finally connected.