Starter Story I Built A $1M App In 5 Hours | Starter Story
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Oct 30, 2025 
Dawson Botsford, a solopreneur software engineer and founder of Earnify, shares his incredible journey of transforming an idea into a $1M app in just 5 hours. He discusses his early programming experiences and how a viral demo tweet garnered 10,000 signups. Dawson reveals his 'anti-email' paywall strategy for monetization, his growth tactics through Twitter and conferences, and the obsessive quality that set his product apart. He reflects on life post-acquisition and his future plans, including consulting and building community.
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Building Earnify And Early Traction
- Dawson built Earnify, a site that shows Ethereum users their unclaimed airdrops by address.
- He grew it to 250,000 free users and 5,000 paid users, reaching over $1M ARR before an exit.
Product That Finds Real Money
- Earnify returns instant results when you paste an Ethereum address and often shows hundreds or thousands of dollars.
- The average user over the life of the site received about $750 in claimable airdrops.
A Million-Dollar App In Hours
- Dawson coded the initial Earnify product in a single focused session during a hackathon.
- He estimates the start-to-finish build took four to five hours total.