How I Built a Paid Community for Mobile App Builders ($7K/Month)

I'm Arthur Spalanzani. I'm 22, I'm a student in France, and I build mobile apps. I also run a paid community of app builders. $7K MRR. It started because I was tired of building alone.

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Why I started a paid community for app builders

Solo building is solo. That's literally the name. I always wanted to be part of something bigger.

When I started my YouTube channel, the only thing I really wanted was people to share stuff with and grow together. I talked about it in my videos all the time. I genuinely think a community is one of the best resources to get started building apps. Not mandatory at all. You can 100% do everything on your own. But being around other builders who are going through the same stuff makes you go faster.

I want to be clear about that. You're paying to be part of a builder's community and probably move faster. Nobody's going to build your app for you.

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How to launch a paid Discord community

I started super stressed. I thought nobody would join my private Discord. Then I got the first member. Then the second. And it kept going.

The first call was the turning point. The main value was sharing insights, blockers, what's working, what's not. It became so interesting. People were showing their dashboards, asking for feedback on their onboarding, sharing ad creatives. Stuff you can't get from a YouTube video.

Now we do 2 calls per week to discuss our apps. I genuinely love running the community. It's the most fun part of what I do.

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How to price a paid community

I doubled the price. Then tripled it. People kept joining.

Increasing the price was probably the best decision I made. It filters out low quality members. Some people were looking for a get-rich system where I would hand them everything. I hate that. I'm not building for you. If you're not putting in the work, it won't work. And obviously it's not a 100% win rate either. Even if you do everything perfectly, you might still get no traction for some reason. That's apps.

So I changed the landing page to make it more "work oriented." Done with you, not done for you. That shift in messaging attracted the right people.

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What do members get in the AppSprint Community

Through time I added more stuff. A boilerplate to get started faster, a course, and some resources for marketing. AppSprint ASO is also free for everyone who joins, so they have all the tools to get started safely.

A new project about attribution is coming soon too, and community members get preview access to whatever I'm building.

The calls are still the core though. Twice a week, talking about our apps, sharing what's working. That's where the real value is.

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What results are community members getting

A few members are now doing over $1.5K/mo with their apps. Some are getting thousands of views on TikTok organic content. Others built automation tools. Everyone's at a different stage but the momentum is real.

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How to handle payments for a paid community

I started with Stripe managed payments. They handle everything for you, VAT in every country around the world. Super convenient. But the fees are rough: 30c + 2.9% per card transaction + 3.5% for managed payments.

Then I got contacted by Whop. Same features, handles VAT the same way, but half the fees. I wrote more about this in my payments article.

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What I'd do differently with the community

I'd raise the price sooner. Every time I increased it, the quality of members went up. I spent too long at a low price point attracting people who expected everything handed to them. Higher price = people who are serious about building.

I'd also start the calls from week one. That's where the magic happens. Everything else (boilerplate, course, resources) is nice but the calls are what keep people coming back.