Hey buddy,
Issue #5 of Business For Sale. This one's smaller than last week's: $25,000 asking price, iOS-only, built on TikTok traffic. But it's worth covering because it is an interesting idea, an even more interesting marketing channel and has the most confusing revenue presentation we've seen in this series yet.
(Quick disclosure: the link below is my referral link on TrustMRR — costs you nothing, but I wanted you to know it's there.)
What It Does: FirstRevenue is an iOS app that gives beginners a personalised roadmap and daily action plans to earn their first money online. Users input their goals, budget, and experience level, and the app generates a step-by-step guide.
Growth has come almost entirely from automated TikTok slideshows.
The Listing Business: FirstRevenue — iOS education app for beginner online earners
Asking price: $25,000
Revenue: $1,125 MRR from 106 active subscriptions, $2,438 in the last 30 days, founded March 2026
Multiple: 1.9x annualized MRR
Verified or self-reported: RevenueCat-verified — this is the first listing in our series verified through RevenueCat rather than Stripe, tracked since June 25, 2026
Where I found it: TrustMRR
The Business Model: Multiple pricing tiers — weekly at $7.99, monthly at $9.99, yearly at $29.99, and lifetime access at $49.99–$99.99.
85% profit margins. 106 active subscriptions. App Store rating of 4.8/5 from 77 ratings.
Why It Caught My Eye:
106 active subscribers on a $25K ask is a real installed base for this price point — that's more subscribers than NoSite Search (issue #2) had at a similar price
4.8/5 on 77 App Store ratings is a legitimately strong signal that the product is doing what it promises for the people using it
85% profit margins mean almost every dollar of revenue stays in after costs
The TikTok growth channel is mostly automated per the founder, which means traffic isn't entirely dependent on the seller showing up every day to create content
The topic — helping beginners earn online — is the exact same audience WiFi Moolah speaks to, so this one's closer to home than most
The Math — and the Number That Needs Explaining:
Here's the part I want to slow down on, because this listing has a gap in it that almost every reader will miss on first look.
The listing shows two revenue numbers side by side: $2,438 last 30 days, and $1,125 MRR from 106 active subscriptions. Those two numbers are more than $1,300 apart — and they're supposed to be measuring roughly the same thing.
The reason is mobile app pricing.
Unlike SaaS where almost everyone pays monthly, mobile apps sell weekly, monthly, annual, and lifetime plans all at once.
When someone buys a $29.99 annual plan or a $99.99 lifetime plan, that entire payment hits the last-30-days revenue figure — but only $2.50 or so of it counts toward "MRR" since RevenueCat normalises everything to a monthly equivalent.
So the $2,438 last-30-days figure includes a batch of annual and lifetime purchases that inflated the period, while the $1,125 MRR is the steadier recurring base underneath.
The 1.9x multiple is calculated off MRR.
At $25K against the blended $2,438 × 12 ≈ $29,256, the effective multiple is actually closer to 0.85x — which sounds cheap until you realise that $2,438 month probably won't repeat at exactly that figure next month if fewer lifetime deals closed.
Tech Stack You'd Inherit:
Swift, SwiftUI (iOS only)
RevenueCat (subscription management)
What I'd Dig Into Before Buying:
Ask for the month-by-month revenue breakdown since launch — the listing has only been tracked since June 25, which is less than two months of verified data on a business founded in March. There are several months of unverified history before that
Find out what split of the $2,438 came from weekly, monthly, annual, and lifetime purchases — that breakdown tells you how stable the recurring base actually is versus how much was one-time lifetime revenue in a good month
The app is iOS-only, which cuts the addressable market roughly in half from the start — ask whether an Android build is in progress, planned, or out of scope entirely
TikTok slideshows are described as "mostly automated" — get specific on what that means. Are these scheduled posts running from a content queue, or does the founder still need to create and upload new content periodically?
The topic — "make money online" — is one of the most crowded and regulatory-scrutinised categories in the App Store. Ask whether the app has had any issues with App Store review or policy flags, since Apple watches this category closely
With only 77 App Store ratings, a wave of negative reviews from a single bad experience could meaningfully move that 4.8 average — understand what the refund and complaint history looks like
My Take:
This is the listing in this series most likely to appeal to a WiFi Moolah reader directly — the topic, the price point, and the TikTok-driven model are all in familiar territory. The product clearly works for the people using it, and the margins are excellent. The homework here isn't spotting a trick. It's getting comfortable with the fact that mobile app revenue is structurally lumpier than SaaS MRR, and making sure the steady base underneath the good month is solid enough to justify $25K.
My Verdict: Would I buy it? Possibly — but only after seeing the full month-by-month breakdown and understanding exactly what's in that $2,438 figure. If the recurring base is genuinely stable around $1,125/month and the TikTok channel keeps running without daily intervention, $25K for 85% margins and a 4.8-rated app in a topic I already understand is not a bad entry point. I'd negotiate toward $18K–$20K given the limited revenue history and the iOS-only constraint.
What This Teaches You (Even If You're Never Buying a Business):
On mobile apps, "last 30 days revenue" and "MRR" will almost always show different numbers because of how annual and lifetime plans are counted. Neither number is wrong — they're just measuring different things. Always ask which one a multiple is built on, and always ask what's inside the bigger number before treating it as the baseline.
If You Want to Look Yourself:
Browse TrustMRR and filter by mobile apps specifically — the revenue dynamics are different enough from SaaS to deserve their own lens
For any app listing, ask for the revenue breakdown by pricing tier (weekly/monthly/annual/lifetime) before calculating a real multiple
Check when RevenueCat or Stripe tracking started versus the business's actual founding date — the gap is unverified history you're essentially taking on faith
Look up the App Store listing directly and read the negative reviews, not the positive ones — that's where the real product feedback lives
For TikTok-driven businesses, ask for screen recordings or account access to verify the follower count and engagement are real before completing a purchase
Use TrustMRR's free APA/LOI/NDA templates once you're seriously negotiating
Pro Tip: On mobile app listings, a high "last 30 days" figure relative to MRR almost always means lifetime deals or annual plans closed in that period. It's not a bad sign — but it does mean that month was better than average, not a baseline you should extrapolate forward.
Talk soon, Kris
P.S- I am thinking of launching something soon, keep an eye out here
P.P.S- Wifi Moolah has always been FREE and will keep on being the same. Still if you like the content and wanna show your support or appreciate our work, you can do it here:
