NativeExpress: From a React Native Starter Kit to €3.2K MRR

€3.2K peak MRR · ~€28K total revenue · 100+ customers · €229 one-time price

Robin Faraj built NativeExpress after running into the same problems over and over while building mobile apps.

He was a web developer who had to build multiple apps at work. React Native and Expo felt familiar, but there were still a lot of things to figure out before an app could actually ship.

So he built a starter kit that handled the boring parts for him.

What is NativeExpress?

NativeExpress is a React Native + Expo starter kit with the parts most apps need already wired up.

It includes things like:

Supabase authentication

RevenueCat

Superwall

PostHog

Sentry

App Store and Play Store setup

Config files for store submission

The latest version is also set up for coding agents like Claude Code and Cursor.

The idea is simple: clone the project and start building the part that is actually yours.

Why I Built It

Robin had been asked to build multiple apps at work but was mainly a web developer.

React Native and Expo had a lot of similarities to web development, but there were still plenty of pitfalls.

Then came everything around actually submitting an app.

Login, subscriptions, paywalls, analytics, crash reporting, privacy labels, screenshots and store listings.

He didn't want to keep solving the same problems from scratch.

"So I decided to built this kit for myself and others."

Building the Product

Robin didn't really build a traditional MVP.

He built the whole thing.

Then something interesting happened.

He was building in public on X and people started asking where they could buy it.

So he launched a pre-order page within a day.

He had the first sales before he even had a proper landing page.

Getting the First Customers

The first customer came through building in public on X.

The first 100 customers came mainly from X and Reddit.

Reddit also had a positive effect on SEO and GEO.

Robin tried SEO, Reddit, X, Product Hunt, cold outreach, paid ads, communities and word of mouth.

X and Reddit worked best.

Cold outreach didn't work very well.

He is now experimenting with paid ads but hasn't seen results yet.

The Timeline

Within 2 to 4 weeks

Built NativeExpress.

First 2 weeks

Started posting about it on X and made more than €1K. This was Robin's first money from a product.

Month 2

Another €1K.

Month 3

Around €2K.

Month 3 to 4

Reached a peak of around €3.2K MRR.

After that

Revenue slowly declined.

Around 2 years later

The product was making a few hundred euros per month, then eventually stopped making sales for 2 to 3 months.

What Didn't Work

Robin tried cold outreach but it didn't work particularly well.

He is currently trying paid ads, but so far they haven't produced results and are costing money.

The bigger problem wasn't really the marketing, though.

It was what happened after NativeExpress started making money.

The Biggest Mistake

Robin didn't double down.

Instead, he started working on another SaaS called Postel because building a SaaS felt more exciting than maintaining a boilerplate.

NativeExpress was already making money without much work.

Looking back, he thinks he should have focused on it, figured out how to make more money from it and possibly turned it into a proper SaaS business.

"I chose to do postel because it was a shiny product."

That became the main lesson.

Why He Wanted to Quit

Maintaining a boilerplate wasn't always fun.

There was documentation to write, customers to deal with and lots of refunds.

Robin wanted to quit many times.

Eventually, he did.

The interesting part was that NativeExpress kept making money without him doing much apart from occasional maintenance.

Looking Back

If Robin could go back, he would focus.

Not because NativeExpress needed more features.

Because it was already working.

"focus even though its boring"

The product had already proven that people would pay for it.

The mistake was chasing the next shiny thing instead of doubling down on what was already making money.

NativeExpress is a good example of a product that didn't fail because nobody wanted it.

It made money.

The harder part was staying focused on it.