The archive · Consumer Apps · Product decision · 2025–2026
Cat on Chair: an AI-coded cat Pomodoro app hits $18K/month via cute virality
A designer who cannot code built Cat on Chair with ChatGPT Pro; the cat Pomodoro app passed 127k downloads and ~$80k in sales, peaking above $18k/month.
Cat on Chair
What the business is
Cat on Chair is a free iOS Pomodoro timer where a virtual cat jumps onto a chair during focus sessions, leaves collectible gifts (or trash if you quit early), and can be customized with cats, furniture and backgrounds; revenue comes from $19.99 annual and $29.99 lifetime pro unlocks plus a family share.
Starting capital：No outside capital: bootstrapped, with ChatGPT Pro (~$20+/month) for coding and, at scale, RevenueCat at $200–300/month and an ASO tool at $10/month.
How it started
Ryan Yao left a roughly $200k product-design job to build apps, his long-held dream. He started Cat on Chair in May 2025 after his girlfriend Stephanie made a necklace of a little cat on a chair — the name came first — and the pair asked how to replicate the feeling of a cat sitting with you while you work. A basic timer took a few weeks; the first releasable version arrived in August after about a month of beta testing with dozens of Xiaohongshu (RedNote) users, and it launched on 2025-08-27.
What happened
The launch was rough: ~3,000 downloads in week one but serious bugs, including data that did not sync between devices, and only a relatively stable version by December 2025 or January 2026. Growth then came from social cascades: Stephanie's existing Xiaohongshu illustration followers seeded early users, small viral moments followed, and an Instagram app-collection post that passed 2 million views triggered a Taiwan Threads re-share that roughly doubled downloads and revenue overnight. By the interview published July 2026 the app had 127k downloads, close to $80k in cumulative sales (mostly from the $29.99 lifetime unlock) and over $18k in the trailing 30 days, peaking at #3 free productivity and #11 all-free on Taiwan's App Store, with users concentrated in Chinese-speaking markets.
How it ended up
Still live and profitable as of 2026-09-02: Cat on Chair remains a two-person, bootstrapped indie app now actively targeting English-speaking and worldwide markets; the open risks are copycats, revenue concentrated in one-time lifetime purchases, and dependence on App Store visibility.
Background
Cat on Chair is a free iOS Pomodoro timer for cat lovers: start a focus session and a virtual cat jumps onto a chair to keep you company; finish and it leaves a collectible gift, quit early and it leaves trash. The concept came from a necklace of a cat on a chair that Stephanie, co-creator and illustrator, had made — the name existed before the app — and from the pair's belief that working feels less lonely with a cat nearby.
The app was built almost entirely with ChatGPT Pro by Ryan Yao, a product designer who left a roughly $200k job and does not code. Work began in May 2025, a basic timer existed within weeks, about a month of beta testing with Xiaohongshu users followed, and the app launched on 2025-08-27. The first weeks were buggy — device sync failed for months — and only a relatively stable version existed by December 2025 or January 2026.
Growth came from organic social cascades. Stephanie's Xiaohongshu illustration followers seeded early users; an Instagram app-collection post passed 2 million views; and when someone in Taiwan shared the app on Threads, downloads and revenue roughly doubled overnight. By the mid-2026 Starter Story interview the app had 127k downloads and close to $80k in cumulative sales over 8–9 months, over $18k in the trailing 30 days, and peaks of #3 free productivity and #11 all-free on the Taiwan App Store.
The monetization bet is unusual for a timer: most sales come from a $29.99 lifetime unlock rather than subscriptions, sold alongside $19.99 annual and family-share tiers. As of 2026-09-02 the app is still live and profitable, with the duo expanding toward English-speaking markets; the risks are copycats, lifetime-purchase revenue concentration, and App Store visibility.
What has to be true
- Emotional design beats feature lists in a saturated category: the cat turns a cold utility into something users feel attached to.
- Game mechanics borrowed from Animal Crossing — collection, customization, reward for completion — drive repeat use of a plain timer.
- AI code generation collapsed the engineering barrier, letting a designer and illustrator own the whole product.
- A one-screenshot concept spread easily: influencers could show the cat, the chair and the gifts without an explanation.
- Lifetime purchases monetized attachment rather than habit, converting users who had already decorated their virtual room.
What can be applied
AI removed the engineering barrier, but what spread was an emotional, handcrafted core: borrow game mechanics, keep a distinctive visual identity, and make one screenshot explain the whole product.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Cat on Chair is live and profitable: after 127k downloads and close to $80k in sales over its first 8–9 months, the two-person, bootstrapped team is targeting English-speaking and worldwide markets beyond the Chinese-speaking users behind early growth. The app keeps adding companion features — focus history, to-do lists, cat customization, animated backgrounds — with a lean stack: ChatGPT Pro for coding, RevenueCat for paywalls, an ASO tool and a feedback board. Risks: cheap clones of the cat mechanic and revenue concentrated in one lifetime purchase.
Sources
- This Simple App Makes $18K/Month — Full Transcript (Starter Story interview with Ryan Yao)
- This AI Cat App Makes $18K/Month
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