Podcast Summary: How This Guy Bootstrapped A $6M ARR AI App

Clock Speed with Shamus Madan
Host: Shamus Madan
Guest: Josh Moorer, Founder of Wave
Date: August 11, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Shamus Madan interviews Josh Moorer, the solo founder of Wave, an AI-powered audio recording and summarization app with over $6M in annual recurring revenue. The discussion dives deeply into how Josh, lacking prior coding experience, built and scaled Wave into a multimillion-dollar business entirely bootstrapped—with minimal team, no outside investment, and an obsessive focus on product and customer needs. The conversation covers technical learning, growth tactics, personal mentality shifts, the realities of solo entrepreneurship, and Josh’s unique perspective on building in the AI era.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Genesis of Wave

• Who is Josh Moorer?
  • Founder of Wave, an AI recording app used mainly in physical spaces, enabling users to record, transcribe, and summarize conversations.
  • “People use it to record about 8,000 hours of audio each day.” [00:11]
• Coding From Scratch:
  • Josh had no prior coding experience when he started building Wave.
  • Learned development through “baby steps”—initially built an iPhone app that handled everything locally, which led to insights about servers and asynchronous processing.
  • Memorable quote:
    • “There was a kind of really like baby step education of learning those things the hard way.” [01:38]

2. Early Traction & The Growth Spike

• Initial Product and Perception:
  • The first version confused people about its utility.
• Breakthrough Decision:
  • Growth skyrocketed after finding a scalable channel through video ads on Meta.
  • Rapid growth: “Doubling every month until a pretty late stage.” [02:32]
  • Clones showed up quickly, intensifying competition.
• When Ads Became Key:
  • Only started spending on ads after seeing real traction (>$10K MRR).
  • Focused on efficient, performance-based spend: “I wanted it to be paid back now.” [03:46]
• Product Strategy:
  • Relentless user feedback loop: upvoting system prioritizes most-wanted features.

3. Pre–10K MRR: Organic Growth & Awareness

• Discovery on App Store:
  • The App Store is underrated for surfacing well-made, in-demand apps.
• Content & Network:
  • Leveraged LinkedIn, regular product updates and podcasts to drive early buzz.
  • Josh's background at Uber lent credibility.
• Narrative Power:
  • His “non-technical founder building a technical product” journey had viral resonance.

4. Personal Motivation & The “Retirement Project” Misconception

• Family & Social Perception:
  • Josh’s mom saw Wave as a hobby ("retirement project") until growth became undeniable.
  • Used past entrepreneurial experience (Uber, VC, Levels) to spot early product-market signals others missed.
  • Josh’s insight:
    • “Growth…doesn't actually just happen overnight. Like, it takes some kind of smooth, like, multiplier, a consistent compounding every month...” [06:05]

5. Mentality: Delusion, Obsession, and Pushing Hard

• Both Josh and Shamus reflect on how people view ambitious founders as delusional until results appear.
• Shamus: “If you really want to do something extraordinary, people have to see you as insane at, like, at 19.” [07:47]
• Josh:
  • “It's not a good strategy. It's the only strategy. Right?” [08:46]
  • Describes the pressure of succeeding post-Uber and the desire to prove himself beyond past achievements.

6. Operations: Solo Execution, Support, and Scope

• Team & Engineering:
  • Almost entirely Josh until recently—brought on one other engineer for new iOS app.
  • No employees, no cofounders, no investors.
• Support:
  • Josh still does most customer support himself.
  • Sometimes interrupts his own work to fix specific user pain points.
  • “If you are only ever focused on the most important thing…some things are permanently the second or third most important thing. And...sometimes it's worthwhile to do that.” [11:31]
• Desire to Grow:
  • Revenue plateau motivates him to seek new approaches, possibly expanding the team in the future.

7. Growth Levers: App Store, Apple Search Ads, Paid Channels

• Apple Search Ads & Discovery:
  • Clarifies that organic App Store search is powerful due to built-in trust and easy payment/subscription.
  • Uses Apple search ads both defensively (fending off competitors) and offensively (“sop up all those searches”).
  • On App Store customers:
    • “If someone is searching in the App Store, they are bottom of the funnel, they're ready to go…they want to pay you right away.” [14:09]
• Paid Acquisition:
  • Staunch focus on positive daily ROAS; acquisition costs have increased over time.
  • Apple Search Ads and Google Ads (for Android) remain key channels, with video-based user acquisition on platforms like TikTok as newer experiments.
  • Marketing is essential but not his favorite part: “Even though it's where my experience lies, it's the least interesting to me.” [15:44]

8. Advice for Aspiring Founders

• What it Actually Takes:
  • “It’s easier than ever to get something out there, so you should just do it. And if you’re serious, you should do it fast and do it hard…there’s almost no one who’s pulling this off, who isn’t busting their ass.” [16:05]
  • Candid about the reality: grind is non-negotiable.
• On Speed:
  • “If you have this idea for an app…and I've been talking about it for a year and I haven't even started yet…that is never ever going to happen.” [17:13]
• Choosing the Right Idea:
  • Trust your gut and early user/product feedback.
  • Tried multiple projects, but was “drawn back to Wave.”
  • Big hints from paying users: “When people started buying [annual], I was like, all right. Like, they're speaking with their wallet, you know, and I'm gonna. I'm gonna listen.” [19:04]
  • Strong emotional feedback (positive or negative) signals value.

9. The Role of Customer Feedback

• User Stories:
  • Examples range from technical complaints (e.g., recording drops on phone calls) to touching testimonies (helping users with aging or ill family members).
  • “Life's most important moments happen away from your desk...” [21:09]
• Josh’s perspective on privacy:
  • Society is ready for "sometimes" recording but not "always-on."
  • Notices increasing demand for stealth/ambient recording but sees persistent cultural discomfort.

10. Closing Questions & Personal Reflections

What makes a great entrepreneur?

• Josh:
  • “Relentlessness, being able to run through a brick wall...a little bit of obsession...just being crazy.” [22:14]

Best and worst advice ever received?

• Best:
  • “Be yourself…Lean into the way you are.” [23:03]
• Worst:
  • “Unicorn is a construct of venture capital…the corner store of the future…I sell AI. I’m a store, I work in a shop…I turn up to work every day and I sell my wares on the internet…and it does. Great.” [24:35]

Most controversial opinion?

• Josh doubts that “AI wearables will not be a thing” and thinks the public appetite for constant recording is overestimated.
• Quips about his track record of being “super bad” at predicting what would be successful (referencing previous skepticism about UberX and Uber Eats). [26:23]

Advice to his 20-year-old self?

• “Be more patient…I've been acting like my hair is on fire and the world is going to end since I was 20.” [29:34]

Rule he lives by that most people don’t?

• “Go for a run every day if you can.”
• Likes activities that provide “quantitative progress.” [30:50]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “There was a kind of really like baby step education of learning those things the hard way.” —Josh Moorer [01:38]
• “If you really want to do something extraordinary, people have to see you as insane at, like, at 19.” —Shamus Madan [07:47]
• “It's not a good strategy. It's the only strategy. Right?” —Josh Moorer [08:46]
• “If you’re not down with that, then don’t do it. But there’s no, like, yeah, I will casually release this product and it will casually do well...that’s not a thing.” —Josh Moorer [16:23]
• “Relentlessness, being able to run through a brick wall, but I don’t evaluate entrepreneurs and I don’t really like doing so like VC wasn’t so good for me in that way. I’m not great at sizing people up from one conversation...” —Josh Moorer [22:14]

Timestamps for Major Segments

• Intro & What is Wave: [00:00–00:39]
• Learning to Code & First MVP: [00:39–02:02]
• Growth Breakthrough & Paid Acquisition: [02:02–04:19]
• Pre-Ads Growth, Early Users: [04:19–05:33]
• Family's Response & Internal Validation: [05:33–07:35]
• Delusional Motivation & Obsession: [07:35–09:57]
• Solo Founder Reality & Support: [10:30–12:38]
• Growth, App Store & Apple Search Ads: [12:38–14:33]
• User Acquisition Costs: [14:33–15:47]
• Advice for Zero-to-One Founders: [15:47–18:05]
• Choosing Which Idea to Pursue: [18:05–20:42]
• Customer Stories & Recording Ethics: [20:42–22:00]
• Traits of Great Entrepreneurs: [22:00–22:49]
• Best/Worst Advice: [22:49–26:10]
• Most Controversial Opinion: [26:10–27:47]
• Privacy, Recording, and Wearables: [27:47–29:20]
• Advice to Younger Self, Life Rules: [29:20–31:39]

Tone & Final Thoughts

The episode maintains a down-to-earth, candid, and lightly self-deprecating tone. Both host and guest are transparent about the realities of entrepreneurial risk, grind, motivation, and self-doubt. For listeners, it’s both an instructive and deeply human portrait of what it takes to build a breakout product in today’s AI-powered landscape—especially when it's just you, your laptop, and a relentless drive to make it happen.