I was hunting for a new app idea and I stumbled on Stone ID doing around $500k/month just by identifying rocks. That blew my mind because the core loop is simple: take a photo, send it to an AI model, show the result, then put a paywall in front of the value. I validated the opportunity with Sensor Tower, then checked the ASO side using Astro to make sure the niche wasn’t totally oversaturated. The keywords looked solid (good popularity, manageable difficulty), so I decided to build a competitor called Aista/“Amatista” with a very specific amethyst + obsidian vibe. Normally I’d open Xcode and grind for hours, but this time I built the MVP in under an hour using Orchids with prompt-based building. I had it generate a React Native (Expo) app with a custom camera, a shimmering “scan” animation while the API call runs, OpenAI-powered gemstone identification (name, description, zodiac/mythical angle, and estimated USD value), and a local collection database. The big takeaway isn’t “no-code is magic”—it’s speed and leverage: ship fast, validate fast, and don’t waste months polishing an idea that might make $0. To make it App Store ready, I added onboarding that builds value psychologically and a RevenueCat paywall so subscriptions and A/B tests are easy.