How a dorm room project became a 5M MAU scanning app

Bruno Virlet, co-founder of Genius Scan, discusses how prioritizing user experience over metrics transformed a dorm room side project into a leading document scanning app with 5 million monthly active users, all achieved without external funding. The team focused on transparency, usability, and long-term trust rather than short-term gains, experimenting with monetization by shifting from one-time purchases to subscriptions to sustain growth without ads. When faced with competition from Apple and Google’s native scanning features, they concentrated on their core strengths of superior functionality and support. Unexpected insights, such as a paywall tweak after a server crash, highlighted the importance of even accidental A/B tests in driving growth. Virlet’s experience underscores that indie developers can succeed by addressing real problems, simplifying pricing, staying attuned to customer feedback, and rigorously testing changes to enhance performance and foster organic growth and loyalty.