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iPhone app that trained an AI image model on the user's photos and returned avatars · Estonia

AI Profile Pic: Revenue, team and how it was built

Solo founderClosedB2CConsumer software

AI Profile Pic (iPhone app that trained an AI image model on the user's photos and returned avatars, Estonia): About US$2K a month per side project, April 2023. Evidence grade D: reported, not verified. Team: 1 indie developer; no employee named in any source. Launched November 2022; closed later.Added 8 November 2026

Outcome
About US$2K a month per side project, April 2023
Evidence
D reported, not verified
Launch
November 2022
Status
Closed
Team
1 indie developer; no employee named in any source
Outside funding
None reported
Main channel
Not stated
Reported, not verified

What is not verified

The only money figure is one founder claim. Rony Fadel wrote on Hacker News on 14 April 2023, in a thread about side projects with more than US$2,000 of monthly revenue, "I make around that with each of my side projects", and listed AI Profile Pic among five projects. It is one claim, grade D, and it does not give a figure for this app alone. No payment-processor profile, App Store sales report, interview or second post was found. The app was sold by Fadel.io OÜ, an Estonian company whose app license agreement was last updated on 14 October 2021 and which had earlier apps, such as Mission Control Plus, on fadel.io since at least September 2019; the company's own start date in the Estonian register was not read. A reader could look for a later post by the founder with figures for this app. The headline number is grade D: one claim or one estimate, with no second source. Aiolum shows it because the story is useful, and marks it so that it is not mistaken for a verified figure.

AI Profile Pic was an iPhone app that made portraits of its user with Stable Diffusion, an image-generation model that draws a picture from a text description, and DreamBooth, a fine-tuning method. Fine-tuning means training an existing model a little further on new examples; here the examples were photos of one person, so that the model learned that face and could draw it in many styles. According to its App Store listing, the user uploaded photos "in different poses", the app trained its model on them, and the user received "100+ avatars in different styles". The download was free; the archived listing of 10 April 2023 lists in-app purchases at US$2.99 and US$6.99, and a reviewer wrote on 11 November 2022 that the app "requires $20 in order to get a credit".

The seller on the store was Fadel.io OÜ, the Estonian company named in the license agreement on fadel.io, the site of Rony Fadel, an indie developer of small Mac and iPhone utilities. The domain aiprofilepic.app first appears in the Internet Archive on 3 November 2022, as a redirect to the App Store page, and on 10 April 2023 that page showed 4.2 stars from 271 ratings. On 14 April 2023 he wrote on Hacker News, in a thread about side projects with more than US$2,000 in monthly revenue, "I make around that with each of my side projects", and listed AI Profile Pic among five projects.

That comment is the only money figure on this page. It is one claim, grade D, and it does not give a figure for this app alone. The app has closed: the Internet Archive shows its store page on sale under a later name, AI Avatar & Portrait Generator, on 13 November 2024 and answering 404 on 11 July 2025; on 8 November 2026 the page still answered 404, its domain registration had expired, and no source says why it stopped. Fadel.io OÜ licensed apps before this one (its license agreement was last updated on 14 October 2021), so this page dates the business from the app's own launch in November 2022. The page also shows what happened to earlier companies that sold a new photo feature which larger platforms later offered.

AI Profile Pic: About US$2K a month per side project, April 2023. iPhone app that trained an AI image model on the user's photos and returned avatars, Estonia, solo founder, evidence grade D.
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01

How much revenue did AI Profile Pic make before it closed?

Each row shows the evidence grade and the source numbers from the list at the end of this page. The grades are explained in How Aiolum verifies.

A per-order AI avatar app from November 2022 whose developer said in April 2023 that each of his side projects made around US$2,000 a month; the app is closed
FactValueGradeHow we knowSources
Revenue per side project, April 2023around US$2,000 a month for each of the founder's side projects; no figure for this app aloneDRony Fadel's Hacker News comment of 14 April 2023 in the thread "Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?": "I make around that with each of my side projects", followed by VidCap, AI Profile Pic, Mission Control Plus, Batteries and Kay (Kay "makes less, currently at $600 MRR"). The comment does not give a figure for this app alone.[1, 2]
Yearly run rate from that figureabout US$24,000 a yearcalcCalculated: US$2,000 times 12. It holds only if this app made the "around" US$2,000 a month that the comment states for each project.[1]
First trace of the product3 November 2022BThe Internet Archive's first capture of aiprofilepic.app, 3 November 2022 at 03:52 UTC, is a redirect to the App Store page of app id6444115082. The oldest review shown on the archived store page is dated 7 November 2022.[4, 3]
App Store ratings, 10 April 20234.2 out of 5 from 271 ratings (US store)BArchived App Store page. Category Photo & Video.[3]
Prices, 10 April 2023free download; Avatars Creation Pack US$6.99 and US$2.99, Additional styles pack US$2.99CIn-app purchases as listed on the archived store page. A reviewer wrote on 11 November 2022 that one order needed US$20.[3]
What the app didmore than 100 avatars of the user from the user's own photosCStore description: "Upload photos of you in different poses", "Have our A.I. train its model based on your photos", "Receive 100+ avatars in different styles". Subtitle "Stable Diffusion & Dreambooth". Guideline: "Make sure it's only you in the photos (no other people)."[3]
Age rating and platforms4+; iPhone with iOS 15 or later, and Macs with an Apple M1 chip or laterCArchived store page. Languages English, French and Spanish; size 23.7 MB; last version shown 1.1.9 of 3 January 2023.[3]
Seller and its earlier appsFadel.io OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia; apps on fadel.io since at least September 2019CThe store page names the seller "Fadel.io OU" and "© 2022 Fadel.io OÜ". The app license agreement at fadel.io/apps/terms.html, archived on 3 January 2023, says "Last updated October 14, 2021" and names Fadel.io OÜ in Tallinn, Estonia, as licensor. The Internet Archive holds fadel.io from 19 September 2019, with a support address for Mission Control Plus, a Mac app; the site today also lists Batteries for Mac, CastPanda, VidCap and Spiik. The company's start date in the Estonian register was not read. This page dates the business from the app's own launch in November 2022.[9, 10, 7, 3]
Team1 indie developerCRony Fadel calls the apps "my side projects" on Hacker News, and the About page of fadel.io says "I'm an indie developer". The site footer reads "Copyright © Rony Fadel, Chapter Two LLC". No employee is named in any source.[1, 8, 7]
Link between the founder and the apphis Hacker News comment and the fadel.io footerCThe Hacker News user ronyfadel links aiprofilepic.app and fadel.io/missioncontrolplus in the same comment; the footer of fadel.io names Rony Fadel; the store page gives support@fadel.io as contact and lists VidCap under "More By This Developer", an app that the same comment names.[1, 7, 3]
Outside fundingnone reportedCNo source mentions investors or a funding round.[1, 7]
Status, 8 November 2026closed: the App Store page answers 404 and the domain registration has expiredBapps.apple.com/us/app/ai-profile-pic-avatar-maker/id6444115082 returned HTTP 404 on 8 November 2026, and aiprofilepic.app shows a Namecheap notice "Domain registration has expired". The Internet Archive's capture of 1 January 2025 still redirected to the App Store page. The developer's App Store page, read 3 November 2026, lists eight other apps and not this one.[5, 6, 4, 11]
Later store name and end of salesAI Avatar & Portrait Generator; still on sale on 13 November 2024, HTTP 404 on 11 July 2025BThe same app id 6444115082, sold by Fadel.io OU, appears in the Internet Archive as "AI Avatar & Portrait Generator" from 15 July 2023. The capture of 13 November 2024 shows version 1.2.3 of 3 November 2024, 4.1 stars from 314 ratings and in-app packs at US$3.99, US$6.99 and US$2.99. The capture of the store page of 11 July 2025 recorded HTTP 404, so the app stopped being sold between those two dates.[13]
Time from launch to the headline figure5 monthscalcCalculated: November 2022 to April 2023.[4, 1]

How to read this table: the grade D value is a single founder statement with one date and no second source, and it covers all his side projects, not this app alone. A grade C value is read from the developer's own pages or the archived store listing. A grade B value is a record of an independent party: the Internet Archive's captures, Apple's rating count or a server reply. A "calc" value was computed on this page from the rows above it. No value is grade A.

AI Profile Pic prices as listed on its archived App Store page of 10 April 2023 (grade C); the app is no longer sold
PlanPer month, billed yearly (US$)Per month, billed monthly (US$)Limit
App download00free; orders bought inside the app
Avatars Creation Pack6.99 one-timelisted twice at this price
Avatars Creation Pack2.99 one-timecontents not stated
Additional styles pack2.99 one-timecontents not stated

The app was a free download, and avatars were bought as in-app purchases. The listing names the packs but does not say how many avatars or styles each one gave. A reviewer wrote on 11 November 2022 that the app "requires $20 in order to get a credit", so the prices changed at least once. Prices are in US dollars on the US store.

02

When did AI Profile Pic launch, and how did it grow?

From a Mac utility site in 2019 to an AI avatar app in November 2022, then a closed store page and an expired domain by November 2026. Each entry carries its grade.

  1. 19 September 2019BFirst Internet Archive capture of fadel.io, with a support address for Mission Control Plus, a Mac app by the same developer. [10]
  2. 14 October 2021CDate of the last update of Fadel.io OÜ's app license agreement, which later also covered AI Profile Pic. [9]
  3. 3 November 2022BFirst Internet Archive capture of aiprofilepic.app: a redirect to the App Store page of the app. [4]
  4. 7 to 11 November 2022CThe oldest reviews shown on the archived store page. One says an order needs US$20; one says it "does still seem to struggle quite a bit" with Black users. [3]
  5. 3 January 2023CVersion 1.1.9, "Bug fixes and improvements", the last version shown on the archived page. [3]
  6. 10 April 2023BThe archived store page shows 4.2 stars from 271 ratings and in-app packs at US$2.99 and US$6.99. [3]
  7. 14 April 2023DRony Fadel writes on Hacker News that he makes around US$2,000 a month with each of his side projects, and lists AI Profile Pic among them. [1, 2]
  8. 15 July 2023BFirst Internet Archive capture of the store page under the app's later name, AI Avatar & Portrait Generator, with the same app id and seller. [13]
  9. 13 November 2024BLast Internet Archive capture of the store page while the app was on sale: version 1.2.3 of 3 November 2024, 4.1 stars from 314 ratings. [13]
  10. 1 January 2025BThe last Internet Archive capture of aiprofilepic.app still redirects to the App Store page. [4]
  11. 11 July 2025BThe Internet Archive's capture of the App Store page records HTTP 404. [13]
  12. 3 November 2026CThe developer's App Store page lists eight other apps and not AI Profile Pic. [11]
  13. 8 November 2026BThe App Store page answers 404 and the domain shows that its registration has expired. [5, 6]
03

Why did AI Profile Pic work?

Four causes, in the order they mattered. Each one is a reusable lesson.

01

A model trained on one person

The store listing describes three steps: upload photos of yourself, let the AI "train its model based on your photos", and receive more than 100 avatars in different styles. That is DreamBooth fine-tuning of Stable Diffusion, as the subtitle says: each order made a small model of one face, which then drew that face in many styles.

02

Pay per batch, not per month

The app was free to download, and every batch of avatars was an in-app purchase. The listing of April 2023 lists packs at US$2.99 and US$6.99, and a reviewer wrote in November 2022 that one order needed US$20. Each sale paid for its own model training, so the app needed no subscription.

03

A store page instead of a website

In the Internet Archive's captures of 3 November 2022 and 1 January 2025, the domain aiprofilepic.app sent visitors straight to the App Store page. No capture shows a landing page of its own; buyers arrived at the store listing with its screenshots and reviews.

04

One app among many

The developer listed five side projects in April 2023 and said each made around US$2,000 a month, apart from one that made less. A closed app did not end his business: in November 2026 his site and his App Store page still list other apps.

How it was built

The developer published nothing about how the app was built. These details come from the archived App Store listing and the Internet Archive's records. [3, 4]

  • Image model: the store subtitle names Stable Diffusion and DreamBooth. No source names a model provider, a GPU host or the compute cost of an order.
  • Input rules for the user: only the user in the photos, photos from different distances and angles, and no sunglasses.
  • Platforms: iPhone with iOS 15 or later, and Macs with an Apple M1 chip or later; 23.7 MB; English, French and Spanish.
  • Payments: Apple's in-app purchases on a free download.
  • Privacy label: the developer listed only "Usage Data" as collected, under "Data Not Linked to You".
  • No website: the domain redirected to the App Store page, and support went to the developer's general address support@fadel.io.

Tools named in the sources

Each one opens its page in the Tools tab, with every story that uses it.

04

Who tried this before AI Profile Pic, and why did they fail?

Three companies in our database of failed startups sold consumers a new way to handle their photos and lost when larger platforms offered the same thing. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

Died 2013 to 2019Burned US$19.2M

Everalbum

The promise

Unlimited photo storage with AI organization of the user's photo library.

Why it died

It charged subscriptions for features that Google Photos gave away free.

Competition
Died 2005 to 2012Burned US$3.5M

Picnik

The promise

Simple photo editing and effects in the web browser, with no download.

Why it died

Google bought it and then merged it into Google+, and the service ended.

Competition
Died 2010 to 2017Burned US$86M

Mobli

The promise

A photo and video sharing app with filters and location-based browsing.

Why it died

Instagram started earlier and had Facebook's money, and Mobli had nothing that set it apart.

Competition

The failed startups come from our database of 1,749 dead startups, retold here in our own words. Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so these cards carry no evidence grade.

What changed

Each of the three sold one new thing to do with photos, and each lost when a larger platform offered the same thing free or with more users. AI Profile Pic had the same exposure from the start: its own store page of April 2023 showed four other AI avatar apps under "You Might Also Like".

Two things differed. The app raised no money and had one developer, so it did not need to grow large to pay for itself; the developer said in April 2023 that each of his side projects made around US$2,000 a month. And every order was paid before the model was trained, so each training run was paid for before it started. Those differences let a small app make money during a short wave, but they did not keep it open: no source says why it closed.

05

Can one person copy AI Profile Pic now?

This moment, no. The structure, yes.

AI avatar apps were a crowded wave in late 2022, and the store page of April 2023 already showed four similar apps next to this one. What a solo developer can still copy is the structure: a narrow app on top of a published image model, paid per order through the App Store, run next to other small apps so that one of them can close without ending the business.

Where it is still open: One-step jobs on new image models that a general chat app does not do in one tap: photo restoration, product photos, pet portraits and other per-order results.

  1. 1When a new open model or fine-tuning method appears, ship one narrow consumer use of it within weeks.
  2. 2Charge per order through in-app purchases, so that each sale pays for its own compute.
  3. 3Write the input rules into the store listing, as this app did with "only you in the photos".
  4. 4Keep several small apps under one company and one support address, and close the ones that stop selling.

What could go wrong for AI Profile Pic?

The risks are the mirror image of the causes above.

What is not verified

The only money figure is one founder claim. Rony Fadel wrote on Hacker News on 14 April 2023, in a thread about side projects with more than US$2,000 of monthly revenue, "I make around that with each of my side projects", and listed AI Profile Pic among five projects. It is one claim, grade D, and it does not give a figure for this app alone. No payment-processor profile, App Store sales report, interview or second post was found. The app was sold by Fadel.io OÜ, an Estonian company whose app license agreement was last updated on 14 October 2021 and which had earlier apps, such as Mission Control Plus, on fadel.io since at least September 2019; the company's own start date in the Estonian register was not read. A reader could look for a later post by the founder with figures for this app.

Why it closed

No source says why the app closed. The Internet Archive shows the store page on sale under the later name AI Avatar & Portrait Generator on 13 November 2024, with version 1.2.3 of 3 November 2024; its capture of 1 January 2025 still redirected aiprofilepic.app to the App Store page, and its capture of the App Store page of 11 July 2025 recorded HTTP 404, so the app stopped being sold between 13 November 2024 and 11 July 2025. On 8 November 2026 the App Store page answered 404 and the domain showed a Namecheap notice that its registration had expired. The developer's App Store page, read 3 November 2026, lists eight other Fadel.io OÜ apps and not this one, and fadel.io lists five apps without it.

Competition

The archived store page of April 2023 showed four other AI avatar apps under "You Might Also Like"; on this site, Imagined with AI also sold DreamBooth portraits from late 2022, and HeadshotPro trains models on customers' photos on the web.

Dependence on the model

The store subtitle names Stable Diffusion and DreamBooth, a model family and a fine-tuning method, not a provider. No source says where the training ran, which GPU service or API it used, or what an order cost in compute, so the app's dependence on any one vendor cannot be judged.

Faces, consent and age rating

The app worked on photos of a real face. Its listing told users "Make sure it's only you in the photos (no other people)", and the license agreement asks users to have the "written consent, release, and/or permission of each and every identifiable individual person" in what they submit; no source shows a technical check that the photos were of the user. The app was rated 4+. Its privacy section listed only "Usage Data" and did not say how long uploaded photos or trained models were kept. One reviewer wrote in November 2022 that "if you're black, it does still seem to struggle quite a bit".

Sources

The grade next to each source is the best grade that the source can support. "Read in full" means that the text of the page was downloaded and the numbers were checked in it.

  1. D Hacker News, 14 April 2023: comment by ronyfadel in "Ask HN: Side project of more than $2k monthly revenue? what's your project?"
    Read in full (downloaded 3 November 2026). The founder's comment and his reply of 15 April 2023 on Setapp income. Source for the only money claim and for the link between the founder, aiprofilepic.app and fadel.io.
  2. D Hacker News search API (Algolia): the founder's comments in thread 35567822
    Read in full, 8 November 2026. Gives the full thread title and the time of the comment, 14 April 2023 at 17:24 UTC.
  3. C App Store: AI Profile Pic - Avatar Maker, by Fadel.io OU, Internet Archive copy of 10 April 2023
    Read in full (downloaded 8 November 2026). Source for the description, subtitle, prices, ratings, age rating, seller, reviews, privacy section and the similar apps.
  4. B Internet Archive captures of aiprofilepic.app, 3 November 2022 to 1 January 2025
    Read the capture index of the domain (first capture 3 November 2022) and the response headers of the captures of 3 November 2022 and 1 January 2025, both a redirect to apps.apple.com/app/id6444115082, on 8 November 2026.
  5. B App Store page of AI Profile Pic, requested 8 November 2026
    Requested on 8 November 2026: HTTP 404.
  6. B aiprofilepic.app, read 8 November 2026
    Read in full on 8 November 2026: a Namecheap notice that the domain registration has expired.
  7. C Fadel.io home page
    Read in full on 8 November 2026. Lists Mission Control Plus, Batteries for Mac, CastPanda, VidCap and Spiik; the footer names Rony Fadel and Chapter Two LLC.
  8. C Fadel.io About page: Rony Fadel
    Read in full (downloaded 3 November 2026). The developer describes himself as an indie developer.
  9. C Fadel.io OÜ, End User License Agreement for its apps, Internet Archive copy of 3 January 2023
    Read in full (downloaded 8 November 2026); the live page read the same day carries the same date. Source for "Last updated October 14, 2021", the licensor Fadel.io OÜ in Tallinn, Estonia, and the consent clause.
  10. B Internet Archive capture index of fadel.io
    Read in full, 8 November 2026. First capture 19 September 2019, with a support address for Mission Control Plus.
  11. C App Store: developer page of Fadel.io OU
    Read in full (downloaded 3 November 2026). Lists the developer's current apps; AI Profile Pic is not among them.
  12. C Database of failed startups, local export
    Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.
  13. B App Store: AI Avatar & Portrait Generator, the same app (id6444115082) under a later name, Internet Archive copy of 13 November 2024
    Read in full, 8 November 2026, with the capture index of the app's store URLs. First capture under the later name 15 July 2023; the capture of https://web.archive.org/web/20250711163455/https://apps.apple.com/app/id6444115082 (11 July 2025) recorded HTTP 404. The 13 December 2023 capture of apps.apple.com/app/id6444115082 redirects to /us/app/ai-avatar-portrait-generator/id6444115082.

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