# ShortcutStudio

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/shortcutstudio-ai-shortcuts/ · added 2026-11-06 · updated 2026-11-06

**In short.** ShortcutStudio (AI builder of Apple Shortcuts for iPhone, United States): US$3.2K total since launch, November 2026. Evidence grade A: disclosed by a company or a filing, or verified by a payment processor. Team: 1 person (team size in the founder-written TrustMRR profile); the App Store lists one individual, Sean Jason Saulsbury, as developer and seller. Launched 7 April 2026; still running, revenue falling.

AI builder of Apple Shortcuts for iPhone · United States · AI-native · solo founder · still running, revenue falling · group: Build software with AI

- Outcome: US$3.2K total since launch, November 2026 (evidence grade of the headline number: A; headline in US dollars: 3193)
- Launch: 7 April 2026; months from launch to the outcome: 7
- Team: 1 person (team size in the founder-written TrustMRR profile); the App Store lists one individual, Sean Jason Saulsbury, as developer and seller
- Outside funding: None (bootstrapped, founder-written profile)
- Main factor: A narrow niche: Apple Shortcuts only
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 3, copyable pattern 3, capital needed 1
- Tags: AI-native, Solo founder, Bootstrapped, Running, B2C, Automation

Links:

- Visit shortcutstudio.app: https://shortcutstudio.app/
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6760745118
- Verified revenue on TrustMRR: https://trustmrr.com/startup/shortcutstudio-ai-shortcuts

**The product.** An iPhone app and a web app in which the user describes an automation in plain English, for example a shortcut that saves a screenshot's text to a note, and an AI model writes it as an Apple Shortcut. The user can refine the result in the same chat, preview the actions, and download a signed .shortcut file that opens in Apple's Shortcuts app on iPhone, iPad or Mac. A community marketplace lets users share and download shortcuts. The free plan allows 15 messages a day; Plus costs US$4.99 a month and Pro US$9.99 a month, with yearly and lifetime options.

**Why it worked.** Apple Shortcuts can automate many tasks on Apple devices, but building one means dragging actions together by hand, which is slow and needs some technical skill. ShortcutStudio sells one narrow step: from a sentence to a working shortcut file. TrustMRR, reading the app's RevenueCat account, shows US$3,193 of revenue in total by 6 November 2026 and US$265 of monthly recurring revenue. The best month was May 2026, when a well-known Shortcuts creator showed the app on YouTube; revenue has fallen since, and the founder listed the app for sale in August 2026.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; E = no revenue figure found, so the headline is a non-money fact and the other facts carry their own grades; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

ShortcutStudio builds Apple Shortcuts, small automation programs that run in Apple's Shortcuts app and chain actions such as "take the clipboard, summarize it, add it to Reminders". The user writes a prompt, a plain-language description of the task, and a large language model, an AI model trained on large amounts of text that can also write program code, turns it into the actions of a shortcut. The service then signs the file, so that the Shortcuts app accepts it, and the user downloads it. Version 1.0 of the iPhone app appeared on the App Store on 7 April 2026; the developer and seller listed there is one individual, Sean Jason Saulsbury.

TrustMRR, a site that reads a startup's revenue directly from its payment provider through an API key, shows verified revenue from RevenueCat (a service that handles App Store subscriptions for app makers) of US$3,193 in total by 6 November 2026. Monthly revenue was US$335 in April, US$779 in May, between US$386 and US$492 from June to September, and US$256 in October 2026. TrustMRR also shows a monthly recurring revenue (MRR, the subscription revenue that repeats each month) of US$265 from 36 active subscriptions.

The founder-written part of the profile says the team is 1 person and the business is bootstrapped. Since 6 August 2026 the app has been listed for sale on TrustMRR with an asking price of US$5,000; the seller wrote that he is "moving on to other things" and that almost no marketing was done beyond Reddit posts and one YouTube feature. The page also shows earlier companies that promised to build software from a description and failed.

## Pricing

ShortcutStudio prices in November 2026, from the App Store listing (the web pricing page loads its plans by script; its lifetime prices match)

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 0 | 0 | 15 messages a day, 10 downloads a day, 350-character input |
| Plus | 4.17 | 4.99 | 50 messages a day, 50 downloads a day, 5 web searches a day |
| Pro | 8.33 | 9.99 | 200 messages a day, 150 downloads a day, 15 web searches a day, import shortcuts |
| Lifetime Plus | 99.99 one-time |  | same features as Plus |
| Lifetime Pro | 199.99 one-time |  | same features as Pro |

Yearly prices are US$49.99 for Plus and US$99.99 for Pro, shown here per month. Lifetime Plus costs US$99.99 and Lifetime Pro US$199.99, on the App Store and on the web pricing page. The App Store also lists BYOK (bring your own key) purchases of US$4.99, US$9.99 and US$19.99, for users who pay an AI provider themselves; the listing does not say whether these are one-time or recurring.

## How much revenue does ShortcutStudio make? The numbers, graded

A one-person iPhone app with US$3,193 of verified revenue in seven months, falling since a peak in May 2026

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue since launch, to 6 November 2026 | US$3,193 | A | TrustMRR, verified from RevenueCat through an API key; revenue last synced 6 November 2026. The twelve-month total is the same, US$3,193. | [1] |
| Monthly recurring revenue, November 2026 | US$265 from 36 active subscriptions | A | TrustMRR metric snapshot. Its 30-day MRR growth is -16.7%. | [1] |
| Revenue in the last 30 days, to 6 November 2026 | US$229 | A | TrustMRR. Its 30-day revenue growth is -42.9%. TrustMRR shows a profit margin of 90.0% for the last 30 days. | [1] |
| Revenue by month, 2026 | April US$335, May US$779, June US$490, July US$386, August US$492, September US$451, October US$256 | A | TrustMRR monthly timeline. November had US$4.60 by 6 November. | [1] |
| October 2026 against the June to September average | about 44% lower | calc | Calculated: the June to September average is US$454.75; October was US$256. October is about 67% below May. | [1] |
| Run rate from the current MRR | US$3,180 a year | calc | Calculated: US$265 times 12. | [1] |
| First App Store version | 1.0, 7 April 2026 | B | App Store version history. The latest version, 1.1.07, is dated 5 June 2026. The site's llms.txt guide is dated 3 March 2026 and describes a web builder; TrustMRR gives a founded date of 1 January 2026 (founder-written). | [2, 1, 3] |
| Developer and seller on the App Store | Sean Jason Saulsbury, an individual | B | App Store listing. The website footer says "© 2025 ShortcutStudio Inc."; no company register was read. | [2, 3] |
| Team | 1 person | C | Founder-written TrustMRR profile, under the handle MidasAvocado. | [1] |
| Funding | Bootstrapped | C | Founder-written TrustMRR profile. | [1] |
| App Store ratings | 4.1 out of 5 from 23 ratings | B | US App Store, read 6 November 2026. Age rating 4+. | [2] |
| Estimated users | 5,000 | C | Founder-written TrustMRR profile; not verified. | [1] |
| AI model | GLM 5.3 Flash through OpenRouter, by default | C | Privacy policy: "Default model: z-ai/glm-5.3-flash (GLM 5.3 Flash)", with requests sent to OpenRouter. | [4] |
| YouTube feature | Stephen Robles, 16 May 2026, about 30,900 views on 6 November 2026 | B | Video "This App Makes iPhone Shortcuts for You" on his channel. | [6] |
| For-sale listing | Asking US$5,000, listed 6 August 2026, 4 offers | C | TrustMRR acquisition section. TrustMRR gives the revenue multiple as 1.8x. | [1] |

How to read this table: a grade A value comes from the payment records that TrustMRR reads from RevenueCat. Grade B values are App Store records or an independent reviewer. Grade C values are the company's own pages or the founder's text on TrustMRR. A grade X value was computed on this page.

## When did ShortcutStudio launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From a web builder to an iPhone app with paid plans, a YouTube feature and a for-sale listing, in about seven months. Each entry carries its grade.

- **1 January 2026** (grade C [1]): Founded date given in the founder-written TrustMRR profile.
- **3 March 2026** (grade C [3]): The site's guide for AI crawlers describes a web builder and a public marketplace of shortcuts.
- **7 April 2026** (grade B [2, 1]): Version 1.0 of the iPhone app on the App Store. April revenue: US$335.
- **20 April 2026** (grade B [2]): Lifetime Plus and Pro plans and BYOK (bring your own key) added.
- **16 May 2026** (grade B [6, 1]): Stephen Robles shows the app in a YouTube video. May revenue: US$779, the best month.
- **28 May 2026** (grade B [2]): The app can search the web while it builds a shortcut.
- **6 August 2026** (grade C [1]): Listed for sale on TrustMRR, asking US$5,000.
- **October 2026** (grade A [1]): Revenue US$256, about 44% below the June to September average.
- **6 November 2026** (grade A [1]): US$3,193 in total, US$265 MRR from 36 subscriptions.

## Why did ShortcutStudio work?

### One narrow task

The app does one thing: it turns a sentence into an Apple Shortcut file. People who use Shortcuts already know what they want to automate; the slow part is placing and connecting the actions by hand. The FAQ says the action catalog does not cover every Shortcuts action, so the tool aims at focused automations.

### A cheap model and daily limits

The default model is GLM 5.3 Flash, reached through OpenRouter, a service that sends requests to many AI model providers through one API. Each plan has a daily cap on messages and downloads, and BYOK users pay the AI provider themselves. TrustMRR shows a 90.0% profit margin for the last 30 days.

### App Store subscriptions

The iPhone app sells Plus and Pro through in-app purchases handled by RevenueCat, the source that TrustMRR verifies. A web version sells the same plans through Clerk Billing and Stripe.

### A creator feature

The seller wrote that the only marketing was Reddit posts in the r/shortcuts community and the Stephen Robles video. The best month, May 2026, is the month of that video; no source measures how many customers it brought.

## How it was built

These details come from the company's privacy policy and terms of service and from the App Store listing. They are grade C, except the App Store records.

- AI requests go to OpenRouter; the default model is GLM 5.3 Flash, and OpenRouter may route a request to any available provider of that model.
- The generated program is converted to a plist (Apple's property-list file format) and sent to a signing service, so that the Shortcuts app will import it.
- Hosting, the database and logs are on Cloudflare; projects and marketplace data are stored in Cloudflare D1.
- Clerk handles login and billing on the web, with payments processed by Stripe; the iPhone app uses in-app purchases through RevenueCat.
- Google Analytics measures the website.
- The App Store version history shows 13 releases from 7 April to 5 June 2026, and none after that.

Sources: [4, 5, 2, 1]

## Who tried this before ShortcutStudio, and why did they fail?

Five companies in our database of failed startups promised that people without programming skill could get software built from a description or a drag-and-drop editor. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

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

### Builder.ai (2016 to 2025; funding US$445M; cause: Unit Economics)

- Promise: Custom apps built by an AI-powered assembly line instead of expensive developers.
- Why it died: It sold US$20,000 apps that cost US$35,000 to build, and much of the work said to be AI was done by offshore developers.
- Record: 

### The Grid (2014 to 2020; funding US$4.7M; cause: Product/Tech Failure)

- Promise: Websites designed automatically by AI, without a designer.
- Why it died: The AI was not ready: the designs were clumsy, and competitors offered polished, easy builders.
- Record: 

### Appcubator (2013 to 2016; funding US$120K; cause: Product/Tech Failure)

- Promise: Mobile apps made with drag and drop, with no programming knowledge.
- Why it died: The market was not ready for no-code, and more flexible competitors such as Bubble won.
- Record: 

### Crejo.Fun (2020 to 2022; funding US$3M; cause: No Market Need)

- Promise: A drag-and-drop mobile app builder for Indian creators.
- Why it died: Creators needed more followers, not another app to manage and promote.
- Record: 

### Pagedraw (2018 to 2021; funding US$1.5M; cause: Competition)

- Promise: Sketch designs turned into React code automatically.
- Why it died: It depended on Sketch while designers moved to Figma, and developers preferred to write the code themselves.
- Record: 

## What changed

The earlier companies promised software from a description before a model could write working code, or they hid human work behind the word AI. Builder.ai spent US$445 million and still lost money on each app. ShortcutStudio is small in the other direction: the output is one short shortcut file, a current language model can write it in seconds, and a cheap model through OpenRouter keeps each request inexpensive.

Two weaknesses remain from the earlier list. Like Pagedraw with Sketch, the product depends on one platform, Apple's Shortcuts app and its file format, which Apple controls. Like Crejo.Fun, it needs a way to reach users: the verified revenue rose with one creator video and has fallen since.

## Can one person copy ShortcutStudio now?

**Verdict: Yes, the build; the growth is the hard part.**

One person built a web app, an iPhone app, a marketplace and a signing service on Cloudflare, Clerk and OpenRouter, and sold subscriptions within weeks. The verified result is small: US$3,193 in seven months, with US$265 of MRR after the peak. Copying the build is realistic; the open question, which the founder himself names in his sale listing, is marketing.

1. Pick a tool that many people use but find slow to program, such as Apple Shortcuts, and generate its file format from a prompt.
2. Use a cheap model through a router and put daily limits on each plan, so that the free plan costs little.
3. Sell through the App Store with a subscription service such as RevenueCat, and offer a lifetime price.
4. Get the product in front of creators who already teach that tool to a large audience.

**What is still open.** Other automation formats that people build by hand: Home Assistant automations, Android automation apps, spreadsheet macros and smart-home scenes.

## What could go wrong for ShortcutStudio?

- **Small and falling revenue.** The verified figures are small: US$3,193 in total and US$265 of MRR on 6 November 2026. October 2026 (US$256) was about 44% below the June to September average, and the last 30 days were 42.9% below the 30 days before, per TrustMRR. TrustMRR names RevenueCat as its only verified source; the web plans are billed through Clerk and Stripe, and the profile does not say whether those sales are included. The lead that brought this story gave an MRR of US$374.34 in September 2026 from an older TrustMRR snapshot; the live profile read on 6 November 2026 shows US$265.
- **For sale, and development has slowed.** Since 6 August 2026 the app is listed on TrustMRR with an asking price of US$5,000 and 4 offers. The seller wrote: "I'm selling ShortcutStudio because I'm just moving on to other things." The last App Store version is dated 5 June 2026, and TrustMRR counts 1 GitHub contribution in the last 30 days. A buyer could change the product or its prices.
- **Founder-written details.** The team of 1, the bootstrapped status and the 5,000 estimated users come from the founder-written part of the TrustMRR profile and were not checked. The App Store lists an individual as seller, while the website footer names "ShortcutStudio Inc."; no company register was read.
- **Dependence on model providers and on Apple.** The privacy policy says AI requests go to OpenRouter, with GLM 5.3 Flash as the default model and no fixed provider order, so prices and quality depend on that model's providers. The product also depends on Apple's Shortcuts app and its signed file format; the site says it is not affiliated with Apple.
- **Competition.** On this site, Appthetics (US$2,331 in total, grade A) is a similarly small one-person AI builder for a narrow format, and the App Store page shows other Shortcuts apps, such as LLM Shortcut Toolkit and Shortcutly, as similar apps.
- **User content and age.** The app is rated 4+ and contains a marketplace of user-made shortcuts. The terms say users under 18 may use the service only with permission of a parent or legal guardian. Some App Store reviews report bugs, such as being signed out and losing a conversation (June 2026), to which the developer answered that he would fix them.

## Sources

1. TrustMRR: ShortcutStudio - AI Shortcuts, markdown profile, revenue synced 6 November 2026 — https://trustmrr.com/startup/shortcutstudio-ai-shortcuts.md (grade A). Read the markdown profile in full on 6 November 2026. The revenue figures are verified from RevenueCat (grade A); the team, funding, user estimate and seller message are founder-written (grade C).
2. App Store: ShortcutStudio - AI Shortcuts (US storefront) — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6760745118 (grade B). Read in full on 6 November 2026. Source for the in-app purchase prices, plan limits, version history, ratings, age rating and the developer and seller name.
3. ShortcutStudio home page and llms.txt guide — https://shortcutstudio.app/ (grade C). Read in full on 6 November 2026, with https://shortcutstudio.app/llms.txt (dated 3 March 2026) and the pricing page, which loads its subscription plans by script but shows the lifetime prices.
4. ShortcutStudio privacy policy, last updated 17 January 2026 — https://shortcutstudio.app/privacy-policy (grade C). Read in full. Source for the AI model, OpenRouter, Cloudflare D1, Clerk, Stripe and Google Analytics.
5. ShortcutStudio terms of service, last updated 15 April 2026 — https://shortcutstudio.app/terms-of-service.html (grade C). Read the sections on eligibility, billing, BYOK and AI processing.
6. Stephen Robles on YouTube, 16 May 2026: This App Makes iPhone Shortcuts for You — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2foBmQnPlo (grade B). Read the video page's title, date, view count and description; the video itself was not watched.
7. Database of failed startups, local export — /method/#dead (grade C). Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

Contact: aiolum@livyden.com. Run ShortcutStudio? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com (subject: Correction: ShortcutStudio).