Eli (14) and Harris (17) Zimmerman are brothers from Long Island, New York. Neither of them knows how to code. In November 2025, Eli discovered Rork through a friend at school, brought Harris in, and they started building together. By January 7, they had a live app on the App Store. In one month they hit 2,000+ downloads, $1K/month in revenue, and 114 TestFlight builds.
Eli wants to make enough money that college becomes a choice, not a requirement. Harris wants to buy cool cars and build long-term wealth. Both agree: they want to keep building apps for as long as they can.
Age is just a number. Don't be afraid to reach out. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
— Eli Zimmerman, 14
Don't let people tell you that you're gonna be another generic app builder that goes nowhere. If you launch an app onto the App Store, it's something. You gained experience. Even if it doesn't work out, something far bigger could happen from it.
— Harris Zimmerman, 17
Hockey AI is an AI-powered hockey analysis app. Upload a clip of your practice or game, and the AI gives you a detailed frame-by-frame breakdown — technique analysis, strengths, weaknesses, and specific coaching tips. Built entirely with Rork, by two teenagers, in their bedrooms.
What They Built
Eli plays hockey. He wanted to get better but didn't have access to a personal coach who could review every practice clip and every game play. Harris saw the gap too — if Eli needed this, so did thousands of other players. So they built it.
Hockey AI lets players upload short video clips — a skating drill, a shooting rep, a game play — and the AI analyzes movement, technique, and performance. The gotcha feature is a detailed frame-by-frame analysis on the feedback page. That's the moment that makes players stop and say "I need this."
They didn't set out to build a business. They set out to solve a real problem. The business followed.
They split the work cleanly: Eli builds the product, Harris runs marketing. They sit a door apart in their house on Long Island, and together they operate like a startup team twice their age. Eli on having Harris as a partner: "I see what Harris has to go through and it's still very difficult. I don't want to be building an app and marketing at the same time — with my personal life, it's too much." Harris feels the same way — he can focus entirely on growth because he knows Eli is shipping improvements every day.
And they ship constantly. 114 TestFlight builds in roughly two months — almost two per day. Eli iterates on the product, fixing bugs, improving AI accuracy, adding features users ask for. Harris tests every build and keeps the roadmap tied to what's actually working from the marketing side. This is the kind of energy that separates people who make money from people who make apps.
How They Got to $1K/mo
Most kids would assume their age is a disadvantage when reaching out to influencers. The Zimmerman brothers flipped it. The story of two teenage brothers building an AI hockey app is inherently compelling — and Harris uses that authenticity to negotiate rates most adults couldn't get.
Harris has reached out to roughly 200 influencers total. His rule: never close a deal over text. Always get on a call. On the call, he offers two options — a package bundle of four videos, or a CPM deal. He's gotten influencers for as low as $1 CPM and has never gone above $2.50. They started with seven influencers, and just this week signed six more. Total spent on influencers so far: about $1,000. Total revenue: nearly $2,000. The math works.
Here's one of their influencer reels in action — @kp.porter43 promoting Hockey AI, with 2.2K likes:
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And here's another one — @iketeee documenting game day abroad while using Hockey AI:
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On top of paid influencers, Harris built a TikTok account specifically for Hockey AI. The strategy was deliberate: he only followed hockey accounts and watched hockey videos to train the algorithm, then started posting slideshows every single day targeting that exact audience. Even if a post only converts one or two trials, that's $40 to $80 per day in extra revenue — with zero cost. Looking back, both of them say their biggest mistake was not starting organic content sooner. "We should have started with organic from day one," Harris said. "There's no risk and the return is real."
The pricing is simple: $6.99/month or $39.99/year with a 3-day free trial on the yearly plan. Accessible for the hockey community they're part of.
The $0 Days
It hasn't all been smooth. About a week before our call, they had two consecutive days with zero revenue. Eli was ready to scrap Hockey AI entirely and move on to their next app. Harris pushed back — they'd put too much work in to walk away now.
Eli called George Lampropoulos — fellow Rork Star and the 18-year-old behind Wrestle AI. George's advice was simple: keep reaching out, keep DMing. They listened. The first day back was slow. Then it all started adding up again.
Eli on the lows: "The highs feel really high and you're always chasing that. But the lows are terrible." George's response: "It's weird, bro. I don't think that ever actually goes away."
Their mom played a role too. Every time they wanted to quit — and there were many times, especially during the building phase when errors piled up — she told them: "You've already made it this far. There's no quitting now."
What's Next
The Zimmerman brothers are just getting started. Their next revenue goal is $5K/month, then $20K/month within six months. They're bringing on more influencers, scaling their organic content machine, and exploring equity deals with larger creators. They're also already working on their next app — they're not sharing details yet, but Harris says the onboarding it's producing is "the craziest I've ever seen in any of my apps." Stay tuned.
No coding experience. No technical background. Just a problem they wanted to solve and the drive to make it real. Rork is the #1 platform for entrepreneurs who want to build consumer mobile apps — and it let them go from hockey players to app founders in two months. No Xcode, no Swift, no React Native. Just a conversation with AI and the determination to build something that matters.
They're not the exception. People with zero technical background are using Rork to build real apps, get real users, and make real money (we call them Rork Stars). If you've been sitting on an app idea, there's no better time.