He just launched, and he's bringing in $1500/month (website says 151 customers now).
If he pays people to make all the calls, it should take him almost no time to run the business. And even paying the callers a reasonableish sum, he probably keeps ~1/3 of the money.
So he wrote an extremely-simple website, got it some exposure, and hired a friend to make the calls, and now he's got $500/month in recurring income that has a good chance of growing and requires little recurring work. Sure, he's not going to get rich, but that doesn't mean it's a failed venture.
More numbers: On IRC, zack said he figured 2 minutes/call, which is one hour/customer each month. Skype appears to cost less than 2¢/minute (that's PAYG, presumably he has a contract), which is $1.20/customer/month. That leaves $8.80 for wages and profit.
FTA:counts just over 100 subscribers
So, no.
here's a popular publication with a link to his new app [...] this has to feel like and accomplishment
It's a blog. And by that standard, pretty soon 'I posted to HN' will be an 'accomplishment'. Just for fun, let's look at the next two headlines:
Guyana's Health Minister Cautions Against Singing Too Much About Rum
Bizarro, Cat-Hating Woman Found