How Brainrot grows

Before launch, told his Instagram audience 'I'm building an app, sign up for the wait list', keeping it suspenseful rather than revealing everything, then launched to that list.

After launch, used live usage data to separate power users from casual users and study the power users. His recommended setup: send sampled analytics events to a provider like Mixpanel or PostHog, let Claude or Codex analyze them, find the activation moment and the most active cohorts, and steer the rest of the users toward those behaviors. Brainrot uses Mixpanel and Firebase for analytics.

Took the existing app-blocker concept and added a cute digital pet brain that 'rots' (shows health, e.g. 97%) the more time is spent on distracting apps. Users set blocking rules per app and time; opening a blocked app (e.g. Instagram) triggers a short playful flow, such as a FaceTime call from the brain, adding just enough friction to change habits. Also shows screen-time stats by app and day. Born from the founder's own phone addiction.

While working as a corporate software engineer, made content telling his own story as an aspiring entrepreneur ('daily vlogs' per the host), inspired by indie hackers like Pieter Levels who have built-in distribution for every launch. Grew to roughly 100K-150K Instagram followers before building Brainrot.

Influencer content and paid ads were what drove early growth, so they scaled those rather than spreading into new channels ('if something is working, try to do 10 times more of that thing'). Uses Apphud for paid ads attribution. No spend, creator terms or platforms given.

After launching solo, partnered with Brock Anderson as co-founder. Recommends that founders who have tried solo before bring on a co-founder with complementary skills, or build a team by paying with equity.