How Minea grows

Step 1, find: search YouTube by keyword, watch creators' videos, and study competitors' creator choices (micro vs big influencers, topics, long dedicated video vs integration). Step 2, vet: engagement rate (views / followers) should be over 10%, with at least ~100 comments per video; and check the creator's brand history: one-off deals suggest the brand wasn't profitable, so look for creators who worked with the same brand at least three times. Uses Blynd to detect creators and opportunities.

Deals are a fixed fee plus a commission. Always lowball the initial offer by 30%, then offer two packages: one with more upfront cash and a lower commission, one with less upfront cash and a higher commission. Start with one test video: check whether the audience responds and engages and whether it breaks even after a month. If all numbers are green, sign a package of 3-4 videos over the medium term for a lower price per video. Uses Tolls to track and pay creators.

After an e-commerce store owner brought him a problem that turned out to be common, he took the lowest-risk path: a newsletter to validate initial traction, then a no-code app to validate product-market fit, then a real coded app to scale. Contrast: his first 5 years were spent shipping features on a SaaS with zero customers.

Core playbook across his successful apps: partner with YouTube creators as promoters (paid in cash and/or affiliate revenue) or as co-founders (paid in equity). Worked with 500+ YouTube creators for Minea and Dropmagic. Prefers YouTube over TikTok because (1) best ROI and more predictable: a video gets a minimum number of views you can count on, rather than hoping for virality; (2) long form lets the creator show how they use the app; (3) videos keep converting for years (still getting conversions from 3-year-old videos) and help organic traffic; (4) long-form videos can be cut into short-form clips and ads. Sees TikTok as brand awareness that doesn't convert.

Outreach is a seven-email campaign; each email uses a different marketing angle. In parallel, 'blast' the creators on Instagram and Twitter. He says he shares the templates on his X account.