How Sprout grows

Previously users finished onboarding and entered the app (home screen, pick a scan / swipe on jobs) and were paywalled at the first valuable action. Tested a complete hard paywall straight after onboarding, with no access to the app. Sprout also switched to a hard paywall and saw better conversion.

After the (blurred) scan result, the paywall offers two buttons: 'View results' (-> paywall) or 'Invite 3 friends'. Inviting leads to a share-your-invite-code screen; results unlock free once 3 friends download, finish onboarding and redeem the code. Friends get no benefit beyond helping. Target users are 13-25 and don't want to pay, so they post codes in TikTok comment sections. Branch was used for attribution/referral links. Repeated on Sprout and the newest app.

Onboarding has two steps. 1) Interview every creator to vibe-check them and confirm they take the campaign seriously. 2) Put them through a creator course built for that specific app: a Typeform intake, then video modules (e.g. a walkthrough of the team's content bank for creating content), with a quiz at the end of each module to quality-check and confirm completion. She builds one course per app.

Applicants come in via a Typeform linked to a CRM. Course modules: getting started, warm-up playbook, creating content, content bank examples, content policies, account management, next steps, resources, bonuses. Each module is an engagingly edited video of the founder talking with examples (how to edit, how to introduce the app so it converts). A quiz ends every module to quality-check completion. Creators start brand-new accounts. 1,000+ creators onboarded; 200+ active at once.

For every viral format: idea, details, example videos, audios, and a line-by-line script where each line has the emotion to portray (sarcastic tone, eye roll) and the shot (long, medium, close-up). Founder films example videos herself for creators to copy. Formats include fake recruiter-call skits and talking heads.

Know the app and content better than your creators. Either be your own UGC creator or onboard 2-10 creators and train them until they go viral; once a format works, build a system and scale. Her system: sourcing, onboarding (interview + course), management, then optimization. Management options she lists: Discord chats, bi-weekly or monthly feedback calls, or promoting top creators to manage the rest; at scale add a referral system among creators and growth dashboards.

Moved away from the beauty space (Glam Up) to target college and post-college students looking for jobs, because they have higher purchasing power. Built Sprout (originally PrepAI): swipe right on a tailored job posting and the app applies on the company website for you; also tailors resumes.

After Glam Up and Sprout, built two more apps in 3 months and grew them with the same design + UGC distribution system.

Flat $10-30 per post. Bonuses at view thresholds; Sprout uses a decreasing CPM: ~10K views $40, 50K $50, 100K $80, 1M $800 (vs flat CPM of 10K $10 / 100K $100 / 1M $1,000).

Faceless 6.7-second video: text 'War is over. Finally landed my first full-time job' over a Google Sheet job tracker; a dropdown is switched to 'Accepted'. Length tested at 5, 6 and 7 seconds; 6.7s won. Filmed at a tilted (not 90-degree) angle; show the sheet, zoom in, click the dropdown slowly so options are visible but not clear, click Accepted, zoom again, zoom out. Creators get ready-made Google Sheet templates and a tutorial video.

After onboarding questions, a 'Leave a rating' screen triggers the native rating pop-up; to continue, users must tap an 'I rated' button (whether or not they rated). Same screen used on Sprout. Newest app dropped the forced button (co-founder uncomfortable) and uses a plain 'Leave a rating' + continue, which still works. Similar approach for the notification permission page.

Onboarding is for priming, not analytics: ask about goals/concerns (beauty goals, skin concerns; job goals) so users feel they need the app, then tailor a plan. On Sprout, added 'fun fact' pages after questions: e.g. 'Have you tried other job search apps?' is followed by a Sprout-vs-other-apps comparison; 'What is your goal?' is followed by 'you can reach that goal with Sprout way more than without'. Then rating, notifications, referral code.

Inbound: post the application form in Discords of influencers who coach people to go viral (students already semi-trained and interested in content), and on Handshake, where students apply thinking of a social-media internship. Also outbound. Every candidate gets a ~15-minute interview to vibe-check, judge fit with the content and seriousness, and is told the course plus quizzes are mandatory. Prior viral experience is a bonus, not required.

Work through a list of distribution strategies, 2-3 weeks each: Reddit marketing; faceless TikTok/Instagram content (slideshows, videos, different CTA variations); face UGC (AI UGC or real creators); and, with capital, paid ads and influencers. Within each category exhaust variations (e.g. slideshow vs video, different slideshow styles) and keep iterating until one goes viral, then scale it.

Match creators to the content strategy: talkative 'yappers' for talking-head videos, expressive faces for reaction videos. Inbound: post application forms in UGC group chats on Instagram, on Reddit, and on sites like Slasher. Outbound: hire VAs to reach out to micro-influencers. SideShift is her pick for recruiting UGC creators.

Sprout sells weekly and monthly plans only (up to ~$80/month), no annual, because a job search shouldn't take a year. No close-out discount paywall. Payments go through Stripe in an in-app sheet instead of App Store IAP.

All apps are hard-paywalled; the scan results (Glam Up) and core features require a paid plan. Business model is a weekly or monthly subscription. Paywalls run on Superwall, revenue tracked in RevenueCat.

Apply consumer-app design principles: welcome pages, onboarding questions that personalize the result (job postings tailored to answers in Sprout, chosen scan in Glam Up), and priming users to convert. Treat the product design as part of distribution by making outputs innately viral for social media.