GTM Sauce

The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

Matt Gittleson - Our app makes $750k/mo thanks to this UGC strategy

Matt Gittleson founded Citesure, a fake-citation checker whose first founder-filmed TikTok got 245K views. Jenni AI acqui-hired him after a casual Instagram DM. He now runs Jenni's UGC program: 0 to 150 creators and 75M views at under $2 CPM in about 3 months. He picks creators from unrelated niches for 'camera charisma' (emotive, good first frame, a natural talker), coaches them over time, and writes polarizing 'engagement bait' overlays; one got 30M views on X. Also: recruiting DMs, building 'viral sense' by scrolling, and building product backwards from TikTok formats.

Play the episode

12 tactics

Jenni AI · B2C · AI essay writing assistant

150 creators and 75M views at under $2 per 1,000 views in 3 months
“So I'm not looking at stats or anything on Modash. I'm just going to their page, looking at their TikToks in a completely different niche and thinking, we can work with that.”
Workedugc-creatorscreator-ops
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

Jenni AI · B2C · AI essay writing assistant

Best creator needed 25 videos to pass 10K views, then earned $5K+ in a month
“I think if you run a program expecting in the first week a creator is going to get a million views, you're probably thinking about it the wrong way.”
Workedcreator-ops
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

Jenni AI · B2C · AI essay writing assistant

80 creators in month one, 150 in three; replies low but most calls closed
“You're always trying to kind of drop as much social proof as you can.”
Workedcreator-ops
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

Jenni AI · B2C · AI essay writing assistant

30M organic views on X after a screenshot; top quote tweet got 15M
“It's not quite rage bait, it's engagement bait.”
Workedugc-creatorsorganic-short-video
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

Jenni AI · B2C · AI essay writing assistant

1.5M views; host guesses more sign-ups than the 30M-view video, no numbers
“A viral study TikTok that didn't mention Jenni is completely useless, completely useless for us.”
Workedugc-creatorsorganic-short-video
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

Citesure · B2C · fake citation checker for students

First-ever TikTok got 245K views
“So I, when I grew my own startup, I didn't work with any creators. I made all the content myself.”
Workedfounder-brandorganic-short-video
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

Citesure · B2C · fake citation checker for students

Founder credits it for spotting formats he adapted; no numbers
“I spent half an hour a day scrolling on a phone specifically for studying, and then I think you should spend half an hour a day explicitly scrolling outside of your niche”
Unknownorganic-short-video
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

Jenni AI · B2C · AI essay writing assistant

Guest says variations beat exact copies; no numbers
“So rather than thinking what's one kind of tiny element I can copy even more closely, think what's one element I can do better than that person did. And if you do that 100 times, you're more likely for one of those variations to go viral than if you were just purely copying.”
Unknownugc-creatorsorganic-short-video
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

A copycat brand · Jenni competitor

Didn't go viral
“We've had people actually copy some of our creators' videos down to them going out purchasing outfits to that look as identical as possible, and filming in front of the most identical background you can imagine.”
Failedugc-creators
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30
“There's a format that I saw that's being used in a completely different niche, and I said, there's got to be a way we can adapt this.”
Unknownfeature-developmentvalidation
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

Citesure · B2C · fake citation checker for students

CEO call the next day; acqui-hire closed 4-5 months later
“I've drilled down, exactly like you say, on a really specific element of it that they a problem they really understand, a solution they understand, and it makes it much easier to have that conversation.”
Workedexit-ma
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

Jenni AI · B2C · AI essay writing assistant

The hired founder built a 150-creator, 75M-view program in 3 months
“I think I'm biased because of my own experience, but I think if you're a company large enough, I really believe in acqui-hiring young founders.”
Workedteam-process
The Superwall Podcast · 2025-12-30

Numbers mentioned

SubjectMetricValueQuote
Jenni AImrr
The description also says past $775K MRR
USD 775K/month
approximate
“So, Jenni is at 775K MRR. It's it's pretty huge.”
Jenni AIrevenue
Title figure; the body says $775K MRR
USD 750K/month
approximate
“So, Jenni is at 775K MRR.”
Jenni AIusers
Used as social proof in creator outreach DMs
5M–6M users
approximate
“You know, Jenni's got 5, 6 million users, our creators have done XYZ”
Jenni AIviews
UGC program views in ~3 months since August 2025
75M views
approximate
“We've gone from, you know, the program specifically where I started, 0 to 75 million views, less than $2 CPM.”
Jenni AIcpm
Blended cost per 1,000 views across the UGC program (upper bound)
USD 2
approximate
“We've gone from, you know, the program specifically where I started, 0 to 75 million views, less than $2 CPM.”
Jenni AIcount
Creators brought into the UGC program in ~3 months, in different forms
150 creators
approximate
“We have gone from 0 to, in different forms, 150 different creators.”
Jenni AIcount
Creators signed in the first month; this was also the target, hit right at the deadline
80 creators/month“A lot, is the is the short answer. Um, we had 80 within the first month.”
benchmarkTypical mass creator outreach on Instagram/TikTok, per the hostconversion rate
DM -> response. Host adds 20-50% of responders then negotiate or get on a call. Matt says Jenni's rates are lower because non-influencers rarely check DMs and are skeptical.
10–20%
estimate
“they're hoping for maybe a 10, 20% response rate, and then from there, maybe a, you know, 20 to 50% people actually start negotiating or get on a call.”
Jenni AIconversion rate
DM -> response and response -> call rates for creator outreach
lower than the 10-20% typical response rate; closing rate on calls quite high
estimate
“I think generally when when I got on call with them, the closing rate was quite high, but initial response rate and kind of response rate to getting on call rate, probably lower than that.”
personJenni AI's best creator last month; beauty-niche creator with no prior UGC experiencecount
Videos posted before one got above 10K views
25 videos
approximate
“Our best creator last month, it took her 25 videos before she got above 10k, and she ripped.”
personJenni AI's best creator last month; beauty-niche creator with no prior UGC experiencecreator pay
Over $5K in one month, largely from performance bonuses
USD 5,000/month
estimate
“I think she made over 5 grand last month or something absolutely incredible, based on bonuses we offer, etcetera.”
Citesureviews
Founder's first-ever TikTok (after five meme posts), long-URL talking-to-phone format
245.6K viewsper video“And then top, the the pinned one on the right, so 245.6k, 9th of December 2024, or 8th of December.”
Jenni AIviews
Organic views on X after someone screenshotted creator Ruby's 5-second 'girl in the library' TikTok
30M views
approximate
“particularly the second one got the second one got 30 million completely organic views on Twitter.”
Jenni AIviews
The quote tweet defending the creator in the X debate
15M views
approximate
“And then the quote tweet that got 15 million views was saying, "You guys are ignoring the fact that the girl wasn't using any open tabs or music, like why are you flaming her?"”
Jenni AIviews
Creator Ruby's 'professor said zero' video with a direct Jenni AI call to action
1.5M viewsper video
approximate
“The second one, the 1.5 million, is another really good example of what we just spoke about.”
Jenni AIviews
View ratio between two near-identical videos (same script, same creator) posted 3 days apart
+2,000 x
approximate
“they were almost identical, same script, same creator, 3 days apart. One of them got 2,000 times more views than the other.”
Citesuretime to milestone
From the first Instagram DM (February) to the acquisition closing
4–5 months
approximate
“You can see it took it took 4 months from or 5 months from February to to when it actually happened”