The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-14
An Nayal - Full App Growth Guide 2026 - How to Make Viral Content to Get Users & Make Your App Retentive
An Nayal tells how his couples app Flamme went from a date planner with 0.8% day-30 retention (renamed after a trademark letter) to an AI coach (4.2%) and then a daily-question app with partner-framed carrot/stick notifications, locked answers and widgets (~50% D30). Out of money and unable to raise without distribution, he learned TikTok and built a phone farm of 20-30 accounts, AI playbooks, a manual tracking sheet and a VSC (viral, scalable, convertible) filter: ~50M organic views. Product-demo formats convert 0.5-1% of views vs 0.05-0.2% for memes and slideshows.
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Numbers mentioned
| Subject | Metric | Value | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guest's 24-hour gym chain in Beijing | count Gym locations across several Chinese cities | 7 locations | “That was my first business, scaled that to seven locations, we did 15 million RMB in revenue” |
| Guest's 24-hour gym chain in Beijing | revenue Period not stated | CNY 15M approximate | “That was my first business, scaled that to seven locations, we did 15 million RMB in revenue” |
| Flamme | growth rate Organic growth in the first month after the October 2022 Sparks launch | 800%/month approximate | “We launched, in one month, we grew 800% organically.” |
| Flamme | retention D30, first version (Sparks date-planning app) | 0.8% | “Yes, because, Joseph, you know how much was the day-30 retention on this product? 0.8%.” |
| Flamme | retention D30 after pivoting to Flamme AI (AI relationship coach) | 4.2% | “Uh retention went up from 0.8 to 4.2.” |
| Flamme | retention D30, intermediate step after making the daily question core and adding carrot/stick notifications | 30% approximate | “I mean, we were able to increase our day-30 retention from 4.2% to roughly 30% and then all the way up to 50% by doing this.” |
| Flamme | retention D30, from 4.2% baseline | 50% approximate | “I mean, we were able to increase our day-30 retention from 4.2% to roughly 30% and then all the way up to 50% by doing this.” |
| Flamme | time to milestone Iterating on the product to reach ~50% D30 retention | 8 months approximate | “So it took us 8 months and continuous iteration on the product.” |
| benchmarkX (Twitter) day-30 retention, guest's recollection | retention D30 | 30% estimate | “If I remember correctly, X has a 30-day retention of 30%, don't, you know, not exactly sure about the numbers right now” |
| benchmarkInstagram day-30 retention, guest's recollection | retention D30 | 35% estimate | “Instagram is at 35%. TikTok barely touches roughly 40% on day 30” |
| benchmarkTikTok day-30 retention, guest's recollection | retention D30 | 40% estimate | “Instagram is at 35%. TikTok barely touches roughly 40% on day 30” |
| Flamme | conversion rate First month of monetization; miscalculated as all paying users (incl. renewals) divided by incoming users, so it overstates new-user conversion | 15% | “initially, in the first month, we had a surplus of users built up, we monetized, and we had a 15% conversion rate.” |
| Flamme | team size | 3–4 people approximate | “We were a very small team, right? We were three or four people.” |
| Flamme | count TikTok accounts running for Flamme | 20–30 TikTok accounts approximate | “Now, we have accounts like this, we have roughly 20 to 30 accounts for Flamme running.” |
| Flamme | count Phones currently with the team, each running 3-4 TikTok accounts | 10 iPhones approximate | “My team right now has 10 iPhones lying with them. Each of the iPhones has three to four accounts on it.” |
| Flamme | cost Work time lost after reusing one Apple ID across farm phones (40 hours x 3 people) | 120 person-hours approximate | “It cost us a week of our work time, that is 40 hours for three people, 120 hours.” |
| Flamme | views Organic TikTok views across all accounts and content | 50M views approximate | “Across all the accounts, across all of the content we have put out, we managed to scale them to 50 million views” |
| Flamme | users Users from the organic TikTok machine, per the host | 150K users approximate | “So, you got 150k users. You have this huge organic machine with tons of account types and formats and everything.” |
| Flamme | views Early meme video; guest now says the format doesn't convert | 340K viewsper video approximate | “So you have a video here that's 340,000 views.” |
| Flamme | activity volume Posts across all content types and accounts | 200 pieces of content/day approximate | “I mean, also we are putting out, let's say, between the content types, we put out 200 pieces of content a day.” |
| Flamme | conversion rate View -> download for meme videos and question slideshows | 0.05–0.2% approximate | “Memes and slide, both of them are on the way low conversion ratio. So anywhere from 0.05% to roughly 0.2%, this is the conversion you can expect.” |
| Flamme | conversion rate View -> download for reaction hook followed by an app clip | 0.3–0.5% approximate | “The videos where we had a reaction with a clip of the app followed after was better converting, roughly 0.3 to 0.5%” |
| Flamme | conversion rate View -> download for videos showing the app in use as the main subject | 0.5–1% approximate | “and then the videos we had where we showed the app in use, where the app was the main thing, had 0.5 to 1% conversion rate.” |
| Guest's new texting-reply app | conversion rate Expected view -> download for Reddit-screenshot product demo videos once the format is unlocked | 0.5–1% goal | “But I know that if we manage to unlock this format, then this is going to convert really well. I would place it anywhere from 0 to 0.5 to 1%.” |
| benchmarkTikTok views below which the account (not the content) is the problem | views <300 = account shadow-flagged/banned; 300-1,000 = content problem; 1,000-5,000 = keep format and tweak copy until 100K+ | 300 viewsper video approximate | “If it is under 300 views, then it's not a content problem you have, then it's an account problem you have” |
| benchmarkVirality test for a TikTok format worth copying | views Over 100K views on an account with under 5,000 followers | 100K viewsper video approximate | “And if there's a piece of content that has gone viral on accounts with less than 5,000 followers and the content has got over 100,000 views, then we understand this content can go viral.” |