The Superwall Podcast · 2026-03-15
Jay Raavi - Copy This UGC Strategy, It'll Make Your App Go Viral
Solo bootstrapped founder Jay Raavi built Nomadtable, an app for meeting people while travelling solo (1M+ downloads, ~$65K/month), almost entirely on organic UGC. He made the content himself until formats reliably went viral (first 50-100K downloads), then hired 60-70 creators on $1-2 CPM, performance-only deals. He tests every hook himself and keeps a format when 75-80% of viewers watch past 3 seconds. Also covers the clickbait 'view trap', a 12-15K pre-launch waitlist for the cold start, and why he skips paid ads for a low-ARPU social app.
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Numbers mentioned
| Subject | Metric | Value | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nomadtable | revenue All subscriptions; no ads in the app | USD 65K/month approximate | “Yeah, so right now we're doing, I think, um, like 65k a month, I want to say.” |
| Nomadtable | downloads Over 1M; also in the episode description | 1M downloads approximate | “So, this is for your app, Nomadtable. You have over a million downloads.” |
| Nomadtable | price Annual subscription; weekly and monthly plans also exist | USD 69.99/year | “This is like all subscriptions, right? So, it's like weekly, monthly, annual. The annual's like $69.99 a month, or a year.” |
| Nomadtable | views Organic views across founder and creator accounts (TikTok + Instagram), latest month on his analytics screen | 44M views/month | “'Cause also, this is 44 million views, but then I just noticed that it says 34 million views the previous period. So, is this per year?” |
| Nomadtable | views Organic views, the month before the 44M month | 34M views/month | “Those Those are the last two months.” |
| Nomadtable | count UGC creators posting daily, including the founder; all managed by him | 60–70 creators approximate | “we have, I want to say, like 60 to 70 creators, something in that in that range.” |
| Nomadtable | count Creator count when the hostel videos were being posted | 10 creators approximate | “I had about like 10 creators back then and they were making all kind of like the hook demo UGC-style videos like this.” |
| Nomadtable | share Share of new users from word of mouth, per the onboarding attribution survey; the rest is almost all UGC | 10–15% estimate | “between 10% to 15% of people that are new users come from word of mouth. Um, and the rest are pretty much all UGC, I think.” |
| Nomadtable | downloads Early downloads from the founder's own content before hiring creators | 50K–100K downloads estimate | “I probably got like the first, I don't know, 50 to 100k downloads from my own content, I would say.” |
| Nomadtable | count Pre-launch waitlist size | 12K–15K signups approximate | “I think I had probably like about 12, 15k people on my waitlist before before launching” |
| Nomadtable | downloads Launch-day downloads from the waitlist (about 40-50% of it); about 20 users in Barcelona and 10+ in other big cities | 6,000 downloads/day approximate | “probably like only 6k people, um, got the app the first day from that” |
| Nomadtable | views Clickbait hostel-hook reel with poor engagement: 174 likes, 8 comments | 300K viewsper video | “Like, 174 likes with 300k views is like is like horrible.” |
| Nomadtable | count Likes on the 300K-view clickbait hostel reel (8 comments) | 174 likesper video | “Like you have these this big view count, 300k, but then yeah, 174 likes and eight comments.” |
| Nomadtable | count Creator's hook-and-demo TikTok ('Imagine being scared of solo traveling when this literally exists'); also 30K bookmarks | 74K likesper video | “This is a lot more engagement: 74,000 likes and 30,000 bookmarks.” |
| benchmarkShare of viewers watching past 3 seconds (Instagram insight) that marks a format as good and likely to go viral eventually; all of Jay's good formats have at least 70% | share Viewers who watch past the first 3 seconds | 75–80% approximate | “If that is between like 75% and 80%, like, usually it's a good format.” |
| benchmarkAverage watch time on Jay's good formats | count Average watch time per view | 6–10 seconds approximate | “Average watch time is like, you know, I mean, for me, like around like 6 to 10 seconds.” |
| benchmarkTikTok views per video for a good format (~70%+ past 3 seconds) before it breaks out; consistent 4-5K means a viral hit is coming | views | 4,000–5,000 viewsper video approximate | “I think usually like on TikTok, you know, a good format like that that has around that stats, like you'll get at least like 4 to 5k views.” |
| benchmarkViews per video below which a format should be dropped | views As transcribed ('sub 50'); may be 500 | 50 viewsper video approximate | “Like, if you're getting like sub 50, like, you know, it's probably cooked” |
| Nomadtable | count Typical viral hits per account posting once a day, for the founder and most creators; some months 3-4 | 1 viral videosper account /month approximate | “I would say from like my own accounts, I probably have like a viral video around like once a month, I would say, just for my own. And, um, I would say for like most of my creators, like it's pretty similar.” |
| Nomadtable | cpm Performance-only CPM paid to UGC creators, no retainer; he calls $1-2 standard and decent | USD 1–2per 1000 views approximate | “I think like between $1 and $2 is good.” |
| aggregateHighest CPM other apps have offered Jay's UGC accounts in DMs | cpm Highest offer seen; $1-2 is the usual range | USD 3per 1000 views | “I think the highest I've seen was $3.” |
| personNomadtable's top-earning UGC creator in one month | creator pay Highest single monthly CPM payout, uncapped, probably mostly from one viral video | USD 8,000per creator /month approximate | “I think my highest payout might have been like $8,000 in a month.” |
| personNomadtable's top-earning UGC creator in one month | views Views behind the $8K payout | 8M views/month approximate | “It's like 8 million views.” |