Jay Raavi - Copy This UGC Strategy, It'll Make Your App Go Viral

The founder was the only content maker for months (from pre-launch), posting hook-and-demo videos on his own TikTok and Instagram accounts until he had formats that went viral again and again. He held off hiring because paying creators for unproven formats is useless: they would not know what to make. Once confident (first creators hired in April), he ran the classic high-volume UGC playbook: many creators each posting his proven formats every day. Surface area for luck grows with the number of creators. He started with about 10 creators and now has 60-70, each posting daily on TikTok and Instagram.

All flops happen on the founder's account: he invents or borrows hooks, posts them himself and drops losers fast. Creators only remake hooks that already hit. Creators stick to his formats most of the time but get some freedom to experiment so they enjoy the work, even though most of their experiments flop. He keeps posting daily alongside the creators and has been the top-viewed account for 2-3 months. That gives his feedback credibility and motivates them.

Solo founder manages 60-70 creators in-house with no team: one big WhatsApp group plus regular one-on-one chats giving feedback on their videos and checking they are doing well. He does not micromanage but spends most of his time on it, because creators are his distribution.

Judge a format by Instagram's 'watched past 3 seconds' share, plus average watch time (6-10s for his good formats) and engagement, not raw views. If a format consistently gets 75-80% past 3 seconds (all his good ones have 70%+), keep posting it: it will go viral eventually. On TikTok such a format gets at least 4-5K views per video. Consistent 4-5K is 'really good', and a viral hit is only a matter of time. Drop formats that get only double-digit views ('sub 50'). Expect luck: he once posted for a month at 81% with nothing going viral.

Format: on-camera reaction (hand over mouth, OMG) with a text hook, then straight into the app on a phone on a table. Text hook adapted from another niche's 'I've been doing X for Y years and now I find out about this': 'I've been solo traveling for 2 years and now I find out about this [facepalm]'. Voiceover shows planning activities with nearby solo travellers and the chat. End with a specific personal detail ('Where was this when I had the most unsocial hostel in Thailand?') so it feels real and not like an ad. Creators run variants such as 'Imagine being scared of solo traveling when this literally exists', reacting while sipping a drink and winking.

One-take reels shot inside real hostels: zoom in on a fellow guest, then back to the phone showing the app. Clickbait captions such as 'so this random girlie in my hostel just showed me this and I'm never staying in a hostel again lol' or 'the hostel volunteer is definitely getting fired for showing me this'. The hostel background stops the target audience scrolling and looks nothing like an ad. But the video does not deliver on the hook (viewers expect something gross and get an app), so views come without engagement. Posted a lot, until his trip ended.

Mostly pure performance pay: $1-2 per 1,000 views, no retainer, paid monthly. Negotiate, since creators always ask for more. No payout cap (he admits capping is common and would suggest it), because a huge video converts into subscriptions. Views on old posts are paid for 3 months. Creators only accept CPM-only if they believe the app goes viral, so first show them proof: your own account, and a format that has gone viral many times ('this could be you'). Without proof, e.g. a brand-new app, start with retainers.

Following view coaches' advice, he always did something physical in the hook (drinking a drink, holding an object, tying his shoe). He stopped because it made no clear difference; a good text hook matters more, though actions can make a video look more natural.

A social app needs critical mass on day one or it becomes a revolving door. He collected about 12-15K waitlist signups before launch, mostly via his pre-launch content (videos made while the app was on preorder). Reading 'The Cold Start Problem' (Andrew Chen) shaped the approach. The app works with just two people in one place, and launch users gathered in traveller hotspots (about 20 in Barcelona, 10+ in other big cities). City-by-city launches were skipped because travellers move on.

Early content was all founder-led: his face in everything, talking videos about his background and story, and public updates on how the app was going, including each big signup milestone. The goal is an audience that wants the founder to win. He has since stopped the talking videos for lack of time and thinks he should restart them.