The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-20
Morrie Schonfeld - How I built a $500k/mo ai app (so you can just copy me)
Morrie Schonfeld, co-founder of YC-backed AI language-speaking app Pingo AI (~$450-500K/month, 3M users, 14 months after launch), explains its creator engine: founders filming themselves talking to the app until $20K MRR, then ~100 language-learning micro-creators on base pay plus view bonuses, recruited by VAs and run like a VC portfolio, plus Noise for CPM scaling. The 'mean Pingo' crying format hit 52M views. Covers a costly Russian virality spike, trial-timeline paywalls, annual-plan push, 3- vs 7-day trials and transaction-abandon offers.
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Numbers mentioned
| Subject | Metric | Value | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pingo AI | views Creator content views in the past month (February 2026), conservative, with days left; 'part of me wants to say 400 million' | 350M–370M views/month estimate | “Ballpark between 350 and 370 million, I want to say.” |
| Pingo AI | views Title/description and host intro figure ('almost 400 million') | 400M views/month approximate | “In the last 30 days, Morrie's app got almost 400 million views, one app, one month” |
| Pingo AI | revenue | USD 450K–500K/month approximate | “Yeah, we're at around like 500K a month, like 450, 500K a month.” |
| Pingo AI | users Total users, as quoted in the creator outreach DM | 3M users approximate | “So now it's like we have 3 million users” |
| Pingo AI | time to milestone Time since launch to ~$500K/month | 14 months approximate | “Yeah, a year and two months.” |
| Pingo AI | views First video that went viral (founder account, 'POV your Chinese teacher...' hook) | 100K viewsper video approximate | “That got like 100K views, and we're like, "Okay, we have something here."” |
| Pingo AI | mrr Reached with the two founders making almost all videos (first ~3 months, 1-2 outside influencers) | USD 20K approximate | “it was mainly just Michael and I making videos till like 20K MRR, just the two of us.” |
| Pingo AI | views Beginner 'basic Korean quiz' video on the founder Korean account | 77K viewsper video | “One thing was basic conversation, like really geared towards learners, like basic Korean quiz. This one got 77,000 views.” |
| Pingo AI | views Chinese video riding the TikTok ban / RedNote moment | 1M viewsper video approximate | “I had one that went really viral in Chinese, I think. This one got a million views. So this was like when TikTok was getting banned, and the whole RedNote thing” |
| Pingo AI | views Top 'mean Pingo' crying-format video | 52M viewsper video | “So this is the video that got 52 million views” |
| Pingo AI | views Best slideshow posts (with a strong CTA); accounts burned out quickly | 1M viewsper video approximate | “We had some that got a million views, but I've found at least for for Pingo, and I don't know if this is necessarily the case for all other apps, but with Pingo, they burned out pretty quick.” |
| Pingo AI | users New Android users in the viral-spike period this month, of which ~12,500 were from Russia (another point: 5,000 of 12,000) | 23K users/month approximate | “That's like 23,000 users. There's 12 and 1/2 of those 23,000 users are from Russia.” |
| Pingo AI | share Share of new users from Russia during the Russian-content spike; unmonetizable because of sanctions | 50% approximate | “But our Russian content was working really well, and so we got half our user base from Russia.” |
| personA Pingo Russian-language creator based in the UK: Russian share of her viewers | share '90-something percent Russian viewership' despite posting from the UK | 90% approximate | “One of them is in the UK, and her she has 90-something percent Russian viewership” |
| Pingo AI | count Active creators (in-house plus some from Noise) after cutting 30-50 | 100 creators approximate | “But we probably have about like 100 creators right now. We just cut like, you know, 30 to 50” |
| Pingo AI | count Low performers cut from the creator roster | 30–50 creators approximate | “We just cut like, you know, 30 to 50” |
| Pingo AI | share Share of creators producing most of the views; the bottom produce almost none | 20–30% approximate | “The top 20, 30% of creators are doing most of the views, the bottom percent are doing none of them, and kind of dead spend” |
| Pingo AI | count Creators who are really good and come up with their own ideas; ~10 are standouts | 20–30 creators approximate | “Maybe like 20 to 30 are like really good and come up with their own ideas.” |
| Pingo AI | creator pay Example bonus at the 50K-view tier (illustrative; tiers at 50K, 100K, 200K, 500K, 1M views; non-stacking, plus base pay) | USD 50per video illustrative | “So if a creator gets $100 at 100,000 views and $50 at 50,000 views, they don't get 150 when they get to 100,000 views, they get 100.” |
| Pingo AI | creator pay Example bonus at the 100K-view tier (illustrative); highest tier reached replaces lower ones | USD 100per video illustrative | “So if a creator gets $100 at 100,000 views and $50 at 50,000 views, they don't get 150 when they get to 100,000 views, they get 100.” |
| Pingo AI | activity volume Creators Morrie DM'd himself before handing outreach to VAs | a few thousand approximate | “after I reached out to like a few thousand creators, like my TikTok DMs would be super slow” |
| Pingo AI | team size Two co-founders, one content hire, one engineer | 4 people | “it was just two of us until mid-October. Now there's four of us, so one content hire, one engineer.” |
| Pingo AI | price Annual plan with 7-day free trial; shown with a weekly equivalent | USD 99.99/year | “But like $99.99 a year is like daunting to people, so we try a few different ways.” |
| Pingo AI | price One-time intro offer discount shown with the trial timeline | 55 % off | “"Here's your one-time offer for 55% off,"” |
| Pingo AI | conversion rate US, 7-day vs 3-day trial: conversion difference (preliminary; direction not stated) | +0.3–0.7% approximate | “So like so far, conversion like really mildly different in the United States on 7 versus 3, like point uh 0.7 to 0.3% difference.” |
| Pingo AI | arpu US, 7-day vs 3-day trial: ARPU difference (preliminary) | +USD 0.2 approximate | “ARPU is like a 20 cent difference, and trial conversion rate is marginally different.” |
| Pingo AI | churn US trial cancel rate higher on the 3-day trial than the 7-day (reminder arrives while signup is fresh) | +5–7% approximate | “The cancel rate is maybe like 5 to like 7% higher.” |
| Pingo AI | conversion rate International: 7-day trial converted ~2% higher than 3-day (preliminary) | +2% approximate | “It was like 2% difference. 7-day was 2% higher.” |
| Pingo AI | count Meetings scheduled after YC; most canceled because the round closed in ~3 days | 100 investor meetings approximate | “we had like 100 meetings scheduled, and we canceled most of them because we've closed our round in like 3 days.” |
| Pingo AI | time to milestone Time to close the post-YC funding round | 3 days approximate | “we had like 100 meetings scheduled, and we canceled most of them because we've closed our round in like 3 days.” |