I Built a $20K/Month App in 83 Days

Define a 'commitment metric' for yourself and for users. For yourself: a specific date and a number (customers, clients, etc.) you must hit by then, so validation has a fixed time box. For users: the signal doesn't need to be payment, but must represent real usage; for Once it was event hosts agreeing to use the product at an actual dated event in front of friends and family, treated as nearly a proxy for payment. Their bar: 10 events with a real date and commitment before writing a single line of code.

Open X, LinkedIn and Instagram/Facebook friend lists in three tabs, go through every contact and circle anyone who fits the ideal customer (here: anyone with an event coming up), then ask them to try it. Apply The Mom Test: friends and family are encouraging, so be honest about whether you're validating or just looking for encouragement.

Search Instagram (and other platforms) for hashtags matching the use case (#wedding, #birthdayparty), list 250-300 potential customers, and send each a very short cold message (2-3 sentences max) that grabs attention and pitches trying the product at their event. Go to wherever your users are active (Reddit, TikTok, YouTube) and learn the platform, since the validation channel becomes the main marketing channel if it works. Brian's rule of thumb: if you haven't been banned from these platforms at least twice, you haven't messaged enough.

Built a web app with only the core features in 1-2 weeks, ahead of a friend's Halloween party. Printed invitation codes so every guest could join and take photos into one shared album. After validating, threw the web version out and rebuilt the mobile app properly, with human-made design in Figma (no AI for design). As a general step he recommends a mockup in no more than 2-3 days (Figma or AI tools) to show users.

Each event (a 'film') is a purchase tier set by how many guests the host invites: about $2 for a ~10-person birthday up to about $50 for a ~150-person wedding. More guests means a higher tier. The host also sets shots per person, reveal time, filters and the invite card.