The Superwall Podcast · 2026-05-13
Nicole Cheung - she makes $400k/mo from ai apps (while in college)
College senior Nicole Cheung explains how GlamUp (AI makeup app, 1M users in 6 months, ~$150K MRR peak) and Sprout ('Tinder for jobs', $250K MRR in 8 months) grew: templated faceless TikTok slideshows, an invite-3-friends unlock whose codes flooded TikTok comments, fake-scan hard paywalls, a 50% close-out discount, price rises that lifted conversion, and a 1,000+ creator UGC machine (Discord/Handshake recruiting, course with quizzes, scripted content bank, per-post + decreasing-CPM pay). A hard paywall right after onboarding gave +50% conversion.
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Numbers mentioned
| Subject | Metric | Value | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| personNicole Cheung's apps combined (GlamUp + Sprout) | revenue Title/description claim; body shows two peak MRRs reached at different times (GlamUp ~$150K, Sprout $250K) | USD 400K/month approximate | “That's Nicole. She built four apps before turning 25, and the last two apps did over 400 grand a month between them.” |
| GlamUp | users first 6 months after launch | 1M users approximate | “We got a million users in the first six months of launching.” |
| GlamUp | mrr peak MRR | USD 150K approximate | “I think at peak, we were at around 150k MRR. It's a glow-up app for for women and makeup and skincare” |
| GlamUp | rank App Store overall chart, ahead of Tinder and Hinge for a couple of days | 3 | “that was the time when GlamUp reached number three on the App Store.” |
| GlamUp | downloads lifetime, including leftover distribution after active work stopped | 2M users approximate | “I think we have around like 2 million downloads” |
| GlamUp | count Branch link requests from people sharing the app / getting referral codes | 1.6M approximate | “we have, you know, around 1.6 million total requests of people sharing the app, getting their codes” |
| GlamUp | views very first faceless before/after slideshow post | 10M viewsper video approximate | “This one like our very first post got like 10 million views, which is insane.” |
| GlamUp | count UGC creators at GlamUp's peak (content shown was across ~20 creators) | 30–40 creators approximate | “I believe at one point, we had like 30, 40 creators.” |
| GlamUp | revenue revenue from traffic spilling over from a viral copycat app with a similar name | USD 100K/week approximate | “And then they just made us, you know, 100k in a week.” |
| GlamUp | revenue 'more than $600,000 total', host citing Nicole's playbook | USD 600K approximate | “You got like more than $600,000 total on this app.” |
| GlamUp | price early weekly price, later raised to $9/week | USD 3/week | “In the playbook, you said like $3 a week, and then you I think you increased it like $9 a week?” |
| GlamUp | price weekly price after tripling; conversion rate went up | USD 9/week | “when you raised your price from 3 to 9, like you tripled your price, it somehow increased your conversion rate.” |
| GlamUp | price weekly tiers on the main hard paywall: $8.99, $10.99, $12.99 | USD 8.99–12.99/week | “You know, it starts from $8.99, $10.99, $12.99.” |
| GlamUp | price 50%-off close-out paywall tiers: $4.49, $5.49, $6.49 | USD 4.49–6.49/week | “So once they click out, we hit them with the 50% discount. This one is, you know, $4.49, $5.49, $6.49.” |
| Nicole Cheung's newest app (stealth) | price monthly and annual prices both raised 20%; conversion and revenue per download rose; another +20% in test | +20% | “I increased both by 20%, and the conversion went up. Our revenue per download, you know, obviously, also went up.” |
| Nicole Cheung's newest app (stealth) | conversion rate hard paywall right after onboarding vs letting users into the app first | +50% approximate | “But then we ran a test um of complete hard paywall after the onboarding. They don't even go into the to the app. Unfortunately, we see a 50% increase in conversion.” |
| Sprout | mrr after the first 8 months, by October 2 | USD 250K approximate | “I was growing it for the first eight months, and we did 250k MRR. So, by October 2nd, we were doing 250k MRR.” |
| Sprout | mrr current, after Nicole moved to advisor | USD 200K approximate | “I think now, they have steadily been growing at around 200k MRR.” |
| Sprout | views UGC views while Nicole ran the creator program | 100M views/month approximate | “when I was handling, you know, all the UGCs, we were doing 100 million monthly views.” |
| Sprout | views last 7 days, per the current Sprout team | 400M views/week approximate | “Last 7 days, they did Wow. 400 million views.” |
| Sprout | views current monthly average across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts (guest's rough figure) | 400M–500M views/month estimate | “so monthly, I think they're doing around 400 to 500 average monthly, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts.” |
| Sprout | count active creators at the same time at peak scaling (1,000+ cycled through) | 200 creators approximate | “I remember we have maybe over 200 active creators at the same time.” |
| Sprout | count creators onboarded onto the course | 1,000 creators approximate | “we have onboarded, I would say, over 1,000 creators onto this course without any training whatsoever.” |
| Sprout | share share of course-finishing creators (no prior experience) who go viral within their first 2 weeks on a new account | 50% approximate | “I would say over 50% of the creators finish this course with no previous experiences. They go viral within the first 2 weeks of starting a brand-new account with us.” |
| Sprout | creator pay flat rate, plus view-threshold bonuses | USD 10–30per post | “Flat rate, we usually do you can do anywhere between $10 to $30 per post.” |
| Sprout | creator pay decreasing-CPM bonus tiers: 10K views ~$40, 50K $50, 100K $80, 1M $800 | USD 40–800per video approximate | “Or you can do a decreasing CPM, which is what we do. So, 10k views, maybe $40; 50k views, $50; 100k views, $80; a million views, $800, something like that.” |
| persona Sprout-dedicated UGC creator trained via the course | followers | 100K followers approximate | “She has over 100k followers right now, and this is a Sprout-dedicated one.” |
| Sprout | price top of the price range | USD 80/month approximate | “Pricing is way higher. We have, I think, up to $80 a month.” |
| Sprout | team size full-time including co-founders | 10 people | “But Sprout right now, we have a team of 10 full-time people, including the co-founders.” |
| Nicole Cheung's newest app (stealth) | mrr 'almost' $200K, ~3 months after January launch | USD 200K approximate | “We're, you know, 3 months in, we're almost at 200k MRR.” |
| Nicole Cheung's newest app (stealth) | mrr target by end of the month | USD 500K goal | “My goal for for this one is 500k by the end of this month.” |
| GlamUp | time to milestone time to build and launch the first MVP | 3–4 weeks approximate | “I think we built the first MVP out in maybe 3 weeks to a month.” |