Build the app fans already ask for when rivals just run ads

Daniel KwonI worked on two different apps after Dimension. One was a super hacky, scrappy app called Arise. It's a Solo Leveling-inspired fitness app. This was probably next to the the other app I'm going to talk about, which is called Shepherd, and it's the Duolingo for Bible study, but next to that app, I think it was the fastest cold start I've given an app. We just used carousels about fans of Solo Leveling

Daniel Kwonbeing excited about the idea of the system existing in real life. So like there were already a bunch of anime fanatics just posting, "We need the system in real life." So everyone already wanted an app, and there were already a couple out, but none of them were optimized. They had no long onboarding flow, no social features. They weren't optimized to convert, actually. Most of them were running ads,

Daniel Kwonwhich anyone in the app space knows does not generate much revenue, and it's probably the worst way to monetize your app. But yeah, we just basically milked that format, partnered with a couple different influencers.

Joseph ChoiThat's so interesting. It's like It seems like the framework for this was just like, find a large group of people that are really passionate about a thing and then just make an app that's sort of like based on that IP. So they're super fans of Solo Leveling, and that doesn't really exist in real life.

Daniel KwonI mean, it goes back to the point of building a movement. You're either building the cult or finding the cult, and it's definitely better to build the cult in terms of long-term or in terms of LTV, but with this, it was just such an obvious play with the season 2 finale of Solo Leveling coming out at the time, so we were kind of riding like a momentum wave. I like to say that pretty much every product or project I've worked on has stemmed from some sort of momentum

Daniel Kwonwave in an existing cult.