Shepherd · B2C · Bible reading habit app
Build the app in two weeks while running a two-week content push
Reached #10 on the charts and $75K MRR despite a buggy app
What they did
What happened
This shipped together with other changes, so the result can't be credited to this alone.
In their words
Daniel Kwon - He made $2.2M from building simple apps. Here's how (no-code)
Daniel KwonAnd again, growing up Christian, but not really being able to get into the Bible consistently, we just thought, "Why not build like a Tamagotchi-style app for it?" And kind of going back to the the small business factor, the founder should be the biggest influencer of their app sort of angle, this also blew up. It was like seven videos, and we did like 20 million views in 2 weeks, got over 100,000 downloads,
Daniel Kwonand nothing was optimized for this. We literally ideated or conceptualized with like AI and just some calls. It was like a two-week build. Two-week build alongside a two-week growth sprint. Yeah, I mean, the app broke a ton. There were a lot of issues, but we got it to 75k MRR in those 2 weeks, and we're currently working on tightening like the social loops that exist in the app because we think the bigger play is is K-factor
Daniel Kwonand basically getting people to invite prayer buddies, prayer and and accountability buddies, for consistently reading the Bible.
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Stitch an already-viral classroom clip with better audio, then demo the app15-16M TikTok views in a day, 100M+ across platforms; drove a $500K month
- Make videos siding with students against pointless school busyworkOne such video got ~4M views (host's reading); guest says the style still works
- Have a co-founder make all the videos himself, faceless and low-budget~220M lifetime views and ~$2.2M revenue, mostly organic
- Test paid ads next to organic videosMargins were worse than organic; dropped
- Build a tool to get around AI detectors the night one launches$1M ARR within about 30 days
- Have UGC creators film inside Snapchat so videos look like real stories
- Put schools' logos on your website without askingGot cease-and-desist letters from several schools and a legal fight
- Talk to three or four buyers when selling the appSold, but some competitors posed as buyers just to pull information
- Post a scrappy 'we made way too much, so it's on sale' videoHit every time creators remade it; brand had views but no sales before
- Put a flash sale on a TikTok Shop item to reach more For You pagesGuest says it automatically boosts the product and brand; no numbers
- Film shop videos in the founder's kitchen or bedroom, even as a funded brandBrand became #1 in food and beverage on TikTok Shop; not isolated
- Pack visible value into product photos and release limited flavor dropsGuest says it made organic storytelling much easier; no numbers
- Post carousels about Solo Leveling fans wanting 'the system' in real lifeGuest's fastest cold start besides Shepherd; ~$7K/month early
- Pay influencers and meme pages $1-2 per 1,000 views$6-7 revenue per 1,000 views; grew to ~$50K/month at 70-80% margins
- Build the app fans already ask for when rivals just run adsReached ~$50K/month alongside influencer deals
- Stitch popular faith podcast clips and farmed hooks onto a quick app demo~7 videos: 20M views, 100K+ downloads and $75K MRR in 2 weeks
- Pitch a God-first lamb against Duolingo's AI-first owl during its backlash~10K Discord members from the launch push; later fans rejected an AI feature
- Replace the AI chat with a custom devotional and drop 'AI' from the copy
- Pause creator videos and build invites for prayer and accountability buddies
- Post about your app yourself; skip paid ads until five formats winGuest's rule from five or six cold starts; no numbers
Tags: speed, growth-sprint, ai-ideation