Hire a friend to figure out TikTok with you before paying an agency

Kyle Fowler'Cause at this time, the product existed as you got five free scans and then you had to pay. But we also showed a paywall off the initial rip, and there was no free trial. And a ton of Most of our subscriptions came from people just seeing the first paywall. But no blocker, there's an X button. It's hidden, and but most people just buy it right then, sight unseen, without even using the product.

Kyle FowlerSo, but just to me, I wanted the product to be good. So, for my own sake. But yeah, we would just sit down every day and he'd be like, "Okay, I'm making these videos," and I'd be like, "Okay, these are my thoughts and why this is good, this is bad. Like, could we try this?" And then he would have ideas, too. And it kind of led to something like this where like I really wanted him to have something, 'cause like it came to the point where like every now and then, like I felt like I ended up repeating myself of being like, "Oh, I think this and this." And so, I tried to write down all the things that I was super strong about so that we could use it as a checklist, you know? 'Cause if it's on here, and if it's not in this, if the video contains anything that I would reply with feedback from here, I'd just be like, "You know, it's on here. What are we doing?" Like, [laughter]

Joseph ChoiYeah.

Joseph Choi… just going to absorb as much knowledge as I can from Twitter, and Consumer Club, and just other founders, and then you just completely owned it yourself and then hired your friend and was just very in the weeds with it, and now you have like a a complete system and a whole strategy." Would you recommend this approach? Like what's your take on um hiring people with experience or like big creators versus just kind of taking more ownership of it?

Kyle FowlerI don't remember where I saw this recently, but this is not I guess it's something I've always thought, but never known, is I saw at some point it was like you have to learn enough of how to do something yourself in order to recognize someone great at it. And so, that's something that I found very key is now Now we're scaling and we're trying to recruit creators and get people, and I'm learning how to run a business and, you know, and we're working with um an agency now for uh we're about to start trying with an agency for UGC and stuff. But it's like I'm very easy to validate like it was so easy when we were talking to this person who runs this and being like, "Oh, they're cracked. Like, they're doing all the things we've struggled with. They have the solutions to the problems we're facing." If you don't do it yourself, you'd have no clue what the problems are.

Kyle Fowler'Cause I thought about hiring an agency earlier, and it was like there's just no I like didn't know. Like, I was like, "I would have no way to do if they're good." And I think a very cool forcing function 'cause most people aren't bootstrapped. And so like like we're like we're bootstrapped, no funding, like like I have full ownership of everything, and it's been it worked out really good with the way I was able to do it 'cause I always knew and …

Kyle Fowler… could make 20K by the end of like next year. Like that would be so awesome if we make 20K." And then we like blew it out of the like we with Christmas, we got that organic success, and we were like, "Great." And then we added a hard paywall, and I was like, "Oh, my god, we're making like like 30K a month? What is happening?" Like, [laughter] and so like and now I have like I've hired people and stuff, so it's kind of like there are restraints.

Kyle FowlerBut doing it organically was like a good restraint almost, 'cause like I had to learn this. I had no other choice. I couldn't hire an agency. I couldn't afford I couldn't afford to make the wrong choice hiring an agency. So therefore, like I needed to know, and so by like needing to know, and now I'm in the weeds and like I know all this. And same thing, I'm I'm excited for the world where I eventually get to like hire a developer as well and stuff, 'cause like I know how to do it. I've done it myself. I know all the problems they're going to face. And so, I there someone put it really eloquently about the uh like having to do it yourself to know some recognize talent, but there's a quote somewhere, but it's I think it's rings pretty true.

Kyle FowlerI would recommend to some people doing this, but also like if you're someone who has like VC-funded cash, like maybe you don't need to like be as in the weeds. There's maybe there's higher priority issues to tackle.