Film a clickable mock-up and put TikTok ad money behind it before building

Joseph ChoiInteresting. This was a 7.9 million views. This was on your brand account, and is this like, is this you making this video, or is it a creator?

Roger ChenYeah, so this one is made by my co-founder, Leo. So, when we made this video, like, uh we haven't actually finished building the app yet, but we want to like make a demo and uh see if people want to use it. So, what happened was like he made this, like Leo made this amazing like prototypes, like it's like a mock-up. It's not a real app, it's like PowerPoints, like we use this uh product called ProtoPie, and then he just films everything, like it's just like a fake mock-up, and then see if people like it. And uh funny thing here is that, you know, you know like the TikTok audience just so perceptive, [laughter] and uh supposedly like this video should be, you know, like the point of view of someone texting a guy, right? But then, everyone realized that, "Hey, you know, like it's a man's hand. Like it's like Those are like men hands." [laughter] Yeah, so uh yeah. So, yeah, basically that's what …

Joseph ChoiI see. Interesting. And when you're prototyping, are you optimizing for what you think will look cool on TikTok?

Joseph ChoiMm. That's really c- That's really interesting. I haven't seen that many people do this strategy before, ProtoPie, just prototyping it before you even make the app. Like, why do you think this video did so well?

Roger ChenSo, for this very first one, we did buy some ads. Uh because it's the fastest. Like if you see like the official, the the one in the official account, like we have to buy some ads to get some very quick reactions. Because you know like the UGC program, like the ones the breakout hits that we saw like lately, like those took like 2, 3 months. And uh when you're still validating your idea, you just don't have that time. So, before we have the app, we just test it real fast uh with some with some ads, and see if people are interested in it. And then, in this process, we gained two things. Number one, we gained like at least one format [laughter] that could work, and, two, we see if people like our product.

Joseph ChoiThat's cool. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I feel like ads are one of the best ways to iterate in the beginning. Like, people think of ads for scaling, but, you know, you don't want to negotiate with influencers for like 2 weeks and then finally get out some creative formats and then have it all flop um after you put all that work into the prototyping and everything. Um, just plug it Exactly. and see see if people resonate. That makes Exactly. Yeah, I think like, like, yeah, like you said, like I think the reverse like people should be working in the reverse way, right? Like people should Uh so when you're actually scaling, like no ads, right? Because that's like that's like Because the more you scale, the more expensive it becomes and uh uh no one wants that, right? But um, in the beginning, like ads are really the fastest, the fastest way to get feedback. And you know like um there's this period of time between uh you first have the idea and when you first launch, like that period could take like 2 weeks, a month, even 2, 3 months, like that's the most stressful period, because you- you're all- you're just in your head. You know you have no feedback, and you can easily, you know, go on the wrong path. So, in that period of time, you're just like desperate for feedback, and you just cannot wait. And on top of it, I think we're all startup teams here uh here, right? Like we're all like burning money. And um, you know, …

Joseph ChoiThat's really good advice. I feel like a lot of people are like especially for like pivot hell phase of entrepreneurship, where you're you have an idea and you think it's such a great idea. You iterate on it like a few for a few weeks, like you said, and then you launch and it doesn't work. And then you're like, "Hmm, okay." And then you pivot, but then the pivot itself involves another month of Yeah. you know, working on it. [laughter] Um, I I …