GlamUp · B2C · AI makeup glow-up app
After each onboarding question, show a screen on how the app beats the alternatives
Founder says it primes users to convert; no numbers
What they did
What happened
In their words
Nicole Cheung - she makes $400k/mo from ai apps (while in college)
Joseph Choi… you talk about it is such a system. It's like the training, like thinking about it as a talent acquisition game, and then coaching and training them through the the program, um scientifically testing all this stuff with 1,000 creators. So, I want to dive into that entire thing. But first, let's let's get into the the viral system. So like, you have this referral system where people like refer out to their friends. So yeah, how does that work?
Nicole CheungSo, this is our entire app design that I can find from from Figma so far. We have the welcoming screen. We have the onboarding screen. Um a lot of people confuse onboarding and the actual purpose of it. I think a lot of people think onboarding is for data analytics. Um and that's like the the biggest purpose of it. Um I completely disagree. Obviously, it's good for tailoring your plans and all that stuff, but a lot of it is about priming creators to increase conversion. So, we would do a lot of like, for example, beauty goals, skin concerns, so that they think, you know, "Wow, I really need this app," you know?
Nicole CheungAnd then we'll tailor like a plan for them and whatever, so that will make them, you know, want to use the app a bit more. Afterwards, you will see, you know, different scans that you can do. And after you choose it, you either pay, or you can refer friends. I don't know why the code isn't showing up here, but basically, in order to view your results, you can scan your face. Afterwards, we hide everything uh behind a paywall, so we blur …
Nicole Cheung… of like jobs that you can get. You can filter what jobs you want. And whenever you swipe right, we just automatically apply for you. You can also tap in to see more like info about the job. We also have AI-tailored resume and cover letter that you can you can do directly from our app, as well. And the onboarding is completely almost exactly the same, but better version of GlamUp. So, we have the welcome pages. We added the sign-in uh for Sprout.
Nicole CheungAnd then we have, you know, all these um questions that prime the users into thinking that they really need this. Um, this is also a nice, little thing that that I learned later on is you should have these fun fact pages that aren't questions, but it shows how valuable the app is. For example, they ask um We will ask, "Have you tried other job search apps?" And right afterwards, we will compare Sprout with other job search apps. Does that make sense? Um,
Joseph ChoiYeah.
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
- Post the same before/after makeup slideshow with one fixed hook, caption and audioFirst post hit 10M views; millions of views a day at peak
- Strip makeup off Pinterest photos, then add it back in-app for big contrastContrast made the slideshows go viral; founder claim
- Find a viral format on your own accounts first, then hire creators to copy itFounder went viral first on all four apps; scaled GlamUp to 30-40 creators
- Let users skip paying by inviting 3 friends with a code1.6M share/code requests; codes flooded TikTok comments; conversion barely dropped
- Put the app name in the copy-paste referral message so TikTok search ranks itSearching 'GlamUp' on TikTok shows only their content; founder claim
- Triple the weekly price from $3 to $9Conversion rate went up despite the 3x price
- Raise monthly and annual prices 20%, then test another 20%Conversion and revenue per download both rose; second +20% in test
- When people close the paywall, show the same plans at 50% off
- Limit scans per week by plan, and offer a bigger plan when they run out
- Show a fake 'analyzing' scan with blurred results, and run the AI only after payment
- Ask for a rating mid-onboarding; make users tap 'I rated' to continueOther founders who copied it say ratings improved; softer version still works
- Skip the annual plan for a job-search app; sell weekly and monthly via Stripe
- Show the paywall right after onboarding, before users can open the app+50% conversion vs letting users try features first
- Put every new creator through a video course with a quiz after each moduleOver half go viral within 2 weeks; 100M monthly views at 200+ active creators
- Recruit creators in influencer-run Discords and on Handshake, then vibe-check them in 15 minutesMany top creators had no experience; founder claim
- Pay creators $10-30 per post plus view bonuses that shrink per view at scaleFounder says the decreasing tiers work best; no numbers
- Give creators line-by-line scripts with the emotion and camera shot for each lineTrained creators averaged hundreds of thousands to millions of views per video
- Film a 6.7-second 'War is over' clip flipping a job tracker cell to 'Accepted'Hundreds of millions of views and many conversions (not attributable)
- Rebuild a hit men's looks app for women, launching a rough MVP in a month1M users in 6 months; ~$150K MRR peak
Tags: priming, value-pages, comparison-screen