Sprout · B2C · swipe-to-apply job search app
Give creators line-by-line scripts with the emotion and camera shot for each line
Trained creators averaged hundreds of thousands to millions of views per video
What they did
What happened
In their words
Nicole Cheung - she makes $400k/mo from ai apps (while in college)
Joseph Choi… we kind of got a little bit sidetracked. So, you You're talking about like the you know, you have hundreds of creators. You've cycled through people as they kind of show how um how well they can perform. And then you have this course where, you know, a lot of them just start going viral after 2 weeks of just, you know, learning from the course. Is there any other element of this creator machine that is you think is contributing to its success?
Nicole CheungI feel like the course is so pretty standard. You know, like, if anyone's is experienced in UGC, they know what to do. I think one thing that I feel really proud of is our content bank. I can't I can't show the content bank in this call, um, but I come from like an entertainment background growing up. My brother is a director. I have a lot of friends in film school. So, when it comes to the content bank, I I approach it from a production perspective. For every viral format that we have, I have the content idea. I have the content details. I have the example videos. I have maybe audios for it. And then I have a script, and that script is line by line, what you're supposed to say. And for each line, I give the emotions that you're supposed to portray and the shots that you're supposed to do.
Nicole CheungEmotions, for example, "Oh, do a sarcastic tone here," or, "Oh, roll your eyes here," or like, you know, like a lot of these like emotional triggers. And I have shots, so like maybe there's a long shot, a medium shot, a close-up shot um to switch things around. So, I go really in detail when it comes to the content strategies to make sure that, you know, coupled with the UGC course that we give them, they know exactly what to do when it comes to …
Joseph ChoiIn a way, you kind of are like the playing the role of a director and a screenwriter a little bit, where you're It's not just the lines. It's like the stage directions. Like, what what should your face look like? What's the tone? Um, what's the pacing? And being really specific.
Nicole CheungI'm not that camera-shy, so I will film example videos to show them exactly what I mean by like the different shots, the different emotions, so so they can copy off of me.
Joseph ChoiSo, when you're finding people who you want to be creators for your app, you're You said when you do the interview, you're doing like vibe-check, and then you're doing like You want You want to see like seriousness. Are they Are they actually serious about this? Is there anything else? Like, are you looking for past experience, or people who have made, you know, viral TikToks before?
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
- After each onboarding question, show a screen on how the app beats the alternativesFounder says it primes users to convert; no numbers
- 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
- 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: tiktok, instagram, youtube, content-bank, scripts, skits, talking-head