Cal AI · B2C · AI calorie tracking app
Pay $350-450 for four posts plus view bonuses that stop at 1M views
Keeps the upside of viral hits; founder gives no numbers
Unknowncreator-opsinfluencer
What they did
Base rate of $350-$450 for four posts, plus a couple of unlockable view bonuses. Cap bonuses, usually at 1M views: profit comes from the one or two viral videos a month, so you need to keep their upside; people don't perceive much difference beyond a million; and very viral views reach a broad, less-targeted audience that converts worse.
What happened
Rationale: captures the upside from viral videos that offset the many unprofitable ones
“we'll do $450 or $400, $350 for four posts, and then like they they can unlock a couple view bonuses.”
“I think it's good to have view bonuses so that the creators are incentivized to go viral, but like you want to cap it at a certain point. That way, like everything past that is just gravy for you.”
“So, I I would usually stop at a million.”
Related topics
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New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Cal AI
All 51 Cal AI tactics- Have 25 hired assistants each email 100 creators a day~220K creators contacted, 2-3K signed; roughly 1 signed per 1,000 emailed
- Pay big lifestyle creators to scan their breakfast in day-in-the-life vlogs, 4 times a monthMost profitable content; one video drove hundreds to thousands of promo code uses
- Show a spin wheel that lands on 80% off instead of just showing the discountDouble-digit conversion lift vs a plain discount screen in an A/B test
- Test creators beyond fitness: moms, comedy, and fitness sub-nichesMixed: some moms profitable at $10 CPM; comedy got views but low intent
- Agree with a creator's view boast, then guarantee 700-800K views when they claim 1MGuaranteed a profitable CPM on every deal; creators couldn't back down
- Pay creators $100-200 when a friend they refer signs a dealReally helped; got direct numbers and deals around talent agents
More from this episode
- Umax: Grow the app mainly through paid influencer postsScaled the app; became the playbook for Cal AI
- Cal AI: Pay fitness creators with no brand deals to scan their food on cameraTook off beyond expectations; grew to 300+ influencers
- Cal AI: Let creators make their normal videos; only set timing and a caption tagCreators called it their easiest brand deal; keeps views predictable
- Cal AI: Move the app mention earlier in videos until views start to dropSweet spot 20-30 seconds in; a friend's app peaks at 60 seconds
- Cal AI: Ask creators to post each video on both TikTok and InstagramMost creators agree when it's framed as no big deal
- Cal AI: Measure revenue per 1,000 views and pay creators a lower rate than that
- Cal AI: Match download spikes to each creator post while volume is still lowEarly on every video showed a clear spike; gets murky at scale
- Cal AI: Pick creators by average views per video, not follower countLow-follower, high-view creators accept reasonable rates; founder gives no numbers
- Cal AI: Price a creator on the average of their 5 worst of 20 recent videosMost deal videos land nearer the mean, so the rest is profit
- Cal AI: Only sign creators averaging 25K+ views; favor 25K-1M view creatorsFounder says the 25K-1M range converts best; no numbers
- Cal AI: Read a creator's comments for real community and click commenters to spot botsCommunity-style comments convert far better than emoji spam; founder gives no numbers
- Cal AI: Build a tool that sends contracts, briefs and daily text reminders to creatorsLet the team run 300+ influencers; founder calls it his best work
- Cal AI: Open 20 brand accounts so each outreach person can DM hundreds of creators dailyHundreds of creators contacted per account per day
- Cal AI: Send creators a recorded voice memo from a named person, reused for everyoneFounder says it worked well; no numbers
- Cal AI: Try new creator groups beyond fitness, like new momsNew moms worked
- Cal AI: Try mukbang eaters and UFC fighters as creatorsNeither niche worked
- Cal AI: Hire everyday creators to run app-only accounts copying proven viral formats
- Cal AI: Find UGC creators by searching 'UGC creator' on TikTok; pay $25-30 a video
- Cal AI: Run creator videos as ads at first, then make hard-sell ads that show the app earlyFounder says dedicated ad videos always convert better than organic ones
- Cal AI: Ask creators where their viewers live before signing them