Practitioner pattern · Daniel Kwon (Conch, Dimension, Arise, Shepherd)
Post about your app yourself; skip paid ads until five formats win
Guest's rule from five or six cold starts; no numbers
Unknownorganic-short-videougc-creatorspaid-social
What they did
To find content-market fit: post about your product yourself on TikTok and Instagram and gather data on what content works, rather than hunting for one format. Search phrases loosely related to the problem or community and stitch those videos. Work with influencers and convert them into full-time UGC creators who run an account posting only for your brand. Don't touch paid until you've cracked at least five winning formats.
In their words
The Superwall Podcast · Daniel Kwon - He made $2.2M from building simple apps. Here's how (no-code)“Also, look up phrases that are loosely related to the problem or the problem you're solving or the community you're targeting, and stitch those videos.”
“with the influencers, you should be able to convert them into full-time UGC creators, meaning they're running an account, posting purely for your brand.”
“don't touch paid until you've cracked at least five winning formats. You're likely not going to see high ROI on your time.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Conch: Stitch an already-viral classroom clip with better audio, then demo the app15-16M TikTok views in a day, 100M+ across platforms; drove a $500K month
- Conch: Make videos siding with students against pointless school busyworkOne such video got ~4M views (host's reading); guest says the style still works
- Conch: Have a co-founder make all the videos himself, faceless and low-budget~220M lifetime views and ~$2.2M revenue, mostly organic
- Conch: Test paid ads next to organic videosMargins were worse than organic; dropped
- Conch: Build a tool to get around AI detectors the night one launches$1M ARR within about 30 days
- Conch: Have UGC creators film inside Snapchat so videos look like real stories
- Conch: Put schools' logos on your website without askingGot cease-and-desist letters from several schools and a legal fight
- Conch: Talk to three or four buyers when selling the appSold, but some competitors posed as buyers just to pull information
- FinalBoss Sour: Post a scrappy 'we made way too much, so it's on sale' videoHit every time creators remade it; brand had views but no sales before
- FinalBoss Sour: Put a flash sale on a TikTok Shop item to reach more For You pagesGuest says it automatically boosts the product and brand; no numbers
- FinalBoss Sour: Film shop videos in the founder's kitchen or bedroom, even as a funded brandBrand became #1 in food and beverage on TikTok Shop; not isolated
- FinalBoss Sour: Pack visible value into product photos and release limited flavor dropsGuest says it made organic storytelling much easier; no numbers
- Arise: Post carousels about Solo Leveling fans wanting 'the system' in real lifeGuest's fastest cold start besides Shepherd; ~$7K/month early
- Arise: Pay influencers and meme pages $1-2 per 1,000 views$6-7 revenue per 1,000 views; grew to ~$50K/month at 70-80% margins
- Arise: Build the app fans already ask for when rivals just run adsReached ~$50K/month alongside influencer deals
- Shepherd: Stitch popular faith podcast clips and farmed hooks onto a quick app demo~7 videos: 20M views, 100K+ downloads and $75K MRR in 2 weeks
- Shepherd: Pitch a God-first lamb against Duolingo's AI-first owl during its backlash~10K Discord members from the launch push; later fans rejected an AI feature
- Shepherd: Replace the AI chat with a custom devotional and drop 'AI' from the copy
- Shepherd: Pause creator videos and build invites for prayer and accountability buddies
- Shepherd: Build the app in two weeks while running a two-week content pushReached #10 on the charts and $75K MRR despite a buggy app