Stronger · B2C · gamified workout tracker
Design every feature to look great as a screenshot for social posts
Screenshots are the main money-maker; founder claim, no numbers
Workedproduct-viralityfeature-development
What they did
Every product decision asks 'how does this look as a screenshot?' and 'is it obvious what it is?'. Bright-colored strength heatmap; weight-lifted milestone badges that total all volume lifted ('you've lifted the Empire State Building / a Boeing 747'), made as cool-looking as possible to feature in TikTok slideshows and carousels. Guest notes the fade-in's weakness: viewers often don't realize it's from a workout tracker, so they added the app logo.
What happened
Screenshots in TikTok slideshows and carousels are 'what make us money'
In their words
The Superwall Podcast · Peter Gillan - My App Makes $600k/Year Using This Easy Growth Strategy (copy me)“But we have always tried to think, "How does this look as a screenshot?" Cuz ultimately, it's those screenshots are what make us money.”
“So you might get a badge to say, "You've lifted the Empire State Building," or a Boeing 747. And we try to make that as cool-looking as possible, and then we can kind of showcase that in our social media marketing, too.”
Related topics
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
- Stronger: Post the same 6-second fade-in app screenshot Reel over and overEst. 150-300M views, a 100M-view month; low conversion and now fading
- Stronger: Copy a winning video across many accounts, changing a few words or colors each timeAdopted after a rival did it with ~10 accounts; no separate numbers
- Copy a rival's viral video format and post it from 10 accountsDownloads visibly ramped up; out-scaled the team that invented it
- Stronger: Post 2-3 slide TikTok carousels of real, unpolished app screensHistorically their best-converting channel; weaker in the past year as 20 rivals copied
- Stronger: Post a rough founder video of a fun app feature before launch~15K followers in week one; then hit #3 in Health & Fitness at launch
- Stronger: Reply to comments with videos showing their lift as random objects in the appA series of viral videos; likely most of the account's 4.9M likes
- Stronger: Make everyone start a free trial first; free version only after they cancel~25% boost, their biggest ever; few complaints, but less sharing
- Stronger: Test when and how often the paywall shows before testing its wordingFounder says they now monetize per user among the best workout trackers; no numbers
- Stronger: Turn workout numbers into a strength rank users can show off12 months with no copycat; became the main marketing asset
- Stronger: Adapt viral video formats from other app niches, then test hooks by watch timeHow they find each new format; no numbers given
- Stronger: Keep content in-house; hire agencies only to scale a proven formatTwo founders make almost all content; few affiliates
- Stronger: Fund the app with government grants instead of investorsStayed bootstrapped; no amounts given
- Copy a rival's strength score and add game-style ranks for each musclePerformed 'brilliantly' per the guest; Stronger later added ranks too
- Runna: Give each running influencer their own workout plan in the appGuest says it built a strong brand and rocketed up the charts; no numbers
- Build the new app as a tile-based game that AI tools can't copy yet