YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → 1,000 Hours of Studying The Most Profitable Apps in 17 Minutes

1,000 Hours of Studying The Most Profitable Apps in 17 Minutes — Transcript

by Superwall · 3,554 words · 521 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00You've watched these videos of teenagers
0:02who've made hundreds of thousands of
0:03dollars through apps you've probably
0:05never even heard of and you're wondering
0:06is this even real and if so how are they
0:09even doing this? To me when I watch
0:11stuff like this I feel like oh they
0:12figured something out that I haven't and
0:14I've watched a lot of these videos too
0:16and I keep feeling this. So I spent the
0:18last two years studying exactly how they
0:21do it and I do this by going straight to
0:23the source like the kids that have made
0:2550k a month on pure commission on TikTok
0:27shop, the scrappy Discord anons running
0:30up e-com brands with the most degenerate
0:32but effective mass UGC tactics. I've sat
0:35down with founders of apps like Halo
0:37which went from zero to 300k a month in
0:3945 days, Study Fetch hitting 10 million
0:42ARR and Coco Note which does 6.7 million
0:45dollars a year. But I also run growth
0:46for apps you've probably never heard of
0:48like apps doing 1 to 5 million ARR from
0:50a single marketing channel. So in this
0:52video I'm going to break down every
0:54single thing I've learned from being
0:55behind the scenes of some of the biggest
0:57app operations and the decisions I help
1:00founders make that actually help their
1:01app become a success. And all of this
1:03starts with why most people have the
1:05basic economics of app growth completely
1:07backwards. So here's a conversation I
1:09have all the time. A founder will
1:10message me typically someone in the 1 to
1:125 million dollar ARR range and they grew
1:14their app mostly through Facebook ads
1:16and clearly the ads worked for them but
1:19when the same founders look at these
1:20teenagers blowing up on TikTok that vibe
1:23coded a random app and they're hitting
1:24these insane revenue numbers there's
1:26this FOMO like how are they doing that?
1:28And they get a little bit insecure you
1:29know like am I falling behind? My ads
1:31keep fatiguing. I'm on this treadmill of
1:34continually making new creatives and
1:36trying to scale and these kids are just
1:37like posting videos. So let me just lay
1:39out the math. Paid ads typically run at
1:4110 to 30% margin. That's the standard
1:44that I've seen which basically means
1:45that if you spend $10 you're going to
1:47make back 11, 12, maybe $13. Everyone
1:50says ads are the most scalable channel
1:52and yes they kind of are but the problem
1:54is it never stops. Your ads will get old
1:57once you've saturated the audience it
1:59gets shown to. So, you constantly need
2:01new angles. But, on the other hand,
2:03organic content runs at 50% margins.
2:07This is what I've seen from mass UGC
2:08campaigns with apps. I'm going to
2:10explain how in a bit, but let me just
2:12tell you the downside first. So, when
2:14you're running ads, you're basically
2:15buying people's attention. The
2:17distribution problem is handled
2:19automatically and you just focus on the
2:22conversion. On the other hand, organic
2:23content flips that completely. So,
2:25nobody's going to watch your video just
2:27because you posted it. You have to earn
2:29every view while also making sure that
2:31the content sells the app without making
2:33it feel like an ad. This sounds
2:35impossible, but this is exactly what the
2:38Vibe Creators are doing right now. It
2:39just takes one video to go viral and
2:42just like that you've got like 50,000
2:44downloads. I'm not making any of this
2:45up, by the way. I interviewed the
2:47founder of Halo on this channel a while
2:48[music] ago. You can check it out here.
2:50He literally took a personal loan, hired
2:52a bunch of creators, and went from zero
2:54to 300 K a month in 45 days. He got 600
2:57million views in the first 2 months and
2:59this was without any ad budget. His
3:01entire philosophy revolved around the
3:03formula that revenue equals total views
3:06multiplied by conversion rate. So, this
3:08method does work, but let me share a
3:10number that nobody really talks about.
3:12Organic content has a natural TAM of
3:14about 1 to 3 million dollars a year from
3:17just organic views on TikTok and IG
3:19Reels. So, there is sort of like a
3:21saturation point, but if you're only
3:23running ads, you're leaving a lot of
3:24money on the table. So, one of the most
3:26asked questions I get is what happens
3:28once I max out that organic ceiling and
3:30it starts to become slightly less
3:32profitable. Well, then you can use your
3:34organic viewers as fuel for your paid
3:37campaigns. So, let me explain. You can
3:38just run the viral organic videos as
3:42paid ads. They're already proven to
3:43work, so you don't need to think about
3:45more ad creative. You're going to make
3:47the creative anyway and with organic you
3:49get to double dip. You do the organic,
3:51it converts, you do ads, and it converts
3:54again. One way to do that is you just
3:55take the hooks that performs well
3:57organically, and you attach it to your
3:59normal ad creative. Another method is
4:00you just pick the creators who performs
4:02well organically, and have them record
4:04ad UGC for paid campaigns. Organic
4:07creators are better than 90% of
4:09traditional UGC ad talent because
4:11they've been trained by the algorithm.
4:12They're forced to get views, so their
4:14hooks are better. Their content doesn't
4:15feel like an ad, so it'll naturally just
4:17perform better on paid ads. So, I just
4:19told you three ways you can reuse your
4:21viral content for paid ads, and that's
4:23just off the top of my head. But,
4:25reusing content only works if your
4:27strategy is rock solid, which brings me
4:29to my next point. Which strategies work,
4:32and which fail? I've been doing this for
4:34the past 3 years, and after seeing
4:36inside hundreds of these operations,
4:38there are very specific tells I can just
4:40tell you within a week whether a
4:42strategy will blow up or just flop. I'm
4:44going to start by sharing what makes
4:46strategies flop because that's the
4:47biggest concern for most founders. If
4:49someone comes to me and and they tell me
4:50they went out and found influencers with
4:52huge followings, paid them thousands of
4:54dollars, this is the biggest telltale
4:56sign that the content will probably just
4:59not get traction. Influencer marketing
5:00does work still, but there needs to be a
5:03very strong audience fit and a lot of
5:05negotiation to make this actually
5:07profitable. Most influencers don't
5:09really have experience marketing apps,
5:11and they just have too many inbound
5:12brand deals to make their pricing work
5:14for most apps. So, it ends up being too
5:16overpriced and just not worth it. And
5:17the same thing applies to copying trends
5:20too. I've seen people hire Gen Z kids
5:22because they think they'll know recent
5:24trends, and most of these kids do know
5:25the trends, and they know how to make
5:26Tik Toks. But, that knowledge alone is
5:28not enough to create a video that
5:30actually converts. A trending Tik Tok
5:32format might get you views, but that's
5:34not your main goal. You need downloads
5:36and revenue. But, the biggest mistake I
5:37see founders make is creating videos
5:39that hard sell the product. No one on
5:41social media enjoys ads, and that's just
5:44the brutal truth. If your videos scream,
5:46"This is my product, buy it. The first
5:48thing people will do is just scroll past
5:50it and your content is basically telling
5:52the algorithm that it's not worth
5:53watching and the videos will just die.
5:55But the strategies that do work come
5:57down to three things. First is virality.
6:00Your video needs to hit the algorithm
6:02and actually get views to get
6:04recommended on the For You page on
6:06TikTok or Instagram or whatever platform
6:08you're uploading on. Second is
6:09conversion, which basically means your
6:11video needs to show the app in a way
6:13that makes the viewer download it. If
6:15you have a super viral video, but it's
6:17just getting views and not converting,
6:19it's pretty much useless content. The
6:20end goal is to get as many downloads as
6:23possible. So make sure to have a smooth
6:25CTA in the video. Either showing the
6:27actual app UI or mentioning the app as a
6:30core part of the storyline of the video.
6:33The third thing is repeatability. You
6:35need formats that keep working with
6:37small variations.
6:38>> Here's a question. What do you think
6:39might happen if there isn't enough
6:41vitamin B12 for red blood cell
6:42production?
6:43>> Honestly, I have no idea.
6:45>> Can you explain this to me in simpler
6:46terms?
6:47>> Finally, during pregnancy, the
6:49metabolism of vitamin D changes.
6:51>> Yeah, can you tell me more about how
6:53vitamin D metabolism is altered during
6:56pregnancy?
6:56>> Especially the amino acids from protein.
6:59Does that give you a clearer starting
7:00point?
7:00>> Yes, I understand this, but can we talk
7:02about why our protein needs increase
7:05with age?
7:06>> This is really important because if
7:07you're forced to come up with new ideas
7:09every single day, you're now back to the
7:11same problem as ad creative fatigue and
7:13you'll just burn out really fast and the
7:15results will be very inconsistent. Now
7:17this all sounds really simple, but most
7:19people make the mistake of hiring just
7:21one person to handle all of this stuff.
7:23The truth is you can't find an all
7:25around person who's good at creative
7:26strategy, has the talent to replicate
7:28existing formats, and can make
7:30unforgettable content. So if you're
7:31looking for someone to help you with
7:33this, there's two skill sets that you
7:35need to target and you're going to need
7:36two separate people for this unless you
7:38just find that like unicorn person.
7:40Skill number one is talent and this is
7:42the person who's actually going to be on
7:44camera. So, this person needs to know
7:45how to execute the perfect video with
7:48the right angle, lighting, pacing, tone
7:50of voice, where to put the captions, and
7:52pretty much every single thing that
7:54makes the video feel like it belongs on
7:56the For You page. Basically, a channel
7:58expert. And then secondly, you have the
7:59creative strategist. This is typically a
8:02different person because this person
8:04handles how to understand how short-form
8:06content works at a higher level and what
8:09kind of high-converting content the
8:11algorithm will push. But, there's a very
8:13important thing to note here. The
8:15creator is bringing the talent, but in
8:17the example of StudyFetch, which hit 2
8:19billion views and eight figures ARR, the
8:21CMO Kieran and his team are the
8:23strategist and the strategy is the most
8:26crucial thing in content. The three
8:28layers of creative strategy. I see
8:30creative strategy as having three
8:32layers. Layer one is copying. This means
8:35exactly what you think it means. If a
8:36video format worked for another app,
8:38it'll probably just work for yours, too.
8:40So, you find a viral video space, you
8:43recreate it for your product. This is
8:44the fastest path to results, but it
8:46saturates most quickly because
8:48eventually everyone starts copying the
8:50same formats. Okay, I think you want to
8:51hear this. For the past 2 years of my
8:52life, I've talked to 743 app founders.
8:56This is literally my calendar a lot of
8:57weeks because I want to figure out who's
8:59actually making money. And for the ones
9:01making 1 to 10 million dollars a year, I
9:03dug into their playbooks from ideation
9:05to build to marketing to figure out what
9:07actually made them successful. And like
9:09how much of that is even profit. But,
9:11what I found is the difference between
9:13apps that kind of work out versus the
9:14one that seemed to like hyper-scale
9:16effortlessly is actually more of a
9:17science than people think. And running
9:19this pod, I get a lot of similar
9:20questions around app businesses. So,
9:21after 2 years of doing this, I finally
9:23sat down, drank my energy drinks, and I
9:26just spent the last 4 days straight
9:28combining all of my private notes plus
9:30the growth systems I've personally run
9:31to add like 6 million ARR now for the
9:33founders of some of these apps. And I
9:35created a presentation. I'm going to
9:36give this presentation one time on a
9:38live Zoom call on Sunday night, October
9:4011th. It will not be recorded. I'm just
9:42giving this to people who are really
9:43serious about maximizing this run we
9:45have with consumer apps right now. It'll
9:47be fun, interactive. The past 2 years of
9:49consumer apps, and to be honest, like
9:50the past 8 years of me being internet
9:52businesses are just packed into this for
9:54you. Also, it's free, of course. Use the
9:56link in the description to register.
9:57I'll see you there, October 11th. Layer
9:59two is iteration. You take something
10:01that already worked, maybe one of your
10:02own videos, maybe a competitor, and you
10:04isolate one single variable. This could
10:06be the hook, the caption copy, or the
10:09entire script. You tweak that single
10:11variable and see if the video still
10:13works. But, this brings me to the third
10:15layer, which is referential concepting.
10:17This is an idea popularized by Nick
10:20Kendler, who was the head of growth at
10:22Calm, the meditation app. They
10:23hyper-scaled on Facebook ads, but the
10:25idea of referential concepting also
10:27applies to organic. So, let's say you
10:29came across a video with 5 million views
10:31in the fintech niche, and you think,
10:33okay, this concept would really crush in
10:35the dating niche. Now, you're not just
10:37taking one variable from the video that
10:39worked. You're taking the entire
10:41creative idea, and you're applying it to
10:43your niche. This is actually the best
10:45strategy because it almost guarantees
10:47that you're the first one in your niche
10:49to make this format. I'm not going to
10:51lie, it is risky because it might just
10:53not work at all, but it is also how you
10:55become the market leader. Instead of
10:57copying or just iterating, you're
10:59creating the trends that everyone else
11:01ends up copying from you. For example,
11:03Pingo did this with their content. It's
11:05a language learning app, so we all know
11:07Duolingo owns this niche, but Pingo saw
11:09that reaction content was blowing up on
11:12TikTok, so they had creators try to
11:13speak different languages, like Spanish
11:15or French, on camera, mispronounce
11:17words, and Pingo's AI would roast them
11:19in real time. They basically made the
11:21app demo itself a funny, memorable
11:23thing. This strategy got them to
11:25$500,000 a month and over a billion
11:28views. But, don't get me wrong, you
11:29don't have to just choose one layer and
11:31stick to it. You can run all three
11:33together and see which one works best
11:35for your app. And you can start with the
11:36level one and two and work your way up
11:39to level three as you get more
11:40comfortable with content. However, don't
11:42just hire the first agency you hear of
11:44and just run all this organic stuff for
11:46you. I've talked to pretty much every
11:48agency, freelancer, and in-house
11:51operation in the space and I really
11:52believe you should know what you're
11:54getting yourself into first. An app
11:56founder told me recently they wasted
11:58$30,000 a month on a agency that seemed
12:01to have good case studies, but just
12:02didn't really align incentives with the
12:04team and ended up flopping. Honestly,
12:05this happens all the time because most
12:07people don't understand what roles they
12:10actually need for organic growth.
12:11Basically, what any agency or in-house
12:14operation will look like at its best.
12:16There are three people you need on your
12:18team and these are pretty much
12:19non-negotiable. Number one, head of
12:21social growth. This is your Gen Z brain
12:24rot expert. And what that actually means
12:26is someone who watches viral content all
12:28day and has developed an inherent sense
12:30for which principles from those videos
12:32can be applied for your app. These guys
12:34are crazy good at identifying what's
12:37blowing up. Number two, the creator
12:38manager/coach role. Your creator manager
12:41is the person who gives feedback to
12:43every creative you have on the team.
12:45Their entire role is to make micro
12:47adjustments to hooks, storylines, CTAs,
12:50and visuals to improve content. This is
12:52really important because if you have a
12:53manager who just approves content
12:55without going through it and
12:56scrutinizing it, TikTok will just feel
12:58like a lottery to you and you're just
13:00hoping something will hit without
13:01actually iterating on your content. The
13:03last person is the talent scout. This is
13:05someone who can do outreach to thousands
13:08of creators and build efficient
13:10recruiting pipelines. When you think
13:11about it, this outbound, extreme volume
13:14mindset, and systems mindset has almost
13:17zero skill overlap between that and the
13:19creative roles, which is why it's so
13:21hard to find that magical unicorn who
13:23will just do everything for you. The
13:25worst thing you can do is be lazy about
13:27this and just look for the all around
13:28person. There are none of these people
13:30except for founders that just do it
13:32themselves, right? So, hire the right
13:34person for the right role. Outside of my
13:37Superwall interviews that I do and all
13:38these chats with founders, most of my
13:40time is spent just digging through
13:42discords and Twitter DMs and Telegram
13:45chats just finding these young
13:47freelancer type people that have one or
13:50two really good case studies, but they
13:51haven't been snatched up in-house or
13:54started some like bloated agency yet.
13:56This is literally the playbook a lot of
13:58founders I know have followed. This AI
14:00writing tool scaled to 750k a month, a
14:03fitness app grew to $600,000 a year, and
14:06dozens of others all by following the
14:08same stuff I explained and creating mass
14:10UGC content. So, the stuff works
14:12clearly, but the biggest problem every
14:14founder runs into is where do I start?
14:17Cuz if you're at $0 a month, you
14:19shouldn't be hiring an agency. You
14:20should probably be starting scrappier
14:21first, so you're the one driving the
14:23strategy in the long term. But, if
14:25you're already at 50-100k a month and
14:27you're still trying to do everything
14:28yourself, maybe you do want an agency or
14:30maybe at least get help setting it up
14:32in-house. And the strategy that works
14:34for a looks maxing app might have
14:36nothing in common for what works for a
14:38study tool. It depends on the niche, how
14:40much trust is required for a user to
14:41download, and how it monetizes. These
14:43all require different content and
14:45different strategies. So, what I've
14:46learned from talking to hundreds of app
14:48founders is if there's one overarching
14:51thing that separates the people who grow
14:52slowly and stagnate versus the ones who
14:55see the we have with consumer apps that
14:58AI and these growth strategies are
14:59giving us right now and go parabolic
15:02with their app and honestly their entire
15:04entrepreneurship career, that one thing
15:06is maximizing their alpha seeking. What
15:09I mean by this is founders who actually
15:11talk to other founders who made all the
15:13mistakes, cracked the strategy for their
15:15own app, and then not just hearing them
15:17tell their story, but actually getting
15:20the experts take on their app. How they
15:22would apply the same strategies,
15:24identify blind spots, and high-leverage
15:27personalized insights that can change
15:29the trajectory of their growth. So,
15:31that's why I've been building Consumer
15:32Club for the past 2 years. I've met over
15:34a thousand app founders, and I just
15:36collect the ones who are not only
15:38successful, like doing 1 to 10 million
15:40ARR, but who are also super willing to
15:43share what they've learned and coach
15:45other founders along the entire journey,
15:47as long as it's in a trusting
15:48environment with a good amount of
15:49buy-in. I've met dozens of founders now
15:51who have grown from complete zero to
15:53100K month and 100K month to 3 to 10
15:56million dollars a year after finding
15:59high-signal and high-trust conversations
16:02with other founders and experts inside
16:04Consumer Club who have complementary
16:06alpha and skills, like organic growth,
16:08ads growth, monetization, paywalls,
16:10product and engineering, company
16:12building. The Consumer Club membership
16:13is very expensive, but honestly, I'm
16:15just one person. I spend most of my time
16:18continuously hunting for the best app
16:20and growth people, which I introduce to
16:22Consumer Club members to learn from, to
16:24hire, to meet as co-founders. So, even
16:26though I love to, I can't just have
16:28everyone join. But, if you want to lock
16:29in and maximize this run we have with
16:31consumer apps, there is a link below. As
16:33soon as you join, we'll just do an
16:34onboarding call, where I will personally
16:36get to know you and your app and [music]
16:37introduce you to the playbooks you can
16:39apply to grow your app, plus
16:41introductions to founders, hires,
16:43everything you need that will be a lever
16:45for your app. Even if you decide not to
16:47join, we do have a huge backlog of
16:49interviews with founders who share their
16:50whole playbooks on this channel. So, if
16:52you follow any one of those three
16:55strategy layers I mentioned, start
16:56creating organic content, let me know
16:58how it works out. Thanks for watching.
16:59I'll see you in the next video.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of 1,000 Hours of Studying The Most Profitable Apps in 17 Minutes by Superwall, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 3,554 words across 521 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.