Felix and his co-founders Dennis and Mike were building B2C consumer apps, experimenting with UGC marketing, and juggling so many TikTok accounts that they had to hire a working student just to keep track of what was working and what wasn’t. The more they leaned into TikTok and Instagram as marketing channels, the more time they spent manually tracking creator performance, engagement spikes, and what actually moved the needle.
By early 2024, the spreadsheet chaos was getting out of hand. No existing tool seemed to offer what they needed, a simple, focused way to monitor dozens of short form accounts across platforms. Meanwhile, the UGC marketing hype was exploding and every second consumer founder was suddenly building AI wrappers or paying micro-influencers in energy drinks. Instead of continuing to duct tape their process together, they made a bold decision. They paused other projects and committed fully to building the tool they wished they had.
Seven weeks after launch, viral.app was up and running with $5,000 in monthly recurring revenue, entirely from organic growth. It now helps creators, marketers, and brands track and analyze unlimited TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts accounts with ease.
Our launch announcement got 50k views and led to more than 100 sign-ups and a large number of trials (manually sent out). The first direct subscription followed the next day
Felix
Launch Day
The first version of viral.app came together quickly. Development began in April and by mid-May they were live. The team had no launch budget, so they relied on one thing: Twitter, or X, depending on how nostalgic you are. Mike had already been active in the consumer app space on the platform, so they decided to build in public. Their launch announcement reached over 50,000 views and generated more than 100 sign ups, impressive for a project that didn’t offer a free trial and required manual onboarding.
Due to using Polar for payments, which didn’t support trial periods, they were forced to launch with a hard paywall. This meant no one could try the tool without pulling out their card first, not exactly a low-friction funnel. To mitigate this, they began handing out one month discount codes manually in exchange for feedback. This helped them gather insights and win over early supporters who felt personally invested in the product.
Their first subscription came the day after launch, from there, growth was steady, if not explosive, and entirely community driven.
Growing by Showing (Not Telling)
Rather than running ads or cold outreach campaigns, the team focused their efforts on becoming part of the conversation. Their growth strategy was built around platforms where short-form creators and marketers already lived.
X remained their core channel, they shared updates, case studies, and mini-teardowns related to trending strategies. One post about Cluely’s multi-account strategy hit 80,000 views and brought in a noticeable spike in subscriptions. They didn’t push the product aggressively, instead, they built curiosity by showing insights from their tool and waiting for people to ask, “What are you using to track this?” That kind of soft-selling has really become one of their most effective growth drivers.
They also began experimenting with SEO, althoug this channel is still in its early days, they wrote in-depth articles and launched a separate AI-generated blog. So far, the results haven’t surfaced possibly due to Google’s growing dislike of low-quality AI content or the team needing to refine their keyword strategy, but it is part of their long term strategy.
An affiliate program is in the works, targeting creators on X and YouTube who can drive targeted traffic through content and tutorials. In the meantime, they’ve been quietly integrating virality directly into the product itself. The app nudges users to screenshot their dashboards and share them on X, giving them something to show off while giving viral.app a free stream of organic exposure.
They’ve also built a few free tools as lead magnets, including a TikTok audience reach checker and the world’s first TikTok MCP server. These utilities offer value up front, drive traffic through SEO and social sharing, and introduce users to the broader viral.app platform.
Conversions & Regrets
The biggest regret so far? Not offering free trials from day one. The hard paywall turned away a lot of potential users and created unnecessary friction in the onboarding process. That mistake led them to add a lower-priced entry tier, which now functions as a de facto trial. Some users start small and upgrade once they realize the tool fits their needs. Once their payment processor allows for proper trial functionality, they plan to A/B test different flows and pricing models.
The second big lesson is one every early-stage SaaS founder can relate to. With new tools launching every week and Twitter feeds constantly hyping the next “insane AI app,” it’s easy to get distracted by feature creep. Felix and his team have to remind themselves regularly that it’s better to be best-in-class at one thing then average across ten. That means sticking to the original vision and ignoring every shiny opportunity that threatens to pull them off course.
And finally, building a tool that supports enterprise-level marketers has taken more time and testing than expected. What seems like a simple dashboard on the surface hides a complex layer of performance optimization, accuracy improvements, and UX considerations. Scaling a SaaS product that professionals rely on daily isn’t just about features, it’s about trust.
The Tools
The viral.app team keeps things lean but sharp when it comes to the software they use and marketing tools, their entire business is built on low-cost, high-leverage channels.
X is their main distribution engine, used for building in public, networking, and driving traffic through content. LinkedIn serves as a secondary channel where they repurpose their posts for a slightly more formal audience and connect directly with their ideal customer profiles. Reddit is used for softer outreach, aided by a custom tool that notifies them when relevant discussions pop up. Their blog is growing steadily, with a focus on original SEO content, and they’re using tools like Fathom for privacy-first analytics.
Polar handles payments, although it comes with its own limitations, such as no support for free trials.
We probably missed quite a few customers & conversions due to not having free trials available. It was really frustrating seeing so many people bounce at the paywall.
Felix
Advice for founders
If there’s one thing the viral.app team wants other founders to know, it’s ths, solve your own problem first. They didn’t chase the market, they try to figure out how to make their own lives easier first, and by focusing on something they needed themselves, they were able to build faster, stay motivated, and understand their users better than any competitor.
They also stress the importance of distribution, building in public works, but only if you’re saying something interesting. Posting updates is good, posting case studies, strategy breakdowns, or data-backed insights is better. When your target are other founders and businesses, showing how you got to where you are and building in public is one of the best ways to market your product.
And the final piece of advice, when in doubt, simplify. Offer users something small but powerful, don’t be afraid to start with a paywall, but make sure you listen when people bounce. Pricing is just another conversation with your users, the trick is being willing to have it.
