Ranking the most successful founders utilizing viral shortform growth tactics
Cal AI, RizzGPT, Umax
Achieved $600K+ per month (≈$7.2M ARR) across apps
Interview Coder
Reached $1 million ARR (≈$110K MRR) within 36 days
Cal AI
Built Cal AI at 17; now generates $1.12M monthly revenue
Quittr
Creator of anonymous wellness app
Reached $250K in monthly revenue just 5 months post-launch
Locket
Founder of photo widget app
Grew to 50 million+ signups after viral TikTok video
noplace
Founder of Gen Z social app
Bootstrapped network that hit #1 on App Store in Jul 2024
SLAY
Co-founder & CEO of teen compliments app
Expanded to 7M+ users in a year after launch in Germany
Co-founder of teen compliments app
Built viral polling features driving app to #1 in App Store
Co-founder and design lead of teen compliments app
Created UX/design driving high retention and positive vibes
Sendit, NoteIt
Founder & CEO of Q&A + AR social apps
Amassed 5M+ downloads and 1.5M App Store reviews (4.8★)
Hive Social
Founder of Twitter alternative
Went viral during Twitter's turmoil, hitting 1M+ users by Nov 2022
Schmooze
Co-founder of meme-based dating app
Grew to 1M+ users with 9 billion+ meme swipes
Co-founder & CTO of meme-based dating app
Built AI engine driving 150M+ memes swiped monthly
Monkey / NUGGS
Co-founder of teen video chat app
At 17, launched app enabling 20B+ calls by 2020
Gas, Monkey, Poparazzi
Co-founder of multiple viral apps
Created Gas, hitting #1 on App Store in 2022
CHAI
Founder & CEO of social AI chatbot app
Bootstrapped to 1.5M daily users and $20M/yr revenue
Gas
Creator of polling app for teens
Saw $7M in sales in 3 months and over 5M users before acquisition
BeReal
Co-founder of photo-sharing app
Surged via organic college TikTok posts to 21.6M monthly active users
Lapse
Co-founder of disposable-camera style app
Secured $30M Series A after going viral as the "anti-Instagram"
Scaled to #1 on App Store in multiple countries through TikTok challenges
NGL
Co-founder of anonymous Q&A app
Saw 15M+ installs & $2.4M revenue in 7 months
Led product strategy that monetized teen userbase
Poparazzi
Co-founder of friend photo-sharing app
Hit 5M+ downloads in 1 year, valued at $135M
Drove app to #1 in App Store in 2021 via influencer partnerships
Hoop
Co-founder of "Tinder for Snapchat"
Hit #2 on US App Store with zero ad spend
