Let me tell you about my favorite app growth strategy of all time. The app launched almost 4 years ago, was purchased and shut down 3.5 years ago, and yet I still bring it up almost weekly.
That app was "tbh" which was built by @nikitabier and team.
That app was "tbh" which was built by @nikitabier and team.
1/ What was tbh
tbh was an anonymous polling app for high schoolers (though I’m guessing @nikitabier would say it was a dating app). It was bought by FB for ~$30M in 2 months. My team at Zynga tried to both buy and copy them. Neither worked lol.
tbh was an anonymous polling app for high schoolers (though I’m guessing @nikitabier would say it was a dating app). It was bought by FB for ~$30M in 2 months. My team at Zynga tried to both buy and copy them. Neither worked lol.
2/ Finding Friends
When you signed up, you would select your high school and give permissions to access your contacts. Then they would suggest friends in this order:
- Contacts (Number of shared phone numbers then alphabetical)
- Friends of Friends
- Same School
When you signed up, you would select your high school and give permissions to access your contacts. Then they would suggest friends in this order:
- Contacts (Number of shared phone numbers then alphabetical)
- Friends of Friends
- Same School
3/ Inviting Friends
They would also give you 30 invites to share with your contact list. They ordered your contact list like so:
- Number of other people in the app that also have this phone number in their contacts
- Alphabetically
They would also give you 30 invites to share with your contact list. They ordered your contact list like so:
- Number of other people in the app that also have this phone number in their contacts
- Alphabetically
4/ Receiving an Invite
When you received an invitation, they wouldn’t link you to the app. They would link you to a website that acted as a landing page so they could basically say “<Person A>, <Person B>, and 12 others from your school are on tbh. You should install it too”
When you received an invitation, they wouldn’t link you to the app. They would link you to a website that acted as a landing page so they could basically say “<Person A>, <Person B>, and 12 others from your school are on tbh. You should install it too”
5/ Viral Loop
- Invite a friend
- They click on the invite and go to a landing page with social proof
- They install the app
- You (the inviter) now appear in polls for this new user
I don’t think SnapKit was available yet, but it is incredible for this flow.
- Invite a friend
- They click on the invite and go to a landing page with social proof
- They install the app
- You (the inviter) now appear in polls for this new user
I don’t think SnapKit was available yet, but it is incredible for this flow.
6/ First Users
They created a private Instagram profile for a school in Georgia (“tbh @ <high school>”) and followed students from that school. These students followed them back. Then at 4pm one day, they made the profile public so that all those students got a notification.
They created a private Instagram profile for a school in Georgia (“tbh @ <high school>”) and followed students from that school. These students followed them back. Then at 4pm one day, they made the profile public so that all those students got a notification.
7/ Growth
They purposely gated growth by being invite only and slowly rolling out high school to high school so that they had time to collect feedback and ensure they had PMF before scaling. It took them 6 weeks to hit #1 on the charts and 8 weeks to get bought by FB.
They purposely gated growth by being invite only and slowly rolling out high school to high school so that they had time to collect feedback and ensure they had PMF before scaling. It took them 6 weeks to hit #1 on the charts and 8 weeks to get bought by FB.
I'm sure I got some details wrong, but the general principals are awesome.
Follow @nikitabier for memes and great product content (and maybe new startups in the future since his FB vest is almost up ??).
Follow me (@ConnorVO) for no memes and worse product content
Follow @nikitabier for memes and great product content (and maybe new startups in the future since his FB vest is almost up ??).
Follow me (@ConnorVO) for no memes and worse product content
@patrick_oshag I know you like growth loops. This thread is my favorite that I don’t think I’ve shared with you
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