How to consistently go viral: Nikita Bier’s playbook for winning at consumer apps (co-founder of TBH, Gas, advisor, investor)

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Key Takeaways

• “Every tap on a mobile app is a miracle for you as a product developer.” – Nikita Bier
• Teens see each other everyday; this is one of the most important factors for why teen consumer apps have a higher probability of going viral
• If you are building a product with network effects and that is a communication tool, then you want to be positioned on that upward curve of adding connections to your social graph, because there is a higher urgency to connect
• Search for product ideas by using the concept “latent demand”: Identify the user’s motivation, clear up what they are actually trying to do, and then crystalize the process for them; this leads to intense adoption
• The most important thing to increase your probability of success: Develop a reproducible testing process
• You will know when your product is working; if there is any uncertainty, then your product is not working
• People download apps to make or save money, find a mate, or unplug from reality
• How to take a product from Zero to One: Execute at 100% for the thing you are trying to validate at that specific stage of the product development cycle
• Always do right by users; if you do wrong to users, the internet will eventually find a way to seek its revenge on you
• While discovering a new communication product is a once-in-a-decade black swan event, growing a product can be more of a science
• Your app must demonstrate value in the first three seconds or it is not going to work
• “Consumer products live and die in the pixels.” – Nikita Bier

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org

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Nikita Bier is one of the most in-demand consumer, social, and growth experts in the world. He’s the co-founder of TBH (sold to Meta for more than $30 million) and Gas (sold to Discord for millions more) and has helped more consumer apps that have hit #1 in the app stores than any other person I’ve come across. He currently spends his time advising founders on growth, product, and design and is an investor and advisor to some of the best consumer tech companies, including Flo, Locket, Eight Sleep, Citizen, BeReal, Captions, and more. In our conversation, we discuss:

• The inside story of how TBH and Gas achieved explosive growth

• Strategies for building viral consumer apps

• Why teens are such a great audience

• Fighting the human trafficking hoax at Gas

• The challenge of creating durable social products

• His experience working as a PM at Facebook

• Advice for founders on building consumer apps

• Much more

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Book Nikita for 1:1 consultation/mentoring: https://intro.co/NikitaBier

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Find the transcript and show notes at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-consistently-go-viral-nikita-bier

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Where to find Nikita Bier:

• X: https://x.com/nikitabier

• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@nikitabier

• Website: https://intro.co/NikitaBier

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Nikita’s background

(06:08) Nikita’s early ventures: Politify and Outline

(08:42) Transition to consumer apps

(13:45) The birth of TBH

(16:43) Building for teens vs. adults

(20:00) TBH’s viral success

(32:18) Leveraging live chat

(34:08) Lasting lessons from TBH

(37:00) Selling TBH to Facebook

(42:19) Big-tech product management

(48:46) Nikita on why “product management is not real”

(51:49) The Tim Cook painting story

(53:53) Leaving Facebook and starting a new venture

(58:02) Rebuilding TBH and overcoming challenges

(59:46) Addressing criticism

(01:04:24) The human trafficking hoax

(01:09:51) Selling to Discord and lessons learned

(01:11:36) Lasting lessons from Gas

(01:13:14) Building durable consumer apps

(01:22:35) The VC route

(01:23:27) Contact permissions in iOS 18

(01:26:53) The success of Dupe

(01:31:53) Advice for startup founders

(01:34:14) Work with Nikita

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [e-mail].

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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