I Built A $30M iOS App: This is My Growth Playbook

0:00It has never been easier to build apps thanks [music] to AI. In just a few hours, you can build almost anything. But, the hardest part is still marketing and distribution. And I decided [music] to talk to the guy who's done mobile app growth better than almost anyone I know. We scaled it to 15 million users in less

0:15than [music] 18 months. This is Jake Castillo. He led marketing at one of the biggest mobile apps [music] ever, Cal AI. And he has seen every growth channel in the books, influencers, paid ads, all of it. And after all of that, this right here is the playbook that he thinks you should be using if you're building an app in 2026. So, I asked him to break it all down step-by-step. And in this video, Jake's going to go over the one marketing tactic [music] he would be using if he was starting over today, how to make content that actually turns into downloads, and how to turn your app side

0:45project into a real business. So, grab a notebook, take some notes, and let's dive in. Welcome to Starter Story Build. Jake, welcome to Starter Story Build. Super excited to have you on the channel and talk about app growth and everything else that you're going to share today. But first, for anyone who may not know who you are, can you just tell us who you are, what you build, and a little

1:05bit about your story? Yeah. So, my name is Jake Castillo. I'm one of the co-founders at Cal AI, where I served as our CMO. We launched Cal AI in May of 2024, and we scaled it to 15 million users in less than 18 months, and were eventually acquired by MyFitnessPal. Today, I want to break down how I would take an app [music] from zero to 10K a month in revenue using just UGC, without raising a bunch of money or spending a ton of money in

1:35paid ads. Awesome. Well, I'm excited to do this, you know, I'm in the process of building my own app. Even though I work here at Starter Story and get kind of behind the scenes with all these amazing founders and builders, it's really hard to do it yourself. So, I'm excited to learn from you today. So, let's get into step one. Yeah. So, step one is finding your first creators. So, at Cal AI, our primary growth channel was influencer marketing, and a huge part of my job was figuring out how to turn creators into subscriptions. And the biggest lesson I learned from all of this is that good

2:05outputs start with great inputs and creators are your inputs. You can have the best scripts and the best app in the world, but if the person delivering the content isn't compelling, it's impossible to make the system work. So, influencer marketing has gotten significantly more competitive. Because of AI, there are more apps being launched than ever, which means there's a lot more companies competing for the same number of influencers. For a small startup or solo founder, paying large

2:32influencers can get very expensive. That's why I really like UGC. The UGC creator, this is just an everyday person that is going to create a brand new account dedicated to your product. What you're paying for is reach. And the good news is that finding UGC creators has never been easier. You can use platforms like SideShift where you just post a job and overnight you'll have hundreds of applicants. Or you can go directly to TikTok and Instagram and just type in UGC creator. You'll see millions of creators. The main thing you want to do here though is filter for people that make talking head style content because

3:06those are the people that are going to really convert and create content that can be a little bit more trustworthy than just a creator that doesn't talk to the camera. The metrics you can look at to determine whether or not someone is great is you want natural camera presence, you want charisma, good energy, and someone who feels like they're FaceTiming a friend rather than reading a script. You also want to see someone that's gotten at least a million views on a talking head video. Then you know that they got the juice, they can do this. And once you find them, it's very important that you keep the initial

3:36test. I'm talking like 10 test videos at $10 a video. And if those videos are good, then you can extend them to like a full campaign where it's 30 videos a month at $30 per video with additional bonuses at like 100k views, 500k views, a million views. I mean, it sounds obvious like I'm sure it's just like DMing people, obviously, but like when you find these people, how should someone go about saying, "Hey,

3:58want to work with me?" Yeah. So, luckily with UGC creators, they're coming to you, right? So, it's just a matter of you responding and they'll be very responsive. What I will say though, is when it comes down to negotiating, jump on a call with them as soon as possible. It is much easier to win a negotiation over a call than it is

4:16over email. Hey, it's Gus, real quick popping in. If you're enjoying everything that Jake is breaking down right now, I have something that I think you're really going to like. At the link in the description below, you can download for free the mobile app growth cheat sheet. This is our free resource that'll help you figure out a bunch of different marketing strategies and growth strategies that you can use to grow your mobile app. But these are not just random strategies, these are taken from

4:37seven real successful app founders. Inside, you will learn even more about user-generated content, influencer marketing, building in public, ASO, and a bunch of other strategies that you can use to finally start growing your app. So, if you're interested in this, you can grab it 100% for free at the link in the description. All right, let's get back to Jake. All right, so let's go to step two. What is it? Break it down for

4:57us. Yeah, so step two is very important. This is like warming up the creator accounts. So, once you've found a creator you like, you need to have them create that brand new account dedicated specifically to your app. Once they create the account, they should spend about 30 minutes a day watching content in the niche that they're going to be creating content in. They'll liking videos, commenting, engaging, just like a normal user would. And then, they should start publishing a few videos in that niche, but they shouldn't mention your brand yet. It should just like publish videos to prove that they're not like shadowbanned. TikTok and Instagram

5:27are well aware of UGC creators that just like creating branded content and it's basically like free advertisement. And if they identify it as a creator account, they are going to shadowban it, prevent it from hitting the algorithm, and actually getting real views. And then once you see a video breaks a thousand views, you can have them start

5:44posting actual branded content. this is a really smart step to have that, you know, account created and see if they're willing to work with you in this process. Obviously, you don't want to work with somebody who doesn't want to work with you. Or or do some of these simple steps. All right, so we have sourced some creators, sent a bunch of DMs, created an account, and hopefully properly warm up an account. What's step

6:03three? Yeah. So, step three is determining the content format that you're going to use in your videos. And this is undoubtedly the most important part of the entire process because this is how you're going to ultimately drive installs. [music] And to decide which content format to use, I like created this like little decision-making tree. The first question you got to ask is does my app have a magic moment? And by magic moment, I mean a feature that is so visually impressive that if someone sees it on screen, they're going to do almost like a double take. What What was that? And Cali is a great example of that. And if

6:36you have something like that, you would want to create videos and content that maximizes views. That's [music] where you will have the creator make the most viral story they possibly can, and then find a natural point within that story to integrate your app, demonstrate the magic moment, and kind of let the product sell itself. These videos should [music] generate more views and have a lower conversion rate. But that's okay because the additional reach should offset the reduced conversion rate. If you don't have a magic moment, then you should ask yourself the second question, which is does my app solve a painful problem? If the answer to that is yes,

7:10then you want to maximize intent. And if the answer to that is no, then I would seriously reconsider your product or its positioning. The way you can do that intent is spending the beginning of the video making the problem feel real so that the viewer is watching it like, "Oh my god, like me. Like I suffer from this exact problem." And then, [music] once the viewer is feeling that way, you introduce your app as the solution. Now, it will get fewer views, [music] but they should have a much higher conversion rate. So, this is something I got to give credit to my co-founder Blake Anderson for, and it's such a a

7:40idea It's you start with your marketing angle first and then build the product backwards from that. So, it's like you come up with the viral content idea and then it's like, "Okay, how can I make a product that like would fit into this viral video idea?" And just from personal experience, I've made this mistake building something that, you know, I just thought would be cool and then in hindsight asking these

8:01questions. Does it have a magic moment? Does it solve a painful problem? If you want to make money from your app, you really got to think about it in these two questions. For someone watching who is at this point like, "Crap, I'm not a marketer. I don't know how to make great content. Do I let my creator run with

8:16it? Do I give him a little guidance?" Yeah, so I'm a huge believer in letting people operate within their domains of expertise. If you are a great creator, then sure, you can give the creators dedicated script. I'm not a great creator, but I recognize that. So, I let the creators cook, right? This [music] is their domain of expertise. I'm going to give them general guidelines, but as for how you do that, like you're the

8:37expert. Do your thing. Yeah, I like what you're saying there around like kind of giving the creator some freedom. You know, you mentioned you have like a brief or something that a template that maybe someone watching can use and send to their creators. We'll put the link in the description for that if you want to download it and also hop into Jake's newsletter. Just

8:53briefly share what that is. Yeah, so in my newsletter, it's all about like the tactical advice that I use to grow apps and market apps. So, I will break down like very specific niche topics, [music] right? How to go about your onboarding, how to create a good viral video, how to sign your first creator, how to review creators. And I just get into like the super nitty-gritty details. So, if you're into

9:13that, it's the perfect place. And so, someone watching, right? They [music] they do have a magic moment. Their app does solve a problem. They've either given their creator some specific content to create or given them a lot of freedom. And so, I'm assuming next step is starting to create some of that content. Just tell us what's what's that

9:29for. Yeah, so you have your creators creating the content and now you need to analyze whether or not that content is actually making you money. [music] It can sound scary and often times people think it's the toughest part of scaling a creator program, but with the right framework, I think it's actually pretty simple. So, let's play out a scenario. Let's say I pay $900 for 30 videos and then they get 600k views. That means that I paid a $1.50 CPM. Now, let's say that every 1,000 views generates two installs. That means that 600k views resulted in 1.2k installs. And at a 10% conversion rate, which is pretty standard, you would get

10:10about 120 paying users. And if your average order value is $20, then that means you've generated $2.4k in revenue from $900 in creator spend, which is a long-winded way of saying that your RPM, or revenue per 1,000 views, is $4. And if I'm paying a $1.50 to acquire a customer that pays me $4, then I'm ready

10:34to scale. Cool. Maybe let's just like dumb it down just a little bit. You're looking for put a little bit of money into the machine and you get out more money than you spent, in short. Exactly. Yes. I I could see someone watching thinking, "Okay, this is like the most ideal version, right? I would love to spend $900 and make $2,400." In your

10:50experience, like how realistic is this? What's sort of like the range? I know there's like so many factors in it. Just give us a little bit of that. With the UGC program, like let's say they do 30 videos for you a month, $30 a video, that's $900 in ad spend. That is very, very doable. Like most creators will accept that. Now, will those 30 videos get you 600k views? It's like you probably just need like one or two viral videos. I'm talking like low-level viral. Like this isn't even a million view video, which I think is very doable. Install rate, like two installs per 1,000 views, that should be like the

11:24bare minimum. If you're not getting that, you've got a content problem or an app [music] problem. So, what I would say is UGC is not for the faint of heart because you're creating brand new accounts that don't have established followings. And it could be like 20 videos that they posted are all in that sub 5K view range before it the 21st

11:43video that gets 200K views. Cool, I love this I love this breakdown. I kind of love all the advice you gave around kind of the economics around some of the UGC content stuff. Okay, so what's the what's step five, the last step? Once you're you've determined whether or not a creator is profitable, you need to start running that analysis with every creator in your program. And I start my analysis for every creator under the assumption that I'm going to cut everyone. And then I go creator by creator and demand that their data gives me a reason to renew them. And when I'm doing this, I'm looking for three

12:16things. First, economics. Did the revenue generated from their views justify what we paid for those views? Second, intent. I want to go to the comment section of all of their videos and see if people are asking about the app. What app is that? Are they tagging their friends? Like, "Oh, you need to see this. This is perfect for you." The general consensus, do people seem interested in the product? And third is the correlation. So, I want to look at whatever viral videos we had and then cross-reference that with my App Store Connect data to see if that spike in views correlated with a spike in downloads in the App [music] Store. And

12:52if you do those three things, you've essentially like separate vanity metrics from legitimate business results. [music] And ideally for every creator you cut, you'd bring in two creators to replace them. What I was thinking about as you're kind of going through this step is like you kind of got to have couple different hats on. Like you can have like the builder hat on for a while. And this is just like a completely different hat to wear. Like growth and the economics of it and analyzing it, etc. Okay, yeah, so

13:19continue. With this final step, right? You got to start scaling. And that's how you take a program that starts with five creators to 100, 200, and 300. Cuz at 5 to 10 creators, you can probably manage this yourself. But once you start getting towards 50 active creators, I think it makes sense to bring on a dedicated creator manager. And as a rough rule of thumb, you want about one manager for every 50 active creators. And once you get to that point, you already have like the the content format in place. You've got like all these frameworks that are easy. And like the tough thing is the

13:52organization. So, there's a bunch of tools out there you can use like to manage creators. But honestly, just find a system that works for you and double down on that. 5 to 10, I think you're looking at 10K a month. 50, you're looking at probably like 100 to 200K. And then 100 to 300, like you know, you can get up into the millions. They scale asymmetrically because that's how

14:14virality works. Yeah, I think what's cool about this is like it's a lot of test and learn, test and learn, test and learn kind of filter, test creators, test content types, etc. And I think such an important thing to remember for people watching that is that that's kind of the mentality you have to have is like [music] you're going to be testing a lot of things. All right, Jake, this has been really awesome. Feel like I'm going

14:34to take a lot of notes from this call. But any final advice or final things you want to say to someone watching as we we wrap up this [music] call. Yeah, I think the biggest thing is that this whole process, this whole playbook, it's not easy, but it is simple. You don't need to be a genius. You don't need to be incredibly technical. And you don't need millions of dollars in funding. What you need is to be willing to do the boring work over and over again. Source creators, test content, measure what happens, cut what doesn't work, double down on what does, and then repeat the process longer and with more

15:06discipline than everyone else. Jake, thanks so much for coming on to Starter Story Build, breaking this all down. We'll have a couple resources in the description [music] for you to download. But yeah, man, thank you so much. I think this has been uh really great. Appreciate your time. Of course, thank [music] you.