“Because the tolens are so bright and visual we were able to like have a relatively low cost per install from the get-go even on paid so it kind of gave us a lot of leeway to just experiment.”

Design For TikTok Virality From Day One — Visual Brightness Is A Distribution Feature

Portola didn't start with TikTok in mind but discovered that their deliberately bright, visual alien characters were naturally optimized for short-form video. The low cost-per-install on paid ads was a direct result of asset quality. Ajay's lesson: consumer app founders should evaluate distribution fit during character/design decisions, not after.