“Being a developer also means that I'm naturally bad at marketing. So I just didn't do any marketing the standard way. Also I simply didn't have the money for it. And my goal was also not to make money. But what was crucial were my friends and family especially at the beginning because I just asked everyone I know for reviews. Reviews are super important for an app on the app store to to get ranked at the top.”

Reviews Are The App Store Growth Lever When You Skip Marketing Entirely

Chris ran zero paid or standard marketing and instead optimized for App Store ranking through reviews. He bootstrapped social proof by asking friends and family first, then engineered in-app review prompts at moments users felt good.