Founder Playbook · Starter Story
5 tactics from Brian Shin
I Built a $20K/Month App in 83 Days
Watch the full episode“before writing a single line of code I needed 10 events with an actual date with an actual commitment that they would like to try using out the product Having a commitment to actually use at an event where you have your friends your family your loved ones there we thought that was already a big enough commitment that it was almost proxy to a payment”
Set a commitment metric — refuse to code until prospects pre-commit usage
Pick one specific number that proves real intent — not signups, not interest, but committed usage. For Once it was 10 confirmed event hosts with dates on the calendar who would put their wedding or birthday party on an unbuilt app. That commitment is functionally a pre-payment of trust. Set the number, give yourself a deadline, and refuse to start coding until both are met.
“The first version took around a week or two it was a web app that kind of just had the core features... it broke many times during the event but we were able to validate the core idea... after we validated with the web app we threw out the first version and that's because I honestly believe that consumer app is basically a craft”
Ship a throwaway web validation harness, then rebuild native from scratch
Even if you're building a mobile app, write a scrappy web version in 1-2 weeks and tie it to one real upcoming event (a friend's Halloween party for Once). Let it break in production — the point is to prove the experience works with real strangers, not to ship the actual product. After that one event validates the mechanic, delete the entire web codebase and rebuild on the right platform from a clean slate. Don't let validation code contaminate v1.
“since once could be used at parties at events at weddings I searched on Instagram # wedding # birthday party and crossplatform we had around 250 to 300 people listed out I wrote down a very simple cold message type of two to three sentences max that could grab their attention... amongst the 250 people we got around 15 people who reached back and we got around 12 events fixed for that single month”
Cold-DM 250 hashtag prospects to land your first 10-12 customers
After you exhaust your personal network, search hashtags where your users already self-identify (#wedding, #birthdayparty). Build a list of 250-300 cross-platform prospects (Instagram + X + LinkedIn), write one 2-3 sentence cold message, and send it personally. Expect ~5-6% reply rate; convert about 4-5% of the original list into actual customers. For Once that math produced 12 booked events from the first month alone.
“do so much cold mailing cold messaging honestly what I tell other friends and founders is that if you haven't been banned in these platforms at least two times you haven't tried enough”
If platforms haven't banned you twice, you haven't outreached enough
Set your outreach effort threshold by platform bans, not by message counts. If Instagram, LinkedIn, or X hasn't flagged you twice for excessive DMs during validation, you're being too polite or too slow. The ban is the leading indicator that you've finally hit enough volume to get statistically meaningful response signal — and an indicator you're bumping against the ceiling of what a single founder can do manually before you need to switch tactics.
“our pricing is based on the number of guests that you want to invite into your event so if it's like a small birthday party with just 10 people it's going to be just $2 but if it's like a bigger wedding for instance if it's like 150 people it'll be $50”
Price event/social apps by guest count, not per-seat or flat
Anchor pricing to a metric that scales with the host's stakes, not seats. Once charges $2 for a 10-guest party (frictionless try-it tier) and $50 for a 150-guest wedding (rounding error in a wedding budget). The host pays once for everyone — no per-attendee psychological tax — and willingness-to-pay tracks event size automatically. Use this pattern for any event, group, or social product where one organizer pays for many users.