Founder Playbook · Starter Story
8 tactics from Nikita & Yini
Our Simple App Made $100K In 90 Days
Watch the full episode“step one do your niche research before you even start coding because you need to find proofs proof that you have competitors on Tik Tok and proof that these competitors have viral videos on Tik Tok as well tik Tok search is your best friend and creator search insights also on Tik Tok is your best friend too”
Prove Competitors Have Viral TikTok Videos Before You Write Any Code
Their first validation step happened entirely on TikTok, not in a spreadsheet. They required two proofs before coding: competitors exist in the niche, and those competitors have viral videos — using TikTok search and Creator Search Insights as the only research tools.
“we decided okay let's go two weeks we make a product start promoting it and it's it worked out... we started filming ourselves we started posting videos every day just from the first video we got the first sale but after that things started to snowball so first months $41K second months $32K and third months $27K”
Cap The Build At Two Weeks, Then Switch To Daily Posting Mode
They capped the build at two weeks and went straight into daily posting. The first TikTok produced a sale, and from there momentum compounded into $41K, $32K, and $27K across the first three months.
“Firstly we tried hiring influencers and paying them to make videos for us but it was unsuccessful experience because they generated just some views and almost no conversions so after that we decided to create our own accounts on TikTok and we started filming ourselves we started posting videos every day just from the first video we got the first sale.”
Drop Influencer Ads And Put Your Own Face On TikTok Daily
Their first move was paying influencers, which produced views but no conversions. Switching to their own faces on a daily-posting TikTok account converted from the very first video and snowballed into $100K in 90 days.
“step four recreate what works start by making one to one highquality copies of viral videos in your niche it is very important to add captions in Tik Tok editor as well... skip inventing your own Tik Tok format and just replicate what's already going viral”
Skip Inventing TikTok Formats — Copy Viral Videos One-To-One
Their launch playbook explicitly forbids creative invention in the early phase. Instead, they make one-to-one high-quality copies of proven viral videos in the niche, adding captions in TikTok's native editor, and only experiment with original formats after going viral.
“in this case we show exactly the problem like you have 100% generated text you do this and you have like 100% human written text once it gets viral we start getting a lot of sales immediately”
Lead Hooks With The Exact Before-And-After Of The Product
Their highest-converting TikToks lead with a sharply framed problem, then demonstrate the product as the literal solution in the same clip. One copycat of a 150K-view video pulled in 1.5 million views and started generating sales the moment it went viral.
“user just passed a generated text click humanize button and receive 100% human written text and this text usually bypass most AI detectors”
Convert 80% Of Visits To Signups With A Paste-And-Click Flow
Nikita and Yini kept the core product flow to a single action: paste text, click humanize, receive output. That radical simplicity helped them convert ~300K visitors to ~250K signups — an 80% rate that lets every viral TikTok drop straight into trials.
“Our stack is pretty simple nextjs Postgress Coolify Next AL plus resend and our server cost $35 per month resend 20 bucks per month and next we have VPN so $5 per months per five devices and US phone numbers $5 per month per phone number so other than cost of our time the cost to run this business is very low.”
Run A $100K Business On A $65/Month Stack From Your Bedroom
Nikita and Yini ran a $100K business from their bedrooms on a tiny fixed-cost stack: Next.js, Postgres, Coolify, NextAuth, and Resend, with a $35 server, $20 Resend, plus $5 VPN and $5 US phone number. Almost the entire cost was their time.
“I would say that you need to start your TikTok journey by yourself try find out what works and only then start thinking about delegate or hiring other people so just try it by yourself and also don't over complicate it so skip inventing your own TikTok format and just replicate what's already going viral.”
Run TikTok Yourself Before Hiring, And Never Invent A Format That Already Exists
Their advice to past selves is to resist outsourcing and resist originality. Run the TikTok account personally until you understand what wins, then bring people in, and never try to invent a format when a viral one is already sitting there to copy.