“it all started with nailing the organic and then starting to put some Capital behind it and iterating on the paid side”

Prove organic TikTok works before spending a dollar on paid ads

Ladder's paid TikTok strategy was deliberately sequenced: first build a playbook on organic with a new coach (250K followers in 45 days), learn which content hooks drove profile clicks and app installs, then amplify only the organic winners with budget. The organic phase de-risked paid spend by proving the audience existed and the creative worked before a single dollar was committed. This order — organic proof, then paid scale — is the opposite of how most app UA teams operate.