Building viral apps and software is the hottest new business trend. My name is Blake Anderson, and I'm the first person to build three apps that have each generated millions in downloads and millions in profit in just one year. The apps I built are RISGPT, UMAX, and CalAI.
I'm going to share with you guys my exact process during this five-part series, which is brought to you by Apex. Our mission at Apex is to produce high-quality tools and content designed to improve your health, success, and purpose in life. I will never sell a course. I'm also making many more videos in the future, so make sure to subscribe to stay up to date and check out apex.inc to see what we're building.
The first step to creating a viral app is coming up with a viral idea. A viral idea is one that minimizes the amount of friction from inception to millions of users. We'll be focusing on single player utility apps. Apps that don't require some complex backend or social functionality. The idea is important because it sets the foundation for your design, development, and distribution.
If you choose to work on a bad idea, you'll waste a lot of time on the other parts. For example, our execution on RIS GPT was not great at all, but we had a viral idea and that made everything else 10 times easier. So how do you come up with a viral idea?
The first half of this video will be about principles that should shape how you think about problems. Principle number one is to solve big problems. Number two is that more complicated means less viral. And number three is the did you hear about idea, but I'll get into that later. The second half of this video will be about methods that help you identify the actual problems that you plan to solve.
Method number one is to scan social media. Number two is to research the app store. And number three is to disconnect. Principle number one, solve big problems.
People want solutions to big problems that they have. Think of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I don't care if you're going to help me feel like I'm part of a group if I don't have food on my table.
Solve the most fundamental problems. Riz GPT helps you get more girls. UMAX helps you become more attractive.
CalAI helps you achieve your fitness goals. Your app doesn't have to be the entirety of the solution, but if you frame it as one solution to a big problem that people have, it will be significantly more viral than framing it as the full solution to a relatively minor problem. The biological imperative asserts that life exists to continue living and to reproduce.
Help people with those things. Principle number two, more complicated means less viral. Similar to solving big problems, you need to do it in simple ways.
You can frame your product as the solution to getting more girls, but if it takes the user 25 steps to get there, they won't be very interested. Virality is contingent on simplicity. You should be able to describe the unique nature of your app in three words. Riz GPT, respond to girls. Face Analysis Photo Calorie Counter It really is that simple.
The simplicity matters because it affects every part of your growth. How easily people can understand your app, how likely they are to tell their friends about it, and most importantly, how quickly it can be demonstrated in content. Think about a TikTok video. You have maximum three seconds to capture the audience's attention.
If your app is too complicated to do that, you're fighting an uphill battle. Simple concepts, simple execution, massive growth. Principle number three, did you hear about? This is about making your product remarkable.
Your app needs to be something that people naturally want to tell their friends about. Did you hear about the AI that can text girls for you? Did you hear about the app that rates how attractive you are?
Did you hear about the app that lets you count calories just with pictures? If you can't fill in that sentence naturally, you will struggle with growth. Look at how people share apps. Riz GPT spread through screenshots that was posted in TikTok content.
Umacs spread through people sharing their transformations, their ratings before and after. CalAI spread from people showing off their meals and the macros in it. Your app needs to create moments worth sharing.
Something that makes people pull their friends aside and say, dude, have you heard about this? Think to yourself, would somebody bring it up at a party? Would somebody text their mom about it? Would somebody send it in their... Group chat.
Your app needs to make people feel something. Surprise, excitement, anger, anything but indifference. When I first built UMAX, I pulled it out at a party and everybody wanted to find out what they were rated.
If your app doesn't create these moments, keep iterating on the idea until it does. The most viral products aren't just useful, they are remarkable. Method number one, scan social media.
This is non-negotiable. Social media is a manifestation of the collective conscious. What are people interested in? What are they talking about? To my knowledge, there's no magic bullet for identifying new trends, but some things that I do are I use Google Trends to see what's popping off.
I explore Reddit communities and I read comment sections of Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms. If you want to take it to the next level, you should create social media accounts and consume content that you previously would never engage with. For example, if you are a 25 year old guy that watches weightlifting and programming content, create a new account and engage with content that a 35 year old mom would like.
Content about cooking for the family, interior design, and pickleball. I know it sounds kind of insane, but you'll be amazed with parts of the internet that you never knew existed. Before I built UMAX, I saw one thing about looks maxing and it piqued my interest. So I created accounts and completely dedicated them to consuming looks maxing content. I figured out what forums they lived on and what products they used.
Eventually, I discovered exactly what sort of problems these people were having, and this enabled me to build a product around it. The key here is breaking out of your bubble. Your feed is naturally an echo chamber of stuff that you're already interested in.
New perspectives means new opportunities means new viral ideas. Method number two, research the app store. Researching the app store isn't just about browsing, it's about discovering what works and what doesn't. Download a new app every day, watch the content that they're posting on social media, and figure out why the app is succeeding or why it's not. You can also search up Sensor Tower to find out what their monthly downloads and monthly revenue are.
This is extremely important because your first guess of whether or not they're succeeding isn't necessarily right. Before I built CalAI, I downloaded every calorie tracker that I could find on the internet. And I asked myself, is there really opportunity here? Identify shortcomings and room for improvement.
If an app idea has been tried 100 times and nobody has succeeded, you're going to be disappointed. you should probably stay away from the space like social weightlifting apps. The first app that I ever tried fell victim to this. It was a college marketplace.
If there's a graveyard of failures and no successes, avoid this space entirely. The goal here is not to copy. It's to identify market gaps and inefficiencies.
If you can identify a problem across the industry that nobody has solved, you might be onto something. Method number three, Disconnect. The best ideas will not come to you when you're forcing them.
They come in moments of clarity. Take long walks. No phone, no music, no nothing. I came up with the idea for RISGBT when I was on a walk home. I came up with the idea for UMAX when I was on a hike.
Your brain needs space to process all the information that you consume on a daily basis. Going through social media and doing app research are inputs. but your mind needs time to come up with the outputs.
Think of your mind like a computer. When you're taking in new information, you're filling up your memory storage, but you need time to clear it out so that you can continue to operate efficiently. Most founders are consuming content 24-7, scrolling x.com, reading tech articles, and watching TikToks.
There's no space for original thought. This is why everybody builds the same things. They're all consuming the same content.
Everyone saw ChatGPT and immediately built AI chatbots. People saw stable diffusion and built AI avatar generators. The real viral opportunities aren't always obvious.
They require synthesis. Great ideas come from connecting the dots that others have not. Solving male dating frustration with AI led to RizGBT. Solving problems in the looks-maxing community with AI vision led to UMAX. And solving calorie counting friction with once again computer vision led to CalAI.
These connections don't usually happen when you're actively searching for them. They happen in the shower, on walks, during workouts, moments of real mental clarity. The greatest founders aren't necessarily the smartest. They're the ones that dare to think differently from the rest. Hopefully the content in this video will help you come up with your next big idea.
If you have any questions leave comments below and make sure to subscribe to stay up to date for the next part of this series. which is how to design a viral app. Thanks for watching.