The team at Founders Podcast had me on to talk about something I’ve spent the better part of 20 years figuring out: why some products go viral and others die quietly, and what the difference actually comes down to.
Listen here: Apple Podcasts · Spotify
We covered a lot of ground, from the bad date that sparked the idea for Bang with Friends, to the experiments, pivots, and failures that eventually led to products reaching over 100 million users. Here’s what we got into:
- Why highlighting a universal taboo can be one of the most powerful levers for viral growth
- How to engineer FOMO through authenticity, exclusivity, and scarcity at every stage of your launch
- Why being genuinely human is your biggest competitive advantage in an AI-saturated world
- App store optimization and press outreach tactics that still work today
- How to navigate platform risk and startup burnout without losing momentum
The thread running through all of it is the same thing I keep coming back to: if you understand how people actually think and feel, you can stop guessing and start building growth that compounds.
If you want to go even deeper on the frameworks behind all of this, that is exactly what Outrageous Startup Growth is built around.