- Steven Cravotta
- Posts
- This movie got me to $44k MRR
This movie got me to $44k MRR
Hey there,
If you're building an app and you haven't watched “The Social Network”, go watch it right after reading this email.
I've seen it more times than I can count. And every time I rewatch it, I catch something new about what it takes to build and scale.
Here's what the movie taught me about building:
1. Solve 1 problem for 1 audience
Remember the Facemash scene? Zuck didn't try to build Facebook on day one.
He built something simple: Harvard students ranking photos.
1 problem and 1 audience. That's it.
Puff Count followed the same rule: Help people quit vaping. Nothing else.
If you position your app correctly by solving 1 problem for 1 audience, you print.
2. Obsess over market research
Zuck didn't just wake up with the Facebook idea.
He studied what was working. College students loved rating things and he saw the gap and filled it.
Before I built Puff Count, I saw quit vaping videos blowing up on TikTok.
Use tools like Sensor Tower or Mobbin to analyze competitors and find gaps.
3. Keep UX simple
The early Facebook was dead simple. Profile. Friends. Poke. That's it.
No clutter and no confusion. Users knew exactly what to do.
Simple, frictionless UX keeps users engaged and moving toward conversion.
Make onboarding smooth, cut extra steps, focus on getting your user invested.
4. Understand marketing is king
Remember how fast Facebook spread? It was exclusivity and the hype of getting access. Word of mouth spread like wildfire.
A great app with bad marketing won't grow. A mediocre app with great marketing will print.
Marketing starts before you build. I proved Puff Count's potential with TikToks before writing a single line of code.
5. Move fast, break things
Facebook didn't launch perfect. Zuck was constantly adding features based on what users wanted.
Photos. News Feed. Each one came from listening.
Once you launch your app, it’s just the start.
Ask yourself after launch:
· Are users completing onboarding?
· Are they hitting the paywall?
· Where do they drop off?
Use data to optimize and keep users engaged.
Look, The Social Network is a great entertaining movie.
But it’s also a blueprint for how apps actually get built and scaled.
"If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook."
Zuck was right.
Watch it if you haven't. Rewatch it if you have.
Peace,
Steven