Pre launch (Days 1–30 of posting)
Instagram daily video build in public
Created a brand new Instagram account with zero followers and began posting one unscripted video every single day about his life and business journey. First video was a 5-second 'Day 1 of doing nothing' clip with no edits, posted directly through Instagram camera.
→ First video got ~200 views and 3 likes. First viral video at Day 19 (house offer story) reached ~50,000 views and skewed follower demographics toward older women.
Early growth (first 2 months)
Instagram viral content controversy
Posted an unscripted time-lapse video working late at night on his e-commerce business, showing $8.80 revenue against $4,000 spent. The comment section piled on ('look at this idiot') and the controversy drove the video to a couple million views.
→ First video to reach ~2 million views; significant follower spike and increased account momentum.
Ongoing consistency hack (first ~250 days)
Instagram daily video build in public
Embedded a follower count update in each video ('Today we have 287 followers, up from 271 yesterday') to create a curiosity gap. Viewers would click through to check the current count, which drove profile visits and follow-throughs.
→ Contributed to steady compounding follower growth through increased profile traffic.
Pre app launch (during ~2 months of building)
Instagram build in public drama
Documented each App Store rejection in daily videos (e.g. 'My app got rejected for the 5th time'). One or two of these rejection videos each crossed 1 million views, building anticipation and tension around the eventual launch.
→ 1–2 videos each reaching 1M+ views; audience primed and waiting for launch before it happened.
App launch — audience drop
Instagram audience launch
Announced Brain Rot launch directly to his ~150,000–160,000 Instagram followers, asking them to download and support the app.
→ ~$3,000 in revenue on day one from his own audience.
App launch — Product Hunt
Product Hunt launch
Scheduled a Product Hunt listing the night before launch with no prior PH experience. Woke up to find it already #4 globally at 7am. Product Hunt's editorial team had independently featured it at the top of their daily newsletter email with subject line 'Cure Your Brain Rot.' Then rallied Instagram followers to upvote, pushing it to #1 product of the day.
→ ~10,000 downloads in one day; ~$5,000 in revenue from Product Hunt traffic; #1 Product of the Day.
Post launch organic (ongoing)
App store seo
After the launch spike, the app settled into ~300–500 downloads per day organically, driven by users searching 'brain rot' in the App Store (from social media exposure, Reddit posts, and tweet threads).
→ Steady ~$200/day in revenue post-launch spike; total $26,000 in first ~30 days.
Twitter cross platform expansion
Twitter — threads
Posted a long-form tweet thread detailing how he grew his Instagram following and separately how he made $26,000 with his app. Leaned into 'money content' knowing financial results go viral on tech Twitter.
→ Thread on Instagram growth and the $26K app thread each went highly viral; $26K thread reached 1.2 million impressions.