How Glow Up got its first 100 users
Before writing any code, Louis and his co-founder studied TikTok makeup content — specifically the comment sections of popular makeup videos — to identify what problems real users were expressing. They identified demand for helping women find the right makeup look without having to physically buy and test products. Rather than building first, they created TikTok content around the concept of "finding your best makeup look," validated that it could go viral, and only then built the MVP. The content went viral almost immediately, and within 3 days of launching the app, they had 100,000 users. The key early viral moment was a single TikTok video that reached ~48 million views and 2 million likes. The video incorporated a referral mechanic baked into the app: users who invited 3 friends would get a free makeup look. Viewers saw the video, downloaded the app, then came back to the TikTok video to share their referral codes in the comments — creating a self-reinforcing engagement loop that boosted the video algorithmically. An anchor (download) link was added at ~500K views, making the path from view to install frictionless. That single video generated 60K downloads and $12,500 in sales in one day.