@benjaminboman

Freelance Marketer and Podcast Host. See what I’m up to, learn more about my work, or contact me below.

    Growing A Social App From 0 to 200k Users Through Building A Strong Community | David Woodworth

    Hello there, how’s it going? Today I’ll be chatting to David Woodworth, CMO and Co-Founder of Hilokal, a drop-in language learning social app.
    David has grown the app from zero to 200,000 users with a highly engaged community.

    We discuss his journey from where he pivoted out of his brick-and-mortar business into a technology-based application with significant month-over-month user growth.


    Things I learned:

    • Finding product market fit before scaling was a smart move, and not just theory
    • The Hacking Growth book is very practical and a key to the success of the app
    • Pivot to something related to your core offering, see what was accepted vs not
    • Use Redash and SQL to analyze data on your user feedback
    • Try a few marketing approaches, mainly organic, community, and ASO (app store optimization) before calling out the winners and losers, then invest more
    • Even if you can grow a userbase through ads, the quality will be different
    • The Cold Start Problem is a useful book in learning how to develop community apps like Clubhouse, Uber, etc.
    • Work out the main pain points for your community, and improve those, including removing friction
    • Usability itself is a powerful growth lever