Shotsy

Shotsy started as a tool its founder built for her own group. The founder built a GLP-1 medication tracker for herself and her GLP-1 Reddit group, and it snowballed from there. The audience was specific and easy to find, so the app could grow inside it.

The same source points to Cali, which won by serving users who valued speed over perfect macros, a different audience from MyFitnessPal, and was later acquired by MyFitnessPal. Phil's claim is that small niche apps can reach 10 to 20 million in ARR, and that falling software costs make niches viable that were not before. Quote: "I don't think that we're running out of niches to cater to anytime soon."

Subversive▶ 14:40

She built in public inside the community the app served. The founder shared progress inside the Reddit community she built for, and that community's feedback shaped the product.

Building in public works when the public is your audience and is a poor growth hack when done only for eyeballs. The advice is to pick the channel where your customer already spends time, as StudyFetch does with TikTok for college students. Quote: "If you can become a part of that community that you're building for and then you share your progress, yeah, that's super powerful."

Subversive▶ 20:53