Gas App's Viral Rise
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A story about how Nikita Bier, after selling his previous app TBH to Facebook, launched a new viral app called Gas that became #1 in the App Store within days while battling viral hoax allegations.
"Nikita said in our group chat that he wanted to make $10M in 3 months with a new app. He launched this app about 3 months ago, starting by geo-fencing it to just 3 high schools in Georgia. He had this precise launch strategy where they'd create Instagram accounts with high school names, follow students, but keep the account private. Then at 4PM when school let out, they'd accept all follow requests simultaneously, directing everyone to download the app.
The app initially launched under a different name, but rumors about human trafficking started spreading. He quickly rebranded to 'Crush' with a soda-like logo, then finally to 'Gas'. Within 7 days, Gas had 1 million daily users, was adding 30,000 new users per hour, with users answering 3.2 million polls per hour. In about 10 days, it hit $1M in sales and became #1 in the App Store, above TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
But then the human trafficking rumors started again. It got so big that Ashton Kutcher was retweeting about it. Nikita claimed after an investigation that the hoax originated from China, saying they found users connecting from China when the app first began growing, with the first fake reviews posted that same day.
The whole journey from launch to becoming #1, dealing with multiple rebrands and viral hoaxes, happened in just about 20 days. He completely called his shot and nailed it."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.