Co-Founder @ Verso. ex-Google AI, Microsoft, Startups
Utah, USA
Joined October 2024
- Tweets248
- Following134
- Followers33
- Likes624
220M+ organic views this summer
charting in 54 countries
if its not a big swing, don’t do it.
lot of things that you can do + try
if don’t do it outsized potential return, punt
even if its risky, no ragrets 🤘
17M views last week, 3 posts drove majority of traffic
raw, unedited, and took 14 secs to film via snapchat
on track to do 100M views MoM
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this is real candy you can get at 5below and it crushes 🔥😮💨
UGC has shifted SO much in the past year
a year ago, making a surprised face and turning the camera to your phone could get you millions of views
now people recognize the format instantly, and creators are going to INSANE lengths just to catch your attention
ppl are moaning, barking, panting their faces, licking slime just for a hook… this woman is literally EATING PAPER 😭
and somehow that’s only a fraction of the insane things i’ve seen lately. the bar for stopping the scroll just keeps getting higher and higher
at this rate i’m scared to see what UGC hooks look like a year from now
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Jonathan Bernal retweeted
This app censors your phone in a stunning new way — and people are using it on purpose dlvr.it/TV5q2l
you're building something viral when someone makes random post about it and hits 1.5m views in a couple hours
There’s an AI christian streaming tool called Verso that you can link to your music streaming accounts and if a bad word or sinful topic comes up in the song you receive this notification. If you so desire, you can click the “forgive me!” button which immediately absolves you.
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Jonathan Bernal retweeted
FIR founders don't take the normal route.
Take the team behind Verso. Jonathan Bernal came to the US, taught himself the language, trained as an engineer, and worked on AI at one of the biggest companies in tech. Drew Carson studied computer science, dropped out to chase startups, and built and sold a consumer company before he was done. Two very different paths that ended up in the same place.
Now they're building together in the FIR cohort. Two founders who've done hard things before, doing it again.
That's what FIR looks like. If you're the kind of person who takes the hard road to build something that matters, the next batch is open.
Link is in the comments.
30M+ views over the past month, 4 UGC creators 😬
Building Suno AI for families 🎵✨👨👩👧👦
another strong hook that’s pulling thousands of views right now
“how long has there been X for Y?”
instantly explains both the app and the target niche in one sentence
seeing a lot of videos with this format go viral lately
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Jonathan Bernal retweeted
@UseVerso making the rounds on X again thanks to my cofounder Jonathan's killer UGC strategy.
Love being part of this team building such an awesome product for parents!!
Exact same strategy for 100k-1M
If the post can get 10k-30k, it can prob get to 100k-1M with a little nudge
Hope this helps
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- The earlier you post (mid-day) the higher chance of going viral
- You need to get at least 1 video 10k-30k views
- As soon it does, you get 5-10 people to flood the comments/engage
If you act fast enough, the video will go to 100k
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- Find format that explicitly shows your app/product
- Tweak format until hook (first 3 sec) is strong enough target market is too curious to scroll
- Tweak demo until it is novel/interesting enough for them to comment+look for it
Once you get here this where the magic happens:
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Dropping sauce 🤌 on going viral most won’t because i dont believe in gatekeeping
This past week we’ve been averaging 1M views/day on IG+TikTok
This how we maintain #1 in app store for our niche
Here’s the steps:
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but distribution is a skill, ANYONE can attain it
you build it by getting your hands dirty
doing what nobody wants to do
that’s how we’re getting our next 100M views
how are you hacking virality right now?
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tradeoff:
- less luck
- more reps
it’s volume + testing + iteration
treat content like experiments, not art
most founders won’t do this
they want hacks, shortcuts, agencies
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