Vlogbrothers, Nerdfighteria, Crash Course, SciShow, VidCon.
No, this is not a round of the NYT Connections game. Just the intro to today’s story about a (well-known) founder whose app took over the charts.
Welcome to this week’s organic content masterclass: “How to Hit #1 on the App Store in Just 3 Days.”
Let’s rewind to the start…
Hank Green (& his brother John)
Hank Green has a long track record of building things the internet loves. He’s behind a massive creator-educator empire—founding SciShow and Crash Course, co-founding VidCon, hosting the Dear Hank & John podcast, and launching the DFTBA merch and community platform.
With his brother John Green, Hank built a huge online fanbase called Nerdfighteria, which started way back in their early YouTube days in 2007.
You might also recognize their names from bestselling books like The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns (by John) or An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (by Hank).
Now, Hank is taking things even further, toward the ultimate creator-powered empire. And we’re here to break it all down.
Meet your new bean BFF
On July 23, Hank Green dropped his latest creation, the Focus Friend app.
We’ve all seen this by now: a gamified Pomodoro timer. Your bean buddy knits socks and scarves while you stay focused and off your phone. The longer you stay off, the more you earn — and you can trade those for new clothes, furniture, and room decor for your bean.
No ads, no upfront cost. Just a pro subscription model starting at $1.99/month or $29.99 for lifetime access.
It only took 3 days for the app to hit #1 on the App Store.
One month later, it’s pulling in $300K in monthly recurring revenue from over 1 million downloads.
All powered by Hank’s go-to move: (massive) creator-to-product.
Founder-led content (cranked up to 10,000)
Hank’s story starts on YouTube, where his personal channel has over 2.4 million followers. But that’s just the beginning.
Since 2019, Hank has been using short-form content to expand beyond YouTube and podcasts. Now he has 8.2M followers on TikTok and another 2M on Instagram.
That’s over 12 million followers across just three platforms.
And then he turned that audience into serious revenue.
If you’ve been with us for a while, you know we live for content-to-app funnels. And this is a textbook example. Don’t let the huge numbers scare you off. You don’t need a million followers to make this strategy work.
Since launch, Hank has posted:
- 1 long-form YouTube video (272K views, August 20)
- 5 YouTube Shorts (5.8M total views)
- 5 Instagram Reels (reposts of the Shorts)
- 9 TikToks (starting August 17)
TikTok’s organic flywheel
Hank’s videos were just the start. And as he predicted, once his first video about the app reached 2.3M views, hundreds of organic UGC videos started popping up on everyone’s FYP (including ours).
His video formats typically fall into one of these categories:
1) Green-screen + founder story
He explains how the app works while showing screenshots. The videos last 20–30 seconds, and he goes on an unscripted monologue about “his bean.”
Remember when we told you to always read your comment section? This video proves why…it’s packed with gold from real users:
- People are comparing it to Study Bunny, a similar focus app launched in 2019
- Many say they’d rather pay once than subscribe
- One popular feature request: a widget to “check in” on their Bean
- A top comment—“I didn’t have to make an account to start”—got 20.5K likes
2) Update on App Store ranking
Hank uses the green screen effect or in-app demo footage to provide updates on the progress on the app’s ranking.
He posted one when it reached #4… another on #3, then #2, then finally #1.
Soon enough, people started testing the app and posting their own organic interactions with the app. No ambassadors, no partnerships.
Just a loyal audience hyped to share their favorite creator’s app without being asked.
Several other app founders have followed a similar approach to TikTok and Reels distribution. If you’re convincing yourself that there’s no point because you don’t have a 10M follower empire, you’re just creating excuses.
Alex turned 2.3M followers into the first 50,000 downloads for his clipping app.
Karolina created Sortd before she had a significant audience, and used her personal journey to create a brand beyond the app.
Linda started sharing her art online and when one of her videos hit 10M views out of the blue, she jumped and ended up creating 2 apps generating serious monthly revenue.
You get the point. So get to work.
Last we checked, Focus Friend was still holding strong at #6 in the Productivity charts.
What’s your guess? Can Hank keep the UGC wave going once the hype dies down?
We’ll keep you posted.
Leave a Reply