🎶 How Pokémon GO for music fans grew 0-400K DAUs <1 year

Welcome to Consumer Startups! In each email, we pull back the curtain on a high-flying consumer startup, revealing how they cracked the code to scale and where the future is headed.

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I need to tell you guys about my buddy Zibo.

I met Zibo a few years ago when I first started writing this newsletter. He had just quit his consulting gig and told me about his plan to launch a product studio with the goal of shipping fun mobile apps that can bring joy to people.

Fast forward to today, he has shipped 10+ consumer apps, from AI astrology app to friendship bracelet trading app targeting Taylor Swift fans aka swifties.

He had a moderate level of success in the first couple of years in terms of revenue and users, but nothing really surpassed 50K DAUs.... until he stumbled upon the idea of Soundmap, which blew up and grew to millions of users and 400K+ DAUs in one year.

This success also led to a $1.7M seed investment from A16Z Speedrun, Gold House, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, and more.

How Zibo validated Soundmap

Most of the apps Zibo and his team launched weren't born from groundbreaking insights or hidden market secrets. Instead, they focused on shipping products that might bring people joy. However, most of the ideas shared some common threads:

• Built for Gen-Z fan culture

• Games (particularly trading-based mechanics)

• Music-focused applications

Soundmap's eventual success wasn't just about the idea itself - it came from Zibo's ability to recognize and abandon shit projects. Unlike many founders who become emotionally attached to their first idea and persist too long, Zibo took a more pragmatic approach:

When evaluating a newly launched app's performance, he looks at three key metrics*:

1. Acquisition cost - Run paid ads to test CPC/CPI, targeting under $0.5 per install in the US market.

2. Retention - Monitor user retention at day 7, 30, and 6 months. The retention curve should flatten as early as possible. While 30% retention at month 6 is ideal, lower rates can work but make maintaining the user base more challenging.

3. Monetization - Build monetization features into the product from day 1. Within 5 updates, you should have a clear picture of whether your app is successfully converting users.

*For those interested in learning more about industry-specific retention and conversion benchmarks, check out Lenny's excellent posts on retention and conversion.

When making the final go/no-go decision, he combines these quantitative metrics with qualitative feedback from the user community. Users' excitement (or lack thereof) about your product is typically quite evident.

How Soundmap works

Soundmap is a digital playground for music fans—it’s like Pokemon Go for your favorite tracks. Instead of hunting for creatures, you’re exploring a map to discover song “drops,” each tagged with a rarity level from common to epic.

As you roam around (or explore virtually), you collect these musical treasures and trade them with other fans, building a personal collection that reflects both your taste and status.

The platform primarily attracts Gen-Z music enthusiasts in high school and college, giving them a unique way to showcase their fandom. While these users might not have significant financial status in the real world, Soundmap provides them with a virtual space to build pride and collect virtual coins, creating a genuine sense of accomplishment.

Simply put, Soundmap turns music into a game that’s as exciting to play as it is to hear.

How they got their first 1000 users

#first 1000 customers

Soundmap’s journey from a three-week build to a thriving platform is a testament to smart community leverage. The team built their MVP in just three weeks and immediately tapped into their existing network—launching to Discord groups from previous projects like Friendship Bracelets and Decibel, which together had 30K-40K users. This strategic approach quickly delivered their first 1,000 customers.

#next 1M customers

From there, the growth engine kicked into high gear. They built a clever invite loop with an irresistible incentive: invite eight friends, and you unlock free premium forever—a perk that normally costs about $20.

This viral mechanism, combined with engaging Reels and TikTok videos showcasing the app’s interactive nature, accelerated user adoption.

Today, their user acquisition breaks down to 35% from invite loops, 35% through organic word-of-mouth and social sharing, 25% from paid ads, and 5% from SEO.

Notably, around 70% of Soundmap users operate in single-player mode, proving that local user density isn’t crucial for success. The platform functions more like a music bartering game than a social app.

As of February 2024, Soundmap boasts over 400K daily active users, with 60% using the platform 5 days a week.

Community = double-edged sword

Running an app filled with die-hard fanatics is as thrilling as it is challenging. On one hand, these passionate users spread the word like wildfire—boosting your K-factor and sharing the love for Soundmap everywhere. On the other, their intensity can sometimes tip over into negativity, making community management feel like a tightrope walk.

Balancing what the community wants with what the product needs isn’t easy. Zibo’s team is always juggling feedback from Reddit, Discord, and Facebook. At the end of the day, managing this unpredictable fan club means really listening to their demands without losing sight of Soundmap’s vision. It’s a delicate balancing act, but it’s also what keeps the app dynamic and deeply connected to its audience.

While some might view Soundmap's success as pure luck, Zibo and his team actually created their own opportunities through persistence and strategy.

They expanded their chances of success by consistently shipping new apps at a rapid pace. More importantly, they maintained objectivity by systematically evaluating each app's performance and weren't afraid to kill underperforming products.

This disciplined approach to product development, combined with their relentless execution, turned seemingly random luck into predictable success.

I am excited to see what new apps Zibo launches next.

Leo