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Zibo Gao Profile
Zibo Gao

@gao_zibo

2,474
Followers
1,628
Following
172
Media
2,011
Statuses

Building Soundmap. Prev Sincerely, Friendship Bracelets, & more. 1m+ users and counting.

Somewhere on Soundmap
Joined July 2015
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
Updating the deck
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
Sadly, Decibel will not receive any more updates… We got to over 60k users and 250k posts, but deep down we know something is off. Sharing what I learned from it 📀
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
It took my last startup 12 months to get past 60k users and we put it down. Now I’m back with @sincerely_app and blew past that mark in just two months. Here’s what I learned from my mistakes and did differently🧵
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
11 months
Money is nosy. Money is a flex. Finance apps are too boring, let's make it social.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
What's a good Typeform alternative? It's unethical to charge that much for a survey.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
4 months
Starting a consumer founder Tiktok house in NYC: - Hackathon style - Can't leave until you make 10 tiktoks - Must be founders who are ACTUALLY making them Who's in?
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
no one tells you straight up that "your app sucks". could've saved a lot of runway tho
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
25 days
major league next
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
6 months
Amo plz make apps that I can understand in 10 secs…
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 months
Took us 5 days to go from 100 ratings to 1.2k ratings 😅
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
App #2 : Sincerely - Get things off your chest in anonymous letters - Receive 3 letters every night at 10pm - Respond, send hugs, and support others There's always someone out there for you 📙
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
6 months
My tiktok shop friend is making more revenue AND profit than 99% of my consumer app friends
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 months
Achievement unlocked: user-led subreddit
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
8 months
who wanna start a "failed social app collective" with me and have a summit in Bushwick?
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
4 months
We found love in hopeless consumer app
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
21 days
Looking for a backend engineer to join Soundmap and ship to 100k+ people every day We grind, go to music festivals, and repeat. DMs open!
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
5 months
When your user pays for $18 cocktail without blinking but complains about a $4.99 monthly sub
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
1-yr anniversary of leaving my corporate consulting gig and diving into early-stage consumer tech. Plenty of big changes ahead. Sharing personal updates as soon as the details are finalized... 🛠✈️
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
It's great that I run a mental wellness app and I can use it during fundraising 🙃
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
Now... time to launch new apps 🥶
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
Just started playing this virtual pet game… and it comes with hourly notifications 🤯
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
This man is a legend because he single-handedly proved that you can be the most intelligent person in the room with an accent in America
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
6 months
small consumer founders dinner tomorrow in soho. couple spots left. lmk if you wanna join!
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
18 days
The more I build in social, the more socially awkward I feel
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
Uninstalled. I don’t need a social score.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
11 months
Calling everyone who likes money. Wanna try a new app? 💰💰💰
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
5 months
I’m proud 🤣🤣
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
THIS IS NOT HOW YOU TOUCH GRASS
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
29 days
😭
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
90% of new social apps are using SF Pro Rounded…What other fonts should I try?
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
11 months
Bye bye
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
3. Your core value prop should be able to go viral on Tiktok, if only just once.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
anti-social social app
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
So I built a music app... If you get in your feels when listening to music, this is for you Comment below your favorite song atm and I'll send over the Testflight 🎸📱
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
Editing the deck and realized that Sincerely has 430k letters + responses written in 2 months Kinda crazy that this idea is literally from a Japanese novel...
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
5 months
Just tested the app. Not even GAS can top this
@Jibran_05
Jibran
5 months
🫢🫢🫢
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
2. Launch asap and see your DAU/MAU for PMF potential. D1, D7, W1 retention can all be tricked higher, but D30 can’t. DAU/MAU is the best proxy for D30 and long-term fit.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
Update: I'll be in China until EOY! Covid has been wild and US-China politics have not made it easy. I haven't seen my parents for 2 years and haven't been home for 3 years. I also gotta figure out some visa/legal stuff. It's time to ✈️🏡
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
anyone wanna jam on TikTok strategy?
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 months
Now that we are building a game, I wanna apologize to all the game devs who I’ve obliterated behind a screen for a tiny bug 🙏 I get it now
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
1. Keep things mad simple. Keep the app under 3 tabs if possible. If you have 5 tabs, nobody checks the 2nd tab. Only test your core loop.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
8 months
couple more spots left for a consumer (social) founder gathering on Friday night in soho. dm me if you wanna join
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
9 months
give me the confidence of a Tiktok influencer with less than 100k followers asking $1800 per video and averaging 8k views for the last 5 videos
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
10 months
Is there any Figma god who can help us with graphic design issues 🙏
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
10 months
On your phone soon
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
Founders and hustlers, please take care of your health. We can always raise more money, build new products, build new companies, but good health is the foundation for all 🙏🙏 best wishes to those on the journey
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
@sincerely_app is so simple that I thought it was TOO simple at first. Write letters, read letters, respond to letters. With my last startup Decibel, I couldn’t even explain what it does in a full sentence. Lesson: Start simple. Avoid feature bloat. Less is more.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
I started *hardcore* testing on Tiktok. I typed out the app’s value prop in text and made a text overlay video. That’s enough to go semi-viral if you’re on to something people want. Lesson: Be uncomfortably specific with your value proposition and test on Tiktok asap
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 months
@soren_iverson Pay to snooze
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 months
dealing with teens exploiting every single loophole in the app is quite interesting. the table has turned
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
6. Test monetization asap. Paying users in a consumer app is the strongest PMF indicator. Don't be shy about it.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
What’s next? Keep growing. 30k letters and responses are written in Sincerely daily and we are feeling the pull. Every self-care and mental wellness app now looks the same with extremely high CAC. We found our edge and we are doubling down :)
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
it's actually so much fun to work on this app
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
NYC founders & VCs! 🍔🍻 Hosting Wed dinners starting next week with @ohlookitserik @anukeganegoda , inspired by @kylebrastrom 's great initiative in LA Comment, share, & DM if you want to hang. NYC is back!!
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 months
building a game is a game fr
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
retention growth retention growth retention growth going crazy
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
740k
@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
Editing the deck and realized that Sincerely has 430k letters + responses written in 2 months Kinda crazy that this idea is literally from a Japanese novel...
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
I have more controversial social/product-specific lessons. DM is open and happy to chat with anyone in the space!
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
That’s it. On a Friday night
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
8 months
just because people ask you for an android version doesn't mean you have pmf
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
When your user helps you design the app 😂
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
4. Don’t send too many notifications. It bumps short-term engagement and hurt long-term retention.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 months
If you claim to have 30% d30 and you are not growing, you either have an anti-social product or you are lying to yourself
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
5. Teens are smart enough to tell your BS but not smart enough to give you solutions. Use discord for feedback and not as an indicator of success.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
We didn't design the app to be used like this but Sincerely is a screaming app now. Screaming is a form of therapy.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
9 months
Mandatory celebration without Y-axis
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
I've seen quite a few cases where consumer social founders unknowingly use unbounded retention instead of N-Day retention. It's misleading and it makes product-market-fit seem much closer than reality! Here are the differences👇
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
2 months ago I built Offbeat (), a simple tool for friends to make group playlists in just a couple clicks. The playlists will also refresh daily with everyone's recently listened. Just hit 10k total users 💨
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
Celebrating every little W since there are way too many Ls along the way. (yes I'm masking the Y-axis)
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
4 months
brb doing b2b
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
Putting together a group chat for consumer folks who actually make Tiktok/Reels/Shorts DM me your @ and let's beat the algo (before it get banned)
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
5 months
I love how Locket has more staying power than BeReal
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
4 months
starting to see more and more founders doing face/talking tiktok videos for their apps you live long enough to realize that no one knows the story better than yourself
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
🧵This current crypto selloff brings back a lot of painful memories for me. Here's what I learned about investing from hodling ETH from $150 to $1.4K to $80 to $4K to now 📈📉📈 (1/x)
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
have a weird feeling that BeReal might be losing steams.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
✅ Finally did it with a TT video about Sincerely. 1m view video next.
@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
3. Your core value prop should be able to go viral on Tiktok, if only just once.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
6 months
People are WAY too harsh on apps asking for contacts/camera access
@an21m
Antoine Martin
6 months
Thanks for the feedback. I understand and love that you wanna inspire yourself… but “experiencing” a social product without friends or camera access doesn’t make sense 🙃 It’s just impossible. It’s like trying to play badminton alone. We aspire to build social. Not media.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
8 months
Had a dream that I was #1 in casual on the App Store
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
4 months
Found this gem while packing
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
4 months
got rejected by apple review 6 TIMES for one update
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
7. Don’t add group chats lol. Creative burnout is real. Copying competitors rarely works. Be honest with yourself.
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
Seeing ATH is great, but seeing people sharing your app in another language is next level
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
Miami is nice but I’m determined to make Catskill NY a tech hub 🐑🐐here for a week if anyone’s around 😂
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
6 months
All cool new AI photo apps will find themselves in a CapCut template in a month
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
The toughest part of this VC job is not saying no to founders, but hearing founders confessing their vulnerabilities that are often looked down on. "It's very lonely/depressing/stressful" - we have to remember that founders are human first. Stay strong! 💪
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
7 months
✅ Have users video call you at 3am asking about android
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
Another little W. Rankings fluctuate a lot but a W is a W. The best part is our community has laid out our roadmap for the next 6m already. Execution time. 😂
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
One of those highs when the product is truly meaningful
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
Who wanna join an "anti web-3 web-3 DAO"?
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
9 months
Go viral >> be happy >> find issues >> fix issues >> go viral again and convert better
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
I need to get a life 🪨
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 years
for some investors, the only thing they've built is a Squarespace website
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
4 weeks into my Tiktok journey and had my first video with 1m+ views. Let’s see when I will turn into a full-time content creator 😂
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
Been on a 2-week tiktok grind to learn more about the platform and hit a viral video with 600k+ views. Highly recommend any founder/investor to give it a try. The amount of free traffic and learnings on “going viral” 👀
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
5 months
before you copy an app, REALLY figure out why that app is successful in the first place
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
9 months
Consumer apps should all start charging so users stop complaining when you ask for just $2.99
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
1 year
too many pre PMF consumer cos are overhiring lol
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
Been on a 2-week tiktok grind to learn more about the platform and hit a viral video with 600k+ views. Highly recommend any founder/investor to give it a try. The amount of free traffic and learnings on “going viral” 👀
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
3 years
half of the conversations I've had with junior VCs in the past month are about jumping to the operator side 👀
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
11 months
Bull or bear?
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@gao_zibo
Zibo Gao
2 months
job = get more people to play + make people play more
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