Yi launched Brain Rot to his existing Instagram audience of ~150,000–160,000 followers first. He had spent ~420 days posting daily "build in public" videos on Instagram — including viral videos documenting the app getting rejected by the App Store six times — so by launch day he had a large, engaged audience primed to download. He announced the launch directly to his followers and asked them to support him, generating roughly $3,000 in the first day from that audience alone. A couple of days after the audience launch, he submitted the app to Product Hunt. He had never used Product Hunt before and simply scheduled the listing the night before launch. He woke up to find it already ranked #4 globally by 7am without any promotion. Product Hunt's editorial team had independently featured Brain Rot at the very top of their daily newsletter email with the subject line "Cure Your Brain Rot," driving a flood of traffic. He then rallied his Instagram followers to upvote it, pushing it to #1 product of the day and generating ~10,000 downloads in a single day.
Brain Rot (BrainRot app)
Screen time app with a cartoon brain that decays the more you use your phone
8 moves, in order
- Pre launch (Days 1–30 of posting)Instagram daily video build in public
Created a brand new Instagram account with zero followers and began posting one unscripted video every single day about his life and business journey. First video was a 5-second 'Day 1 of doing nothing' clip with no edits, posted directly through Instagram camera.
First video got ~200 views and 3 likes. First viral video at Day 19 (house offer story) reached ~50,000 views and skewed follower demographics toward older women. - Early growth (first 2 months)Instagram viral content controversy
Posted an unscripted time-lapse video working late at night on his e-commerce business, showing $8.80 revenue against $4,000 spent. The comment section piled on ('look at this idiot') and the controversy drove the video to a couple million views.
First video to reach ~2 million views; significant follower spike and increased account momentum. - Ongoing consistency hack (first ~250 days)Instagram daily video build in public
Embedded a follower count update in each video ('Today we have 287 followers, up from 271 yesterday') to create a curiosity gap. Viewers would click through to check the current count, which drove profile visits and follow-throughs.
Contributed to steady compounding follower growth through increased profile traffic. - Pre app launch (during ~2 months of building)Instagram build in public drama
Documented each App Store rejection in daily videos (e.g. 'My app got rejected for the 5th time'). One or two of these rejection videos each crossed 1 million views, building anticipation and tension around the eventual launch.
1–2 videos each reaching 1M+ views; audience primed and waiting for launch before it happened. - App launch — audience dropInstagram audience launch
Announced Brain Rot launch directly to his ~150,000–160,000 Instagram followers, asking them to download and support the app.
~$3,000 in revenue on day one from his own audience. - App launch — Product HuntProduct Hunt launch
Scheduled a Product Hunt listing the night before launch with no prior PH experience. Woke up to find it already #4 globally at 7am. Product Hunt's editorial team had independently featured it at the top of their daily newsletter email with subject line 'Cure Your Brain Rot.' Then rallied Instagram followers to upvote, pushing it to #1 product of the day.
~10,000 downloads in one day; ~$5,000 in revenue from Product Hunt traffic; #1 Product of the Day. - Post launch organic (ongoing)App store seo
After the launch spike, the app settled into ~300–500 downloads per day organically, driven by users searching 'brain rot' in the App Store (from social media exposure, Reddit posts, and tweet threads).
Steady ~$200/day in revenue post-launch spike; total $26,000 in first ~30 days. - Twitter cross platform expansionTwitter — threads
Posted a long-form tweet thread detailing how he grew his Instagram following and separately how he made $26,000 with his app. Leaned into 'money content' knowing financial results go viral on tech Twitter.
Thread on Instagram growth and the $26K app thread each went highly viral; $26K thread reached 1.2 million impressions.
Had built a 150,000–176,000 follower Instagram audience over 420 days of daily "build in public" videos before launching the app. The audience had watched the entire development journey (including App Store rejections going viral) and was primed to support on day one. Without this audience, the Product Hunt launch and $26K result would not have been replicable.
product_hunt_launch
UGC (user-generated content) campaigns paying creators $10–$30/video, influencer marketing on TikTok, and posting to his own TikTok account (where his Indonesian IP caused the algorithm to target Indonesian audiences instead of English-speaking ones, capping views well below his follower count). API-based scheduling tools like PostBridge were also flagged as potentially suppressed by TikTok.
How I Used Instagram to Make $26K in 30 Days (with a Mobile App)
Gravl
AI fitness app that generates smart, personalized gym workouts
Journable
AI calorie counter and nutrition tracker app, primarily on Android
Puff Count
Mobile app that helps users track and quit vaping habits