Howdy 👋

We just spoke to Joseph Choi, founder of Consumer Club, and what he shared could just make you rethink everything you know about product development.

In the next four minutes, you’ll learn:

Let’s do this.

Consumer Club is a community of founders creating viral consumer apps—and most of them aren't even developers.

Joseph's community members are hitting $10K MRR right out the gate from their apps, with many making $1M+ annually. 

“Umm… how?”

Their secret is they validate ideas by testing content before building anything. 

Old way: Build app → Hope people want it → Struggle to get users

New way: Test viral content → Validate demand → Build what's already proven

This approach flips the traditional model on its head.

Now, instead of spending months developing an app and praying to the software gods that there’s a product-market fit, founders create viral content first to prove the demand is actually there.

One Consumer Club member wanted to launch a matchmaking party business.

To gauge interest for Lox Club, they took to Instagram. The newly created account—and this is important—had zero followers, but their first video still hit 150,000 views!

Turns out social media algorithms care way more about engagement than follower counts. (Which is reassuring for me and my 39 followers.)

Most of us aren’t born with the “it” factor. You know, the one that turns everything we touch into viral gold.

Not to worry.

Here’s how to validate your product with content:

Once demand is proven for these products, Joseph focuses on scaling content. 

While many startups fight over popular influencers who charge thousands per video, Joseph found a different path for promoting apps: college students who can go viral without a massive follower count. (And he only pays them $50/hr!)

Joseph built a newsletter called iykyk.careers that boasts 15K college student subscribers and a 50% open rate. He grows it through simple LinkedIn posts like this:

Joseph’s system:

Do this: Don’t stress about having an influencer budget. Look for channels where talent is low cost and motivated (student groups, niche newsletters, affiliate networks). Give them a repeatable format like this one, pay for small tests, and scale the winners.

👉 Peep the full interview with Joseph

Back in July 2013, the team at Tiny Speck (who would go on to build Slack) received an internal memo from CEO Stewart Butterfield that’s since become a classic. 

It’s a simple but timeless idea: People don’t buy products or “the saddle,” they buy the outcome—what using that product lets them feel or do.

For Slack, it’s organizational transformation, not messaging software. For saddle manufacturers, it’s the freedom that comes with horseback riding. Joseph’s approach sells a solution before the product is even built!

The advice may be over a decade old, but it still hits today. When you’re building something new, traction comes from selling the result, not the thing.

Want to ride the wave instead of chasing it? 

Here’s a simple TikTok search trick to uncover what’s hot in your niche right now instead of trying to guess what the hell people like. 

❤️ & 🌮,
The AppSumo Team

P.S. Got a friend trying to build the next viral app? Send them this—they'll thank you later.