The Story
David Park is the founder and CEO of Jenni AI, a collection of edtech tools that helps researchers research and write with AI assistance. They do over $10M/year, are profitable, and have over 5 million users. The vast majority of growth came in the last 2 years using the short-form content playbook he shares.
The Three Pillars of Growth
- •Distribution - How do you get users to know about your product?
- •Conversion - How do you get them to pay?
- •Retention - How long do they continue using?
Even conquering ONE pillar can make a very profitable business. This playbook focuses entirely on distribution through short-form content.
The 3-Step Process
Step 1: Gathering Ingredients
- •Figure out as much as you can about your users
- •Skip months of iteration by understanding them first
- •Ask users for their Instagram handles, see who they follow
- •Find influencers your ideal demographic follows
Finding Influencers
- •Use Instagram/TikTok's "suggest similar accounts" feature
- •Check hashtags influencers post on
- •Create a new Instagram account that follows these influencers
- •The algorithm will deliver you new potential partners
What to Look For in Influencers
- •Ceiling matters more than floor - Do they have 1-2 videos with 1M+ views?
- •Consistent 5K-10K views doesn't matter as much as viral potential
- •Check if their sponsored content flops vs. regular content
- •If sponsor content always fails, reconsider
Step 2: Explore
- •Try different hypotheses, content types, creators
- •Test different people on camera
- •Test different hooks ("Top 10 reasons...", "The worst thing is...", "I hate when...")
- •Test different accounts (some get stuck in 100-300 view hell)
- •Test different editing (fast-paced vs. slow)
- •Test different lighting (casual/homemade vs. cinematic)
Step 3: Exploit
- •Once something works, squeeze as much value as possible
- •Turn winning content into series
- •Repost across platforms
- •Transition to paid ads
Finding Content Ideas
Sources
- •What are influencers your users follow posting?
- •What sponsored content have they posted that popped off?
- •What tools do your users use? What content do those tools post?
- •Scroll your TikTok account - what naturally grabs YOUR attention?
- •Emulate hooks that stop you, tweak for your product
Influencer Outreach
Mindset
- •Be ready for rejection (50%+ won't respond)
- •Don't give up after one email
- •The hardest part was always yesterday - skills compound
Tactics
- •Send BOTH emails AND DMs (DMs have higher response rate)
- •Follow up within a few days if no response
- •Be detailed and tailored, but super concise
- •Demonstrate genuine enthusiasm for their content
- •Show why their audience will love your product
- •DON'T mention: employee count, funding round, TechCrunch features
What Influencers Care About
- •Creating good content
- •Natural-feeling partnerships
- •NOT your startup metrics
Structuring Influencer Deals
Align Incentives
- •Avoid paying 100% upfront (lose leverage, risk half-assed videos)
- •Split payment: base + conversions (track via coupon code or UTM)
- •Offer bonuses for view milestones or link clicks
Reduce Price Per Video
- •Buy in bundles (3 videos for $1,200 instead of $500 each)
- •Even if first video flops, you have 2 more chances
- •Builds real relationship with influencer
Don't Pay Based on Followers
- •Someone with 50 followers can get more views than someone with 10M
- •Only question: Will their audience convert?
Negotiation Tactics
- •Start by "juicing up" the price with extras (exclusivity, Instagram story, link in bio for a month, usage rights)
- •Get their price for the full package
- •Then remove items one by one to get to your actual needs
- •Ask for 30-40% bulk discount
- •Offer 30% more to post on TikTok too (same video, minimal extra work)
UGC Deals (In-House Content Creators)
Structure
- •Base salary: ~$2,000/month
- •Incentive bonus on top (coupon redemptions, view milestones, % of LTV)
- •Total usually shakes out to ~$3,000/month
- •Influencers-turned-UGC: $3,000-5,000/month + incentives
Why UGC Works
- •Post 20-30 videos/month
- •Fine if 10 flop, just need a few to do well
- •More stable than sponsored deals
- •Less pressure per video
Important
- •Always include incentives (prevents phoning it in)
- •Let them write scripts first, then tweak
Posting Strategy
Cross-Platform
- •Repost ALL videos on Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts
- •Same video can do great on one platform, poorly on another
- •Rewrite hook text natively for each platform (helps SEO)
- •Remove TikTok watermarks
Frequency
- •Post at least one video every single day
- •Farm hooks, find what works, learn each time
- •Keep a spreadsheet of ideas
- •Cut off branches that don't work
- •Pull on threads that do work
Shadowban Reality
- •Tempting to blame shadowban
- •But if posting 10-20 days with same quality as competitors getting 1M views...
- •Maybe try new account with new SIM card
- •Or have influencer create account on their phone, send you password
What "Viral" Really Means
- •NOT just views, comments, shares
- •True virality: infects the people you REALLY wanted to see it
- •10K views hitting the right pocket > 1M views on lukewarm meme
- •Worth infinitely more when viewers become evangelized customers
Milking a Viral Video (The Real Money)
Turn It Into a Series
- •Once you find a viral video, don't restart the cycle
- •Milk that discovery into 10x or 100x the initial views
- •Slightly tweak and repost multiple times a week
- •People are creatures of habit - they like seeing the same things
Jenni AI's "POV" Series
- •"POV: You have a paper due" or "POV: An essay due"
- •Ridiculous plot: realize essay is due → run to computer → showcase Jenni AI
- •Just swap first 10 seconds (sleeping vs. walking dog vs. at restaurant)
- •Second half completely the same
- •Posted 2x/week for 6 months
- •Hundreds of millions of views
- •Tens of thousands of paid users
- •Over $500K in revenue from ONE series
Maximizing Further
- •Post series on multiple accounts (Jenni AI USA, Jenni AI Germany, Jenni AI Australia)
- •Translate to different languages (Mandarin account)
- •When video is fading, reach out to meme pages ($50-100 to repost)
- •Eventually copycats copy it, it gets played out
- •Then restart at Step 1 for new viral series
Multi-Account Strategy
Why It Works
- •Account with 48 followers can get more views than main account with 55K followers
- •Same video might only hit engineering students on one account
- •Recreate on multiple accounts to hit different pockets (poly-sci majors, literature majors)
- •At one point: 5 Jenni accounts × 3 platforms = 15 videos/day
How to Execute
- •Once you find viral series, create new accounts
- •Don't need big creators - find charismatic UGC people
- •Have them remake the proven viral video
Key Advice
Influencer Marketing Rewards Extra Effort
- •Hard-to-find emails = less competition once you get through
- •Niche influencers = better deals than huge creators with agents
- •Write scripts tailored to their tone of voice
- •Let them write first, then tweak
The Compound Effect
- •First emails will be cringe and get ignored
- •First partnerships will be painful, might lose money
- •Skills compound, you get more data, you get better
- •One amazing influencer makes up for 10 failed partnerships
- •You keep the learnings even from losses
Resources
- •Follow David: https://x.com/Davidjpark96