Curiosity Quench: 📈5M+ Views, 385K+ Likes, 60K+ Downloads

How this Reels format helped this app reach over 1.9M views with a single video

The internet is flooded with success stories of apps showcasing their RevenueCat screenshots and Reel analytics, boasting millions of views. But it’s rare to uncover the real story of how they started and get a glimpse into their failures. Curiosity Quench’s Instagram page serves as a living testament to one founder’s journey—trying over 700 videos, experimenting with more than a dozen formats, and pouring in over a year of constant iteration. This is the story of how Jack kept iterating until he found content-market fit on Instagram Reels with a video that racked up over 1.9 million views.

Background 📓

In today’s fast-paced digital world, it’s easy to get caught in the endless cycle of mindless scrolling. But what if we could escape this fog by being purposeful around the content we watch rather then being puppets of the algorithm. Curiosity Quench is the manifestation of that vision. Curiosity quench helps your discover topics you’re actually interested in and provides you content to learn more about these interests. He had the vision but needed to figure out a marketing strategy that would resonate with this audience. After countless experiments he finally found success on reels with a fade in format that resonated with millions of users.

Here are some of his most successful videos and how he did it 👇:

🎬 People with these hobbies: 1.9M Views, 144K+ Likes, 9.9K+Shares

Hook: “people with these hobbies > > >”

Format: Fade in + caption

Why this video worked:

• Trendy caption format → “[statement] > > >”

• Fade in effect = creates anticipation around content

• Controversial hobbies → Astrology or Astronomy?

🎬 +999 aura: 1.3M+ Views, 128K+ Likes, 7K+ Shares

Hook: “+99999999999999 aura to the people with these hobbies”

Format: Fade in + caption

Why this video worked:

• Dramatic sound

• Gen z lingo → “+999 aura” = They are cool if…

• Relatable content = sharable content. A lot of people fit into this bucket so that want to share this to friends to show off.

🎬Day 332 of making an app…: 520K Views, 15.6K Likes, 3.4K Shares

Hook: “pov: you’ve been making an apt cure brainr0t everyday for the last 332 days”

Format: Auto slide show + caption overlay

Why this video worked:

• Insta favors day in the life / personal content

• “cure brain rot” = creates intrigue

• “brainnr0t” → intentional typo

• Music matches temp of app clipping.

Key takeaways from Curiosity Quench 💡

• Keep iterating until something sticks

  Curiosity Quench’s instagram is a living artifact into his countless hours of iterations until he found product content fit. Keep going.

• Understanding your audience language is key

  It helps to know how they speak and certain slang that they use.

• Format vs concept

  Learn to differentiate if a video isn’t working because of the format or concept.

• Test on all platforms with multiple accounts.

  Jack has a personal account on Insta and TikTok which he uses for more day in the life content. He also has dedicated app pages on both platforms which he uses as an experimentation ground.

What you can replicate from this format 💰

• Different sounds work better with certain formats.

  Fade in slideshows usually work better with dramatic ominous sounds.

• Use controversial statements.

  The internet gets triggered easily. Use that to your advantage to drive engagement.

• Try the fade in method.

  Make sure you have a compelling hook that relates directly with the imagery that will be revealed.

• Relatable content = sharable content.

  Create content that a lot of people would relate to and want to brag about.

Know a founder that could use some help creating content? Feel free to share!

That’s all I got for this one. If you have any other viral consumer products you want me to break down my DM’s are always open.

Cheers!

Nick 🤝