How a nanny created one viral reel and gained 170k users for her travel app.

At the age of 18, she was hopping between cities in Europe, meeting strangers at bars she found on Facebook, and cooking in kitchens with friends 5,000 miles away from home. Two years later, she’s the founder of a viral social travel app called GoingSolo, generating 16K MRR, all while using her travel content to drive her growth.

Here’s exactly how she did it (and how you can too)👇

Background 📓

Ashley’s P.’s app journey started when she decided to go abroad to France to become an au pair (nanny abroad). From that point on, she instantly became hooked on traveling. During these travels, she realized how difficult it was to find friends to travel with. At the same time, algorithms kept bombarding her with travel videos since that’s what her lifestyle entailed. Both of these elements combined to create her perfect recipe for GoingSolo. She knew what problem she had to solve and exactly what type of content would go viral for this idea.

Here are some of her most successful videos and how she did it:

🎬 Tinder but for finding travel buddies: 5.2M Views, 180K Likes, 30.2K Shares

Hook: “Why isn’t there a Tinder but for finding a travel buddy???”

Format: Travel clips of friends + product demo

Why this video worked:.

• Brand association → Tinder

• Hook with relatable question.

• Answers question with quick product demo.

• Perfect clip syncing with sound.

🎬 Best memories: 2.9M Views, 358K Likes, 64K Shares

Hook: “The best memories are the ones that don’t go as planned…”

Format: Travel clips of friends

Why this video worked:.

• Relatable hook.

• Trending sound.

• Selling a dream lifestyle.

🎬 Friends in Koh Tao: 3.4M Views, 106K Likes, 8.8K Shares

Hook: “How’d you meet all those friends in Koh Tao?”

Format: Travel clips + quick product demo

Why this video worked:

• Popular travel destination = Thailand

• Organic, shot on iPhone

• Immediately answers question from hook.

Key takeaways from GoingSolo 💡

• Use your resources.

  Ashley started by using her own travel videos for her marketing content. When she ran out, she asked friends to use their travel videos.

• Hack your algorithm to show you what your customer see’s.

  It helps to know what type of content your customers watch on social media. This will significantly aid in generating the right video formats.

• Don’t over complicate your format.

  Sometimes a catchy hook, text on the screen, and a trending sound can do the trick.

• Sell a lifestyle.

  Her videos all showcase what the dream travel lifestyle looks like. If you can associate that with your app, people will come flocking in.

What you can replicate from this format 💰

• Create a hook with simple question.

  “So you wanna___ ?”

  “How’d you___?”

  “Why isn’t there a “popular app name” but for ______?”

• Don’t sell your product, sell the lifestyle.

  What is the dream outcome from your product?

• Find some trending sounds and practice syncing.

  Use the build up of the song to address a question and the drop to show your solution.

• Associate your app with a popular brand.

  This can help easily explain your app idea if done right.

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 🤝