Calvin DerGarabedian

19 Years Old
Founder | Creative Strategist

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

IF YOU’RE HIRING AN INFLUENCER 👇

before you pay that influencer look at their last 10 normal posts

not their pinned viral video

you’re buying access to the audience that usually shows up

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

owning an app makes you realize downloads are a terrible flex

10,000 people trying it once can be worth less than 500 people who keep paying

getting attention and having a business are two different skills

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

Before you spend 3 months building an app! 👇

spend time reading your competitors worst reviews.

Look for
- Complaints that keep repeating
- Features people pay for but hate
- Reasons people cancel

“Someone should fix this” is a better starting point than “I have an idea.”

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

We almost sold our app for low six figures just 2 months after launch.

One partner told us to wait.

Since then, our valuation has 5x’d.

We were so excited about what an exit could pay us that we nearly overlooked what we were building.

Run the numbers before you run for the exit.

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

Gun range and $50k/m

This life is amazing

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

BEFORE YOU BUILD AN APP🚨

read the 1 star reviews on your competitors (if you have any)

people are literally writing paragraphs about what they’d pay you to fix.

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

making ads will humble you because you’ll spend 6 hours editing one and lose to a dude talking in his parked car😭

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

“people have short attention spans”

they just watched a 47 part series about a stranger’s divorce

your content is boring

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

Claude, 6mgs, and a bloom is all you need 😭

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

@engwaliullah Yes

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

$49k in 28 days and our office still looks like someone’s mom is about to tell us to get off the game

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

making money with your childhood best friend is dangerous because neither of you thinks a bad idea is a bad idea

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

If you’ve been running the same ads with the same face for a long time, you will eventually see a slow down in rev

People like to see more faces representing something, it subconsciously builds more trust 🧠

People also like to “follow the crowd” when buying

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

hard to explain what i do for work when the answer is technically “i film myself and tell people to download something”

sounds like i need an intervention until i open the dashboard😭

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

@Courage_Vibez Structure of the ad

Make bullet points on exactly what to include and in what order, then you’re set

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

STOP MAKING SCRIPTS

Ads perform best when they are the most organic as possible.

Nobody listens to robotic/forced speech.

Just trust me, this will change the game for you, no matter what business you’re in.

[Lino @LinoLeighton]

Running an influencer campaign in the next couple of days….

Here’s exactly how we’re approaching it:

• Hire 5–10 influencers with 10K–50K followers
• Sign them on $2–3 CPM or MVC based deals
• Have each creator post 4–5 times per month, cross posting on TikTok + Instagram
• Make sure our app’s social accounts comment on every video
• Put the best performing videos behind paid ads and scale what works

Let’s see how this performs.

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

@farhaanbuilds 😭😭😭

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

having followers and having customers are two VERY different things

one says “bro is winning”

the other asks “where’s the link”

[Calvin DerGarabedian @calvindergaraa]

An easy way to make your ads sound human:

Explain your product to a friend.
Let them interrupt.
Write down what they ask.

Now you know what your script needs to answer.