Tierno

@ejaraapp

[Tierno @tiernovc]

@tbpn @rtwlz hard 🔥 @rtwlz

[Tierno @tiernovc]

@gregory_raymond Hélas, ils ne pensent pas comme ça.

Ils préfèrent mettre de l’argent pour s’accaparer des licenses (M*Ca) et bloquer les startups au lieu de pousser l’adoption 🤐

[Tierno @tiernovc]

ai that works as we want it to

[Patrick Collison @patrickc]

I asked Gemini 3 to make an interactive web page summarizing 10 breakthroughs in genetics over the past 15 years. Result:

https://t.co/b9LmllwDVz

Pretty cool IMO.

[Tierno @tiernovc]

fantastic ux

[Cute Baby @nachunja]

$XYZ – @CashApp USDC Stablecoin Demo

Notice how the User DID NOT have to:
• choose whether it was Ethereum, Solana, Tron, etc
• whether it was USDC, USDT, PYUSD, etc
• choose gas/tx fees

Super intuitive. Easy.

Cash App is doing stablecoins better than stablecoin natives.

[Tierno @tiernovc]

business is business 😂

[Lanzii🌹 @_lanzii]

LMFAOOOOOOO GOWAGR ARE YOU MAD????????

[Tierno @tiernovc]

@SemudaraAbayomi oga bayomi, this man will go far.

[Tierno @tiernovc]

@SemudaraAbayomi @Sir_Damilare 🤣🤣

[Tierno @tiernovc]

@_ChrisOketch @_Minisend @BasedEastAfrica Looking sweet.

[Tierno @tiernovc]

@ChelseaFrance Hato, Chilwell regen.

[Tierno @tiernovc]

well done 👏

[Richard Craib @richardcraib]

JPMorgan secures $500m capacity in Numerai after our best year ever.

https://t.co/A4nb8UOF2e

[Tierno @tiernovc]

@AustinH26415112 @bgurley Qualified for who?
With ads at least everyone has a shot at success. Not the case in a « one answer » world.

[Tierno @tiernovc]

✍🏽

[The Peel @ThePeelPod]

I asked @llihas about the growth strategy that got Robinhood most of its userbase:

"We did a ton of data science and found that when a user sells their first stock, that leads to maximum retention.

It's non-intuitive. But a sell is when you lock-in your first gains, which is what hooks people.

So we took that insight and backed into how we could guide a new user to quickly do their first buy + sell action.

We ended up combining this with our referral program. At the time, if you referred a friend, you got $10, which you could then use to buy a stock. But it didn't work as well as it could have, because it didn't give them an immediate quantum experience of the product.

We knew from behavior economics that humans love unknown variable rewards. People love scratching a lottery card and seeing what they get.

So we changed our reward program. Anyone who referred a friend got one share of stock that was worth around $10. But there was a small chance you might get a much more valuable share, like Facebook or Apple, which were $100+.

This experiment blew every other one out of the water, because everyone wanted to get a valuable share. And it set up new users to quickly perform the most retentive action. And we started pouring fuel on the fire.

It's hard to attribute exactly how much of Robinhood's growth came from this, but it was definitely a large amount of the userbase."

[Tierno @tiernovc]

this is our crypto manhattan project 2.0

[Arny Trezzi @arny_trezzi]

$HOOD OH MY GODNESS

[Tierno @tiernovc]

👏🏾

[amit @amitisinvesting]

$HOOD

ROBINHOOD LAUNCHES THE FIRST EVER PRIVATE STOCK TOKENS FOR CUSTOMERS TO ACCESS IN THE EU

The first two private companies?

SpaceX and OpenAI.

Oh. My. Hoodness.

[Tierno @tiernovc]

strong

[匚ㄚ匚ㄥ乇 @algorithmicarc]

designing for virality: bragmaxxing is the real product-market fit

took @nikitabier virality thinking and ran it through a weird (fintech analytics) b2c use case for the first time - some reflections👇

the biggest mistake probably isn't building a bad product. it's building a product that no one wants to talk about. this mistake is so common because it’s invisible at first. early users might quietly love the product. they might even say nice things when asked. but they don’t spontaneously share it.

they don't weave it into their identity.
they don't tell a story about themselves through it.

without that, you're just building another tool lost in the endless noise. virality isn’t luck. it isn’t about "hitting the right moment". it is a deliberate, architectural part of how a product is distributed.

if you’re thinking about virality after launch, you’re too late. you can maybe glue on some marketing hacks, but the soul of virality is missing.

the question you should ask
when conceptualizing a previous project, i sat with one hard question early on: "how will users make themselves look better by using this?"

it wasn’t enough to solve a technical (or financial^^) problem. it wasn’t enough to automate a tedious task.

it had to make them look smart, or early, or successful in the eyes of others.

especially in financial influencer circles, i noticed a deep pattern: people didn’t just want new tools. they wanted new social capital.

if a product is designed in a way so that posting about it increased a users perceived expertise, then they would have a selfish, natural reason to share. they wouldn’t be doing me a favor. they would be enhancing their own brand. this was the insight that shaped the whole concept.

not "how can i make this more functional?"
but "how can i make my users the hero of their own story?"

it’s architecture
most products are sterile. you use them in silence. they even simplify your life. you close the tab. you move on.

they solve a problem but give you no narrative residue, nothing to say about yourself. virality is what happens when the act of using a product creates a story that users are proud to tell (in hopes that their friends want to be proud as well).

this shouldn’t be accidental. you should structure it.

when you walk into a beautifully designed building, you don’t think about the blueprint. but every beam and window was placed there with intention.

the same is true with products that go viral. if you want to build products that stick, don’t bet on one viral post, but rather make sharing natural instead of optional.

personal utility ≠ viral utility
most people mistakenly assume: "if people love the product, they will naturally share it."

this is false. love and sharing are different mechanisms.

personal utility answers: "does this make my life easier?"
viral utility answers: "does sharing this make me look better?"

humans do not broadcast everything they find useful. they only broadcast what enhances their social narrative.

this is why people post screenshots of fitness achievements but not screenshots of tax filing software.

it’s not about how useful the tool is.

it’s about how well it fits into the image they want others to see.

what emotional payoff would users get from talking about us publicly?

would they look informed? intelligent? successful? could they subtly flex their intelligence or early access?

if the answer was yes, then virality would not be a main struggle. it would be more like a gravitational effect.

the five mechanics of viral design (in my experience)

1. identity hooks
users need to feel a sense of identity change when they use your product. they need to feel like a new version of themselves.

titles, badges, rankings, public stats. they should be symbols of transformation.

build naming systems into the product that gave users "titles" they could claim.

they weren’t just users; they were "top 5% analysts," or "early adopters," or "portfolio leaders."
why -> because titles are social shortcuts.

they allow users to explain their superiority in one sentence without seeming arrogant. titles create tribes. tribes create word of mouth.

2. low-effort sharing
if sharing requires work, it won't happen.

make sure users could export beautiful visuals of their achievements in one click or just make your dashboards pretty and shareable.

ready-made tweets, ready-made linkedin posts with one click. default options that required zero thought but looked professionally polished.

the easier it is to brag, the more it happens. people are busy. social proof must be spoon-fed, not begged for.

3. networked value accrual
this is one of the least understood drivers of virality. the product must improve as more users join. not for the company, but for the user.

if it’s purely solo utility, there’s no pressure to invite others.

networked value can mean many things:
- data gets richer
- leaderboards get more competitive
- community insights get smarter

when users know that inviting others makes the experience better for themselves, sharing becomes self-interest, not charity.

in my saas, the more influencers joined, the more powerful the benchmarking became and growth became a loop. thus, every new user increased the product’s value for every existing one.

4. memetic seeds
words spread faster than features. if you can create a new word, term, or meme inside your product, users will naturally carry it into their conversations. if they're not "new", choose super generic ones (like @pasternak's @believeapp, or @roman_khaves's @rizz_app).

deliberately craft phrases that sounded clever and insider-ish.

not just "dashboard" but "alpha board."
not just "profile" but "track record."

people love to sound smart. giving them language to do so creates organic virality.

5. feedback amplification
most products let sharing fall into a void. but when someone shares, they need feedback. they need to feel seen.

build feedback loops:
- notifications when someone viewed their shared post
- alerts when they climbed the leaderboard because of new recruits
- subtle dopamine rewards for public action

humans are not rational machines. we act because we are emotionally reinforced.

bragging is a feature, not a bug
you must design for pride, not just practicality.

at key moments, such as completing a milestone, reaching a new ranking, hitting a new usage record, don’t just think “good job.”

hand users a polished artifact they could immediately share. you must respect the ego, not shame it.

bragging is not a sin. it is a primal, universal engine for social interaction. the best viral products are simply bragging tools in disguise.

what most builders get wrong
they treat virality as an afterthought. they build quietly, launch quietly, and then are confused why growth is quiet.

they think “invite a friend” popups are enough. they think utility alone creates word of mouth. they think people share logically.

but people share emotionally.

people share because they feel smarter, cooler, faster, earlier.

everyone wants to look good -> offer users a stage, a mirror, a microphone, not just a tool and in return, they carry you forward without needing to be paid for it.

you see it daily with @iamgdsa’s case studies.

these people really shaped how i try to approach growth, still learning a lot: @roman_khaves @zach_yadegari @im_roy_lee @pasternak @maxmarchione @bryan_johnson

[Tierno @tiernovc]

@ChelseaFrance pas moi, ils ne doivent jamais être au courant

[Tierno @tiernovc]

💯

[Sassy red socks @Twitawoo8]

The world needs to wake up the the fact all our problems are because of politicians. The sooner we do that the sooner we can put our heads together and find a better way of doing things.

[Tierno @tiernovc]

@BillAckman Common rules about war that should be universal:

1. If you live in a country far from the actual war, you should only advocate for peace.

2. If you are not willing to go and fight on the actual ground, your opinion should be irrelevant at best.