Hey — it’s Nico.

This is Behind Tactics 🧠, the Failory newsletter where I share the strategies behind the best startups.

This issue takes 7 mins to read. If you only have one, here’s what you need to know:

• Verse used a viral side-project to attract 250,000+ users.

• The side-project creates a personalized “internet bedroom” based on users' music tastes, leveraging AI to deliver tailored, shareable content.

• TikTok influencers played a key role in promoting the project, helping it gain traction quickly.

• LLMs allow startups like Verse to build personalized tools with minimal user effort, creating viral potential with low friction.

• However, the strategy can lead to short-term interest and may attract an audience that doesn’t convert into paying customers.

This issue is brought to you by HubSpot’s free ChatGPT guide, containing 100 actionable prompts to apply immediately at your startup.

Let’s get into it!

The AI Advantage: Unlock ChatGPT's Full Potential in Your Business ^AD

Tired of AI hype? Ready for practical insights? Our comprehensive guide cuts through the noise, offering actionable strategies for leveraging ChatGPT in today's competitive landscape.

Inside your free guide:

• Real-world impact: Explore how forward-thinking companies are harnessing AI

• Boost your productivity: 100 versatile prompts for various business scenarios

• Strategic implementation: A framework to integrate AI into your workflow effectively

• Stay ahead of the curve: Understand AI's influence on different business models

Gain the AI edge before your competitors do!

The Strategy

Internet Bedrooms

Verse is an app that lets you create personalized, scrollable pages — called "Verses" — using photos, videos, text, songs, and more.

It’s been growing in popularity, especially among Gen Z users who use it to design everything from moodboards to mini storefronts or fan pages.

Recently, Verse had a very successful marketing idea: they launched a simple web app that lets users connect their Spotify accounts to see a visual representation of their music taste — a digital “internet bedroom” based on their listening habits.

This web app went viral on TikTok, drawing over 250,000 users and rocketing the Verse app to the top of the App Store's “Graphic Design” category.

If you’ve been following this newsletter, you know that I really like this type of side-project marketing, where companies create small apps or tools to funnel users back into their main app.

In the past, we’ve looked at how companies like Wise create side projects like currency calculators to attract users. This is a type of evergreen side-project marketing, designed to quietly bring in traffic over time. 

However, today, many B2C apps like Verse are taking a similar but different approach: they’re making side projects aimed specifically at going viral. And to do this, they’re leveraging two key tools: AI and TikTok. Let’s break down how this works.

AI

The goal behind this strategy is simple: create a cheap side-project and make it go viral. 

To achieve this, AI plays a crucial role: it allows companies to create highly personalized experiences with minimal user effort. In the case of Verse’s viral web app, all a user needs to do is connect their Spotify account, and the AI takes over, generating a custom webpage that reflects the user's unique music preferences. 

This level of personalization makes the experience feel tailor-made, keeping users engaged and eager to share their results. It taps into the same psychology behind the popularity of Spotify Wrapped, which floods social media every year. People love sharing content that’s personal and feels unique to them.

AI also makes the whole process seamless, quick, and easy. Imagine if users had to manually design their “internet bedroom” from scratch. Most people wouldn’t have the time or energy, and it would lose a lot of potential users. But by automating the process, Verse ensures that anyone can generate and share their personalized page in just a few minutes.

The beauty of this approach is in how it lowers the barrier to participation. With minimal effort required, users can connect their Spotify, get a cool, custom webpage, and be ready to share it almost instantly. AI makes this kind of experience not only possible but scalable, allowing Verse to reach a large audience with a minimal investment of time and resources.

TikTok

Another essential ingredient in this recipe is TikTok. 

It’s no secret that TikTok has become one of the go-to platforms for marketing new apps, especially those targeting Gen Z. What makes TikTok particularly effective for this type of viral side-project marketing is its ability to generate fast, organic buzz around new trends. The platform thrives on shareable, quick-hit content that gets people excited and talking.

This is why companies like Verse partner with influencers to promote these projects. In the case of Verse’s web app, influencers simply had to share their personalized “internet bedrooms” and direct their followers to the app. The simplicity of this content made it easy to spread and, more importantly, highly engaging for viewers.

But TikTok’s role goes beyond just influencer partnerships. The platform’s algorithm plays a critical role in amplifying trends, pushing content to the right audiences at the right time. This creates a snowball effect where one viral post can lead to thousands of imitators, each adding their own spin and helping the project go mainstream. For Verse, this meant that once the initial buzz was created by influencers, the app's visibility continued to grow organically as more users shared their results.

The result is a highly effective feedback loop: influencers spark initial interest, TikTok’s algorithm pushes the content to wider audiences, and users’ engagement fuels further promotion. This strategy ensures that even a small, inexpensive side project can turn into a massive growth engine, driving attention and users back to the main app.

Should I?

Why This Works

• Low Friction: There’s no need for users to download an app or go through a lengthy sign-up process. They just connect their Spotify account, and within seconds, they have a personalized webpage to share. This simplicity encourages more people to engage with the project and lowers the barrier to entry.

• Personalization: People love sharing things that feel personal and unique to them. The AI-generated pages give users a customized experience based on their music taste, which makes the content more compelling to share with others. 

• Shareability: The project is visually engaging, easy to understand, and quick to share, especially on platforms like TikTok. The simplicity and fun of the "internet bedroom" concept make it highly shareable, driving organic growth as more users get involved.

• Call to Action: The web app isn’t just a fun experience; it also includes a clear call to action that funnels users back to the main Verse app. By inviting users to further customize their digital spaces on Verse, it converts casual participants into more engaged users of the core product.

How to Apply It

• Design with Virality in Mind: When creating your side project, ask yourself: "Is this something people would want to share?" Make the concept simple, fun, and shareable. Think about how users will show it off on social media, and incorporate features that encourage sharing.

• Leverage a Trend or Niche: Find something that resonates with your target audience. Whether it's music, pop culture, or a specific hobby, aligning your side project with an existing trend or niche makes it more likely to go viral. Verse tapped into the love of personalized music content—what’s relevant to your audience?

• Keep it Low Friction: The easier it is to use, the better. Your side project should require minimal effort from users — a quick sign-up or a simple API connection, like Verse’s Spotify integration, can drastically improve engagement. Focus on reducing friction at every step.

• Start Small with AI Tools: You don’t need a massive budget to use AI effectively. There are many affordable AI tools that can help you create personalized experiences for your users. Focus on simple, scalable projects that don’t require heavy development, like Verse’s Spotify sync.

Yes, But

• Short-Lived Impact: Viral projects often have a short lifespan. While they can bring in a huge wave of users quickly, interest can fade just as fast. If you rely too heavily on these bursts of attention, you might struggle to maintain long-term engagement.

• Audience Mismatch: Going viral can attract a broad, unfocused audience. Not everyone who tries your side project will be interested in your core product. Like Verse, you could end up with lots of users who engage with the viral tool but never convert to paying customers.

• Hard to Replicate: Virality is unpredictable, and what works once might not work again. Chasing viral success can become a risky and time-consuming process, with no guarantee that your next project will hit the same level of attention.

• Distraction from Core Focus: Small startups with limited resources might find that building side projects takes attention away from their main product. If the side project fails to gain traction, it can feel like wasted effort when you could have focused on refining your core offering.

Keep Learning

Others Playing It

• Wise created over 250K variants of a currency calculator as a side project. This is a great example of how the side-project marketing strategy can be combined with the Programmatic SEO strategy.

• Veed also employs a similar strategy. They created hundreds of different tools that all link back to their main app.

• This article has a lot more examples about side-project marketing.

Refer Failory, Get Rewards

Share Failory

Chances are you have some more friends who would enjoy Failory as much as you do. Share Failory with these friends and cash in on premium resources and swag.

You currently have 0 referrals, only 1 away from receiving my Pitch Deck Airtable.

_{Or copy and paste this link to others: https://newsletter.failory.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER}

Help Me Improve Failory

That’s all for this edition.

Cheers,

Nico