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Finding customers · 30 of 110 stories
TikTok
A social app for short videos: a business posts videos there, and the app's recommendation system shows them to people who may become customers.
Who uses it, and for what
One row per story. The grade is for the claim that the business uses this tool, not for its revenue.
| Story | What it does there | When | Cost stated | Grade | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jenni AI | Main customer channel after July 2022: short videos by paid small creators and company-run accounts. | B | TMTPost, 19 December 2025: Small AI, Big Returns: How a Nine-Person Team Turned an Overlooked Writing Tool Into a $10 Million Business | ||
| AudioPen | Paid influencer test that brought no noticeable traffic; the founder did not repeat it. paid influencers | US$7,000 in total | B | Indie Hackers, 29 October 2024: Louis Pereira, from idea to $15K a month with AudioPen (title shortened) | |
| Laper | Beta users earned referral points for posts about Laper on TikTok. | B | AI Dev Cases, 3 September 2026: "I Didn't Write a Single Line of Code": A Former Screenwriter Built a 100,000-Line AI Screenwriting Tool With Claude Code Alone, Hitting $40K+ MRR in 8 Months | ||
| Coconote | Carried the contracted creators' short videos, which brought most new users without paid ads. | B | AI Dev Cases, 22 June 2026: How Coconote Hit $6.7M ARR in 18 Months With Almost No Ad Spend | ||
| Wrestle AI | Organic short videos promoting the founder's apps; Rork shows one TikTok post with 117,000 views. | B | Rork blog, 25 February 2026: 18yo Made $131K in 6 Months with Rork | ||
| GlowUp | The founder's own short videos brought the first users with no advertising budget; creators paid with equity posted there later. | B | Starter Story video page: My mobile app made $800K in 365 days | ||
| Pingo AI | Short creator videos on TikTok, in which the AI corrects a speaker's pronunciation, brought most new users, according to a case-study site. | B | AI Dev Cases, 24 June 2026: "Getting Roasted by an AI" Went Viral, How Pingo AI Hit $500K MRR in 14 Months on 200M TikTok Views | ||
| Cal AI | Main channel with Instagram: about 250 influencers on fixed monthly fees put the app into their videos. | influencer fees on TikTok and Instagram together: mid six figures (US$) in one month | C | Latka interview with Zach Yadegari, May 2025: How Cal AI hit $35M ARR and 20,000 daily downloads in under a year | |
| Photo AI | One video by an AI influencer added about US$20,000 of monthly revenue; the founder then paid for a second one. | about US$4,000 to the influencer for a second video | C | Lex Fridman Podcast #440, August 2024: Pieter Levels: Programming, Viral AI Startups, and Digital Nomad Life, transcript | |
| HeadshotPro | Affiliates were offered a US$1,000 bonus for the first three videos to reach 100,000 views. | since March 2023 | C | Danny Postma on X, 17 March 2023: affiliate programme | |
| Formula Bot | Creators' videos drove most early traffic; the founder finds creators in the Creator Marketplace and pays some of them. Creator Marketplace, paid and free creator posts | since 2022 | US$200 to US$3,000 for a paid creator post | C | Starter Story, 21 March 2023: I Turned My Side Project into A $26K/Month SaaS Tool, interview with David Bressler |
| PDF.ai | Receives the same daily videos as Instagram, with about a tenth of the result. daily short videos | since 2023 | C | A public page outside the story's source list | |
| Faceless.video | The service posts finished videos to the customer's connected TikTok account on a schedule. | C | Faceless.video home page, about page, MCP connection page and terms of use, read 12 October 2026 | ||
| Umax | Paid creators and the app's own accounts post videos there, and the founder also buys ads on it. paid creators, the app's own accounts, paid ads | C | Whop blog, 28 May 2025: How He Turned Looksmaxxing into $10 Million Dollars with ChatGPT | ||
| AutoShorts.ai | An early growth channel through the founder's test accounts; the product also posts videos to customers' TikTok accounts. | C | X profile of Eric Smith, @ericsmith1302, and its embedded timeline, read 13 October 2026 | ||
| Revid.ai | Platform the product posts and schedules videos to, and reads views and likes from. official publishing integration | C | Revid: About page and key facts, last updated 12 October 2026 | ||
| CreativeClaw | Company account linked from the site footer. | C | CreativeClaw home page, read 13 October 2026 | ||
| Verbi | Main source of customers: generated slideshows on many accounts, then paid creators and boosted videos. | C | Pedro Machado on X, 3 June 2026: two people posting on 12 accounts | ||
| Boothie | The only channel the founder names: picture carousels posted by about a dozen persona accounts, with no paid ads. | C | TrustMRR profile of Boothie, revenue read from RevenueCat by API key | ||
| SoundBoost.ai | Company account, linked from the footer of the website. | C | SoundBoost pricing page and home page, read 13 October 2026 | ||
| Glossa.live | Company account linked from the site footer. | C | Glossa.live home page, read 13 October 2026 | ||
| TrackAI | Company account for short videos, linked from the website; 46 videos and 1,948 followers in October 2026. | C | TrackAI website: home page, questions and answers, blog, terms and privacy policy, read 13 October 2026, with the archived copy of 19 November 2025 | ||
| Calyra | The only marketing channel that the owner lists on the TrustMRR profile; the videos and their cost were not seen. | C | TrustMRR profile: Nutria (9e3eaa), the Calyra app, revenue last synced 13 October 2026 | ||
| fastwrite.io | Marketing channel named by the founders; the site links its TikTok account. | C | TrustMRR: fastwrite.io, Stripe-verified profile, synced 13 October 2026 | ||
| Visualizee.ai | Company video account linked from the home page. | C | Visualizee home page, read 14 October 2026 | ||
| FounderPal | Tried as a marketing channel; the founder does not say whether it worked. | C | No Code Exits, 27 September 2024: How Dan Kulkov grew FounderPal to $100,000 revenue with free tools | ||
| Dalea AI | The founder posted videos on Instagram and TikTok while he built the first version in February 2026. short-form videos | C | Bruno Kalil's posts on X, 22 February to 6 October 2026 | ||
| StoryShort | Main destination platform: the product publishes customers' videos to TikTok, so the business depends on it. | C | StoryShort: Terms of Service, read 16 October 2026 | ||
| Jungle | Main channel: about 30 paid student creators post short videos from their own accounts, 76 million views in three months. | C | The Pitch, season 13 episode 9, 7 May 2025: Jungle: Your AI Study Coach | ||
| 3AK Track & Field | Listed by the founder as one of the app's marketing channels. | C | TrustMRR profile of 3AK Track & Field, as read on 12 October 2026 |
Grade A: the tool's maker or a payment processor confirms the use. Grade B: an independent report, or the tool is visible in public code. Grade C: the founder or the company says so.
Used in the same businesses
Other tools in the stories above, with the number of stories that share both.
Other tools for the same job
Finding customers, with the number of stories that use each.