Case studyConsumer mobile

TIKI

Building a consumer waitlist and supporting a $700K crowdfunding raise

Role
Co-founder & CPO
Dates
November 2020 – January 2022
Capabilities
Acquisition · Product Design · Fundraising

TIKI was a consumer mobile startup. As co-founder and CPO I co-led the growth strategy, produced the brand, website and marketing materials, and led design and prototyping of the mobile app MVP — helping generate 100,000+ waitlist signups in six months on a total acquisition spend under $50K, and producing the creative for a $700K crowdfunding campaign.

$0.65

Cost per signup

in initial social advertising trials

100K+

Waitlist signups in 6 months

on total acquisition spend under $50K

$700K

Raised via crowdfunding

capital raised — not sales revenue

Context

Product
A consumer mobile app, taken from proposition to MVP design while the audience was built ahead of launch.
Audience
Consumer mobile users, reached through paid social trials and a Discord/Telegram community.
Challenge
Prove demand for an unlaunched consumer product on a small budget: build the brand from scratch, then convert attention into a waitlist and a community — and support a crowdfunding campaign.

My role

What I led personally

  • Brand identity, website and marketing materials — created from scratch in under a month
  • Design and prototyping of the TIKI mobile app MVP
  • All branding and design materials for the crowdfunding campaign, plus coordination of the campaign video production

What was shared

Growth strategy was co-led with my co-founder, and the $700K crowdfunding outcome was a company-wide effort — I was responsible for the campaign’s creative production, not the whole raise.

Approach

The work fell into five connected workstreams, from proposition to campaign creative. I personally owned the brand, design and creative production; strategy and the campaign itself were shared with the team.

Five workstreams carried TIKI from idea to a funded campaign:

  1. Build the brand and product proposition

    Created a high-conversion brand identity and web experience from scratch in under a month.

  2. Launch the website and acquisition materials

    Produced all marketing materials and stood up the acquisition funnel ahead of the app itself.

  3. Run initial social advertising trials

    Early paid-social tests reached a $0.65 cost per signup.

  4. Scale the waitlist and establish community

    Grew the waitlist past 100,000 signups in six months and built a 2,000+ member community across Discord and Telegram.

  5. Support crowdfunding with coordinated creative

    Personally produced the campaign’s branding and design materials and coordinated the video production behind the $700K raise.

These are workstreams, not a confirmed week-by-week sequence.

Results

Early paid trials

  • $0.65 cost per signup in initial social advertising trials — a trial-window figure, not a blended average.

Six-month acquisition

  • 100,000+ waitlist signups within six months, on total acquisition spend below $50K.

Community

  • 2,000+ community members across Discord and Telegram.

Financing

  • $700,000 raised through a successful crowdfunding campaign. Crowdfunding is capital raised — not sales revenue.

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Want the story behind these numbers?

I’m happy to walk through what I led, what the team delivered and what I’d do differently — for roles, partnerships or anything you’re building.