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Dhruv Bindra Profile
Dhruv Bindra

@bindra_dhruv

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Building @styl_app | CS/Econ @DukeU

Joined November 2017
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
Pinned Tweet
@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
In 2022, H&M offered $50k to anyone who could build a better fashion recommender. Over 3700 PhDs, research scientists and professors worked relentlessly to win. @10rbhandari and I are students @DukeU . This is the story of how we beat them all to create @styl_app 🧵👇
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
At 10pm I got an email and LinkedIn DM from an impressive student asking for an internship At 12am I sent him a zoom link. He hopped on, exchanged stories, and I told him about a feature I wanted to build out. At 2:46am he set me completed designs. At 2:47am he was hired.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Just got off call with our engineer in India. It’s almost 4am there. Every 30 minutes I’d tell him it’s late he should sleep but he refused to cut the call until he debugged everything perfectly. There’s no question of burnout when you’re surrounded by people like this
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
One of the dumbest things I did as a freshman was wasting hours writing emails to CEOs I looked up to, to get on calls with them. I rarely had a reason to chat. Deep down I now realize I was just trying to feel big by speaking to these important people. Unsurprisingly the
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
5am the next day: fired him. Couldn't redesign the entire app in a day. Bad hire
@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
At 10pm I got an email and LinkedIn DM from an impressive student asking for an internship At 12am I sent him a zoom link. He hopped on, exchanged stories, and I told him about a feature I wanted to build out. At 2:46am he set me completed designs. At 2:47am he was hired.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
My mom quit her job to raise my sister and me. After 20 years, she finally took the leap to chase her dream of being a founder. Today, she closed a $2M seed for @LaiqaWellness . So proud of you ma, this is just the beginning :)
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Idk what’s funnier: - People not understanding sarcasm in my last tweet - Being called an Indian American in the news
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
The most humbling moment of my life was when a user, at the end of a feedback interview, politely suggested I read The Mom Test 1 chapter in, I understood what an idiot I’d been.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
1 month
This is gonna be controversial. Some people find this story creepy, others think it’s inspiring. I’ll let you judge for yourself. 3 months ago I drove an hour north from SF to meet a CEO I really look up to for a coffee chat. She was running late and as I anxiously waited, I
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Reframing rejections as “when I succeed this story is gonna be 10x cooler” makes the journey so much more enjoyable
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Idk who needs to hear this but: You’re not bad at marketing. You just need to keep going.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
4 months
Most people say they’d bleed for their startups For the last 35 days I actually did. This is the story of how @10rbhandari and I grew @styl_app to 100k downloads with $0 in ad spend Our story started 363 days ago. We launched via a viral LinkedIn post that got us 1200
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
Google decided to copy us today. It’s signal that we’re building the right product, and all the motivation we need to out execute. I’m gonna retweet this in a year, let’s see how it ages.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
1 month
The trick to dealing with angry customers: finetune your bots to sound more human
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
User interviews just became 100x more productive with this 1 question Halfway through I’ll ask them to pretend like I’m a college friend they’re convincing to download the app and hearing them describe what excites them about it + double down when I push back with questions
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
How to respond to trolls
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
1 month
My superpower: raised by 2 founders Now that I’m months from graduating and see all my friends pretending to be excited for corporate jobs they hate, I’m grateful for the privilege of being able to choose my career and having parents who actively pushed me to pursue this path
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
21 days
Been realizing that negative hooks do a lot better than positive ones for Gen Z audiences My Top 3 video hooks from September: “I just realized something depressing af” “My least favorite part about staying in the US” “I’m cursed with the world’s most useless talent”
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
This $12k will feel better than any amount of money I’ll ever make. A month before summer started, we got invited to a self assembled hacker house of 19 y/o kids from Princeton and Duke doing millions in ARR. I immediately said yes despite having $0 to show for it, but I had a
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
We’ve run out of @awscloud credits awarded by @stripe and @contrary Is there any other way to get more? Still bootstrapped
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
Let the games begin
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
**Deep sigh**
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Soaking in our last moments in SF We’re just 2 kids with laptops. Could’ve built @styl_app from anywhere. But living in a hacker house surrounded by 19 years olds doing millions in ARR? That’s an SF phenomenon. Going to continue hacking and talking to users @DukeU 🫡
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
I laugh so hard when people compliment our logo A friend made it in 10 seconds with a @canva font we somewhat liked. We asked another friend with premium to export it as a high res PNG.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
Took me 30 minutes to create these App Store screenshots Used templates and an image distortion plugin Thank god for open source 🥹
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
I’m sorry dad, half your face was in my profile picture
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Growing up is being able to identify who views you as a networking opportunity vs a friend It’s great to have people support you. Be mindful of why they do.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
8 months
Soo far down and long way to go. But damn it feels good to be charting :)
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
Got stopped twice at our dining hall today by users who gave incredible feedback Hate balancing Styl with classes Love being close to our users
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Which app has the best onboarding experience you’ve seen? I’m a huge fan of Lapse
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
What they don’t warn you about founder led marketing is its downstream psychological effects Context switching from the highs of a viral video to hunkering down for mind-numbing debugging is TOUGH You need to build systems to protect yourself from the dopamine addiction
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
This can’t be real. Pinch me.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
8 months
I slogged for 8 months to get barely 2000 app downloads. Then, I built a marketing campaign that got 1.2 million page views in <30 days. These are my 4 biggest learnings 🧵 #startup #marketing #buildinpublic #tech #growthhacking
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
I’m that kid who carries his monitor to the library Sorry not sorry
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
Hopping on trends for organic ads is another big takeaway. This did 150k+ impressions
@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
To be a growth hacker, you must be an anthropologist first I wanted to understand how to land up on the FYP of my target demo (Gen Z girls) so I got 11 friends to agree to me watching them scroll on TikTok Tbvh calling it an ethnography just made it feel less creepy 😅
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
Mother’s Day in 2024 Gifted her a marketing campaign
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
I’ve never read How to Win Friends & Influence People But if I were to have written it— I’d need 2 words Self deprecation. It’s amazing how disarming and endearing a roast can be in our world of nonstop flexing.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Came up with a crazy productivity hack: - Write down everything you need to do - Draw squares next to each task - Cross them out as you finish stuff
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
I never coded before college 2 summers ago, @McStempel and I sat down for coffee in his office (the @DukeU network is incredible) and as I explained to him my frustration of not being able to find a technical co-founder for a FinTech idea I had, he encouraged me to switch majors
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
“I’m gonna buy the Salesforce tower” Elsewhere, I might have dismissively laughed at @coffeewithone bold answer to “what’s your dream?” But as we stood there, in the heart of Cerebral Valley, I just crossed my fingers tightly. SF lets you dream. Big.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
I’VE NEVER BEEN THIS EXCITED Convinced my professor to let me hold his 200-person lecture hostage to download Styl and swipe together. How else can I milk this opportunity to make viral content that’s also high converting?
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
To be a growth hacker, you must be an anthropologist first I wanted to understand how to land up on the FYP of my target demo (Gen Z girls) so I got 11 friends to agree to me watching them scroll on TikTok Tbvh calling it an ethnography just made it feel less creepy 😅
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
I want to get back into reading Which book made the biggest impact on you?
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
Started sassy replies to comments 4 days later and engagement metrics went through the roof. 1.2M and counting
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
Hopping on trends for organic ads is another big takeaway. This did 150k+ impressions
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
I’VE NEVER BEEN THIS EXCITED Convinced my professor to let me hold his 200-person lecture hostage to download Styl and swipe together. How else can I milk this opportunity to make viral content that’s also high converting?
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
@0xcesaw Not American
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
You’re having a bad day? Imagine being the Australian break dancer who was so bad, the entire sport got scrapped from future Olympics
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
Miss the days when 700k other people and I were working on Stealth Startup 😔
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
You call it “fine tuning” I call it Iusedtohireasororitygirltoswipeon1000itemsaweekandremovealltheobjectivelyuglyclothes
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
Exactly a year ago, @coffeewithone and I were the only two students in the @DukeU library— coding at 4am. I noticed a YC sticker on his laptop and went to introduce myself, curious about his story. We sat for hours talking about our backgrounds, ambitions, and dreams to get into
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Whatever algorithms are telling YouTube to show me Kamala Harris ads every 2 minutes Stop. Please. I can’t vote.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
I’ve never been this excited to make a video
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
Tried the @nikitabier strategy of pages for specific high schools but instagram’s limits on following new accounts slowed me down a lot and the resulting downloads weren’t worth all the time Any workaround? It’s also not a social app (yet) so may not be the ideal growth hack tbf
@nikitabier
Nikita Bier
3 years
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
Calling all founders 🚨🚨🚨 What’s your wallpaper? Most cringey one wins, here’s mine:
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
1 month
Not sure if this is because of my inexperience or just rite of passage as your company grows, but we’ve had to constantly rethink our metrics We used to love saying users have swiped 25M+ times. Now we realize that as reccs improve, median swipes per session go down but that’s
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
We might have the biggest cart abandonment rate in e-commerce history. 75,000 items added 10 checked out Hypotheses to validate: - Function of trust (1003 payment intents generated, last second ditch) - Checkout UX sucks - Add size filter so users swipe with buying intent
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
Networking 101
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
Thank you to everyone in that comment section for their ideas 🫡🫶
@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
I’VE NEVER BEEN THIS EXCITED Convinced my professor to let me hold his 200-person lecture hostage to download Styl and swipe together. How else can I milk this opportunity to make viral content that’s also high converting?
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
1 month
90 days until graduation. It’s starting to feel real
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
After 150+ posts this summer, I’m having a creative block Doing a series is the best crutch because it’s an easy post a day + cross pollinates other videos Any suggestions on what I should do next? Top contender: Day 1 of asking *brand* to be my business partner
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
My infinitely spinning wheel videos have done over 1.5M organic impressions I had an engineer friend @ja1v1r build it over a weekend. Here’s how you can too 👇
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
1 month
Being sent a video of 4 UMiami students swiping on Styl in class has officially made its place as a core memory for me
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
@maruthibasava At least there’s one person out there who still understands sarcasm…
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
The single biggest reason I’m an advocate for building in public isn’t networking… it’s the feedback loops. Your power users will always take time out to give you feedback. But the most value lies in the quick churning ones: this is a way to get them to care about you. The
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
3 ways to grow consumer apps: 1. Pour your entire pre-seed into influencer marketing 2. Schedule a 15 min talk with Nikita Bier for $1000 3. Build a product users want So…. @nikitabier we looking at any student discounts??
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
I was so wrong. Most of them weren’t power users but just vocal individuals. In one user interview they went on a 2 min rant about our AI search that didn’t make much sense. I pulled up their Mongo document and the user had never searched anything… Need to filter before calls
@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
8 months
1/ Comment sections are a gold mine for feedback. The type of digital user that takes time out to physically type out a comment is exactly the kind of consumer you want to be conducting user interviews with.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
The annoying part of building a women’s fashion app is you need to hide your photos cause it looks like this
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Btw the dev’s name is Dev He was born ready.
@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Just got off call with our engineer in India. It’s almost 4am there. Every 30 minutes I’d tell him it’s late he should sleep but he refused to cut the call until he debugged everything perfectly. There’s no question of burnout when you’re surrounded by people like this
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
A user accidentally paid for a $370 order twice. I reached out to them on email thrice and text twice to get to the bottom of it. Email tracker shows opened, no response. 6 days later I’ve given up and just refunded the entire amount. How am I the one who got more stressed 😭
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
The people are warm but WHY IS THIS CITY SO GODDAMN COLD
@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
Let the games begin
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
@rupokghosh291 Into code. With custom animations compatible with the Vision Pro
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
1 month
As much as I pride myself about our $0 ad spend with Styl, that’s not always the best approach When I made this marketing campaign for my mom the video had strong engagement but only did 50k views in a week. I paid for 10k views and that catapulted it to nearly 1M
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
I’m not the biggest reader but highly recommend Hooked by @nireyal Gonna try to improve retention with psychology, not just technology
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
3 years in a row, the most cooked picture of me is the face of @DukeU admissions. Note to self: if you have shower hair, wear a paper bag to class
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
4 months
Too many creators complain that they lack engagement You need to break the silence in your comment sections. Be the first to start a conversation. After I post, I go to my personal account and write a roast / something sentimental and that kickstarts a chain reaction The best
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
One of the most underrated growth hacks is that Instagram (unlike TikTok) allows you to post the same reel from multiple accounts. The first video (21k) was on my main account. The second (2M) was on a ghost account I created. Increase your surface area of luck.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
“Retention is a rich man’s problem” Okay but I’m still broke af.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
What your metrics say about your content: Likes = enjoyable Comments = controversial Shares = relatable Saves = unique Hit on all 4, you’ll go viral
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Testing in the kitchen’s 1 bar WiFi area Inspired by @AravSrinivas @lexfridman
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
@MelvinSagini Organic inbound
@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
Hiring our first dev Scrape and email the catalog CSV to dhruv @stylapp .ai for an interview You have 48 hours 🫡
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
@HeyBrother80059 We’re not gonna win over any engineer with a more competitive comp package as 2 college kids running this out of their dorms Interested candidates will do their due diligence on us. Our offer will be based on their technical and personality fit. Not forcing anyone to apply 🫡
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
What are some notification tips other consumer founders have? For us we see a 3x higher CTR if we send 4 girls at {user_university} swiped right on this item 😍 Compared to a generic message without their school name
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
Last night I was talking with student founders and we were shocked to discover a similarity amongst the entire group of 14: None of us owned phones until high school How old were you?
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
For 7 months, I put out an educational crypto TikTok 3 times a week. I would’ve spent 100+ hours researching, writing, recording & editing only to get 89 followers. But the project I was working on wasn’t the account, but myself. Your failures pay dividends in mysterious ways
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
There’s trolls. And then there’s @thebobbialthoff .
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
My cofounder doesn’t want me to enter the kitchen this summer
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
2 months
Hiring a UI/UX intern to redo our app onboarding Email an animation you’ve made to dhruv @stylapp .ai for an interview You have 48 hours 🫡
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
4 months
Turns out, we didn’t end up pivoting to an app that only shows you Urban Outfitters 🤷‍♂️ It was an honor to speak with everyone who applied. People took fascinating approaches: everything from MITM/Charles Proxy using the mobile endpoint to some extremely neat tricks for going
@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
5 months
Hiring our first dev Scrape and email the catalog CSV to dhruv @stylapp .ai for an interview You have 48 hours 🫡
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
Finally hit 7% CTR on notifications with: 9 girls at {your_university} just bought this dress 😍 Shoutout to @onesignal for their intelligent delivery and @gdeglin for unparalleled user support
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
The marketer’s reality: if a tree fell in the forest and nobody was around to hear it—did it even make a sound? If you’re a consumer founder not recording TikToks out of fear of embarrassment, this is your sign to start. If it’s shit you just won’t get views. There’s only upside
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
For all my TikToks that have hit 100k+ views, there’s just one metric in common: At least 50% of the viewers stayed till the 5 second mark. Hashtags don’t matter. Length doesn’t matter. Likes/comments/shares don’t matter. Just last 5 seconds.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
“Earned” media is undervalued Make content that’s so interesting, other creators want to make content about it . . . . Or just do what I did and yap on Twitter after you got mad lucky
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
7 months
Can’t take credit for it, we love @objective_inc Thanks for all the support since Day 1 @Dazoulai @lancehasson and Evan Cummack
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
Last day in a dorm :( Is life with my own washing machine everything I’ll ever hope for and more?
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
3 months
Joshua could make a vlog about shitting on a toilet and it would still be cinematic gold
@wordisbonz
Joshua Bonzo
3 months
i'm making a youtube series about living in my car while working at a startup in sf. first episode out august 4, 2024.
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
6 months
Said it 6 months ago, still stand by it
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@ColinandSamir
Colin and Samir ✌🏼✌🏾
6 months
YouTube is a ticket to the extraordinary One (really good) video turned Harvard student Wesley Wang into the youngest director in history to set up a movie at a major studio
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
8 months
I take it back. Just make a TikTok with good lighting smh
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@bindra_dhruv
Dhruv Bindra
8 months
I slogged for 8 months to get barely 2000 app downloads. Then, I built a marketing campaign that got 1.2 million page views in <30 days. These are my 4 biggest learnings 🧵 #startup #marketing #buildinpublic #tech #growthhacking
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