Breakdown: Garrett Rothstein’s Viral Content Playbook. From 100 TikToks to Millions of Downloads

Garrett Rothstein (founder of Queue, ex-Snapchat, Bird, Quibi) shares how he turned TikTok into a growth engine, engineering features for virality, building a captions matrix, and iterating 100+ times before hitting his first breakout video.

If you’re a founder, marketer, or creator, this is a masterclass in how to design products and content for distribution.

Timestamps:

0:00 – Cold open: 100 TikToks before the first viral hit

1:15 – Intro: Who is Garrett Rothstein & how Q + Playkit teamed up

4:00 – Building Q & engineering the “swipe with a friend” feature for TikTok virality

9:20 – The captions + iteration matrix (inspired by MrBeast)

12:00 – Why some videos flop & others go viral: hooks, pain points, and couples content

19:20 – Triggering comments, planting Easter eggs, and why shares matter most

25:30 – The comment section as the new Reddit

31:10 – Lessons from Snapchat, Bird, and Quibi

36:00 – Gamification, streaks & consumer psychology that drive growth

39:00 – Founder life: balancing CEO duties with content creation

44:30 – Staying sane: health, habits & mental resilience

48:20 – Advice for students + how to get hired as a creator

56:30 – The future of AI in content: slop vs. real utility

1:07:00 – Rapid fire: biggest flop, consumer psych tricks, daily routines

Whether you’re scaling a startup, running campaigns, or just curious about how virality actually works, this episode will leave you with playbooks you can apply right now.

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