The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan 597: How She Built a $33M App with ZERO Ads | Tezza Barton
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Oct 16, 2025 Tezza Barton, founder and creative director of the Tezza app, shares her remarkable journey from a two-person project to a powerhouse with 25M+ downloads and $38M in revenue—without paid ads for four years. She discusses the importance of building a community pre-launch, pivoting pricing strategies after early setbacks, and maintaining a lean, high-performing team. Tezza reveals her unique approach to product-led marketing, collaboration strategies, and the role of AI in enhancing creativity while emphasizing human touch.
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Bootstrapped From A 250 sqft Apartment
- Tezza and her husband built the first versions of the Tezza app themselves while working late nights and living with negative bank balances.
- They launched after months of community-building and organic feedback, which seeded passionate early users.
Launch With Community, Not Just Code
- Build community before launch by talking directly to people via DMs, comments, emails and meetups to co-create demand.
- Use feedback loops to design a product your core users actually want and will evangelize.
Price Publicly, Then Pivot With Users
- Early pricing mistakes can blow up publicly but listening and iterating with your community fixes product-market fit.
- When users feel grateful for real value they become unpaid marketers and drive massive organic growth.