SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders How This 25 Year Old College Kid Built a $500K/Month App Empire
Jul 15, 2025
Sid Bendre, co-founder of Oleve, transforms the app industry with his $6 million ARR mobile education empire. He discusses their remarkable rise to $500K/month, fueled by a viral TikTok video that gained 2.3 million views overnight. Sid shares insights on building AI agents for marketing automation and testing strategies that revolutionize user engagement. With unique approaches like the 'milk the alpha' playbook and paywall optimization, he reveals how to effectively scale apps in competitive markets.
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Sid Joins After Viral Launch
- Sid joined Oleve after their first product launch and viral TikTok success.
- He initially planned to join Palantir but chose to build with friends instead.
TikTok Viral Launch Strategy
- The first TikTok video went viral with 2.3 million views overnight, gaining 10,000 users instantly.
- The video used a casual, authentic style crafted to avoid feeling like an ad to students.
Embed Experimentation Infrastructure
- Build an experimentation infrastructure into new products from day one.
- Running multiple A/B tests simultaneously accelerates growth and product optimization.