January 30, 2026
BuildBrief: Viral Trends into 10,000 App Users
You don't need a big audience to get your first 10,000 users. You need to ride a trend. Here's how to find viral trends, build fast, and turn trend traffic into long-term users.
You don't need a big audience to get your first 10.000 users.
You need to ride a trend.
Here's what I mean: when something goes viral, millions of people are already searching for it, talking about it, sharing it.
Your app just needs to show up when they search.
That's free distribution. And it works.
How to actually do it
1. Find a trend that involves a behavior, not just entertainment.
"Stanley cup obsession" = entertainment. Hard to build an app around.
"People tracking protein intake" = behavior. App opportunity.
Scroll TikTok/Instagram. Look for trends that are going viral.
When you find something with potential, interact with the content to get more of it on your feed.
2. Pick a specific niche within that trend.
"AI" is too broad. Everyone's building AI apps.
"Moms using AI for meal planning" is a niche. "Students using AI to study" is a niche.
The more specific, the easier to reach them.
3. Build in 7 days or less.
Trends don't wait. You have just a few weeks of peak attention.
Ship the core feature FAST. One screen, one job. Polish later.
The mistake that kills most trend apps
Don't build an app that only works while the trend is hot.
If it's too specific to the trend itself, it's not useful anymore when the trend fades.
Your app becomes a ghost town in 3 months.
Don't do this.
Build something that solves a real problem. The trend is just how people find you.
Simple test: Would this app still be useful in 2 years if nobody remembers the trend? If yes, build it.
Action Steps:
- Scroll on TikTok/Instagram until you find a viral trend
- Engage with it to fill your feed with the trend
- Brainstorm with AI what the trend is, and an evergreen app idea you could make from the trend to leverage the distribution
- Build the mobile app in a few days (trends only last a few weeks, so be quick)
- Ship the app live, and start copying the trend yourself, and subtly CTA to your mobile app in every video
- Iterate the app whilst marketing and getting users --> then see where they drop off, etc.
Trends are free distribution.
But only if you're fast enough to catch them.
PS: I'm running a $3,000 hackathon. Build and ship an app in 30 days: Join here.
Happy building! – Kristoffer, BuildWithAI