DEEP DIVE

Last week Zach Yadegari, founder of Cal AI (a $3.6M/month AI calorie tracking app) and 4 other app creators launched a course called "App Mafia".

The launch video went viral for all the wrong reasons.

All of the buzz resulted in:

• 10M+ impressions

• Thousands of negative comments

• Reputations permanently damaged

And, what I think is the biggest course FLOP in history.

I say flop because Zach Yadegari and his co-founders are known as some of the smartest and most successful consumer app founders today.

Zach has gotten millions of views across popular podcasts, YouTube, and social media.

The "App Mafia" team has (or had) more than enough credibility to launch a successful course. They claim their apps do $70M+ in combined revenue.

A product launch from a team like this should do at least $1M+ in sales.

Yet, after taking over the internet, the course sold a whopping...

• ~67 units at $997

  And,

• The $5k version sold ~36 units

That's the worst view to purchase conversion rate I've ever seen.

All in, they did ~$250k-$300k in sales based on the last available public enrollment numbers (not accounting for refunds and fees).

That may sound like a lot to some people. But after getting millions of views, thousands of hate comments, and splitting it with 5 co-founders — it’s not worth it.

I’ve seen dozens of founders with audiences of 10k-30k people do bigger launches, including myself.

Then after a few days of backlash, they decided to make the course free (and claimed that was their master plan all along).

Of course, customers who paid $997 are complaining about this and asking for refunds. Multiple customer reviews claimed they have not been answered yet.

That’s the context. Here’s what you can learn from this…

How they could have made $1M+ and built their brand instead of destroying it

Here's what they should have done instead:

1) The OFFER

• DON'T call it a "course".

• DON'T sell videos behind a paywall.

• DON'T price it at $997. Any price ending in 7 sounds like a scam!

Instead, offer a live cohort based course and make it FREE (at first).

Here's how it works:

• 4 week live cohort to teach the viral app system

• Two 90 min live sessions per week (60 mins of instruction, 30 mins of Q&A)

• Recordings, slides, and resources shared after each session

• Deliver incredible value, ask for testimonials at the end

I call this a "private beta."

But here's the catch:

• The free live cohort is limited to 100 students

• People must apply to get a spot (this easily drives 5,000+ applications)

• Later (after the product is proven), sell it

See, the "App Mafia" creators have no email list — no list of people interested in this product. Building an email list is crucial for a successful launch.

This does that.

Plus, they should offer a webinar to promote the free live cohort.

• Collect emails to register

• Teach their best stuff to build goodwill

• Make the free, application-only offer at the end

A good webinar should drive 10k+ registrations.

Now they have an email list of 15k people to sell to (later).

2) Lack of SOCIAL PROOF

Zach and "App Mafia" claim to have done $70M+ in revenue from their apps.

That's cool, but…

They have little to no proof that they can help other people build successful apps.

Their marketing is all about ME, me, me. All of their accomplishments. When selling an educational product, what you can do for CUSTOMERS matters a 1000x more.

By offering a free cohort to 100 hand-selected founders, they could get that proof, and land 50+ product testimonials.

3) The MARKETING

This is what killed the product.

The cringy launch video with lines like...

• "I live in a mansion"

• "I make $3.6M/month"

• "I party almost every night"

• "The game is easier than ever"

• "Anyone can do it, if you don't, you're just lazy"

Customers don't care about you. They care about what you can do for THEM.

Not only is this awful marketing, it could get them into legal trouble with the FTC...

It implies that making $3.6M per month is "easy" and if you can't do it, "you're just f***ing lazy".

But there’s more: Anyone who's sold info products knows that webinars are where you make most of your money.

The "App Mafia" webinar had ~60 slides with vague content that did NOT demonstrate that success is possible for other people.

Then the "pitch" part of the webinar was ONE SLIDE. For comparison, the Hormozi book launch webinar had over 1,200 slides for a ~60 min presentation.

4) The Marketing - Part 2 - CONVERSION

The sales page for App Mafia has just 337 words.

Do you think people are going to spend $997-$5000 after watching a 40-second-long video and reading 300 words?

Hell no. To sell info, you need to share info.

You need:

• 1000+ word sales page minimum that includes all the features, benefits, social proof, credibility, FAQs, objection handling, and more

• Dozens of marketing emails and social posts that TEACH and show proof, not just sell.

• A great webinar (90 mins) or VSL (10-20 mins)

App Mafia had none of that.

5) The LAUNCH

After doing the 4-week "private beta" I explained above, and...

• Getting 50+ testimonials

• 5+ case studies from successful students.

• Updating the content after getting live feedback from 100+ people

THEN you can launch the product and sell it.

Here's how I would launch it the right way:

• 28 day marketing period

• 2 weeks to build hype by teasing something is coming soon and sharing free value.

• 2 weeks of open enrollment where you announce the public launch and sell the product

• 2-3 live webinars during open enrollment to teach and sell

• Enrollment ends completely on the final day

New pricing and features:

A) $999 for a 4-6 week live cohort with 2 sessions per week + all recordings, resources, and a community

B) $10,000 VIP option that includes everything in the standard program, plus:

• Two 1on1 45 min calls with one of the App Mafia founders

• The first call happens in the first 1-2 weeks of the program, the 2nd call is only unlocked if they watch all sessions and complete the homework

• Two 60 min office hours sessions during the cohort, limited to VIP customers

• App feedback video from one App Mafia partner

The NEW offer:

• HAVE a generous money-back guarantee — 14 day no questions asked 100% money back (they launched with no refund policy)

• NARROW the outcome, promise LESS

The promise of the course now is "Learn how you can make millions building apps" (copy from their website). This is impossible to achieve for 99.9% of people.

It's a promise that App Mafia can't keep because most students will never get there.

And, it's NOT even what people want. Instead, the promise of the program should be:

Build, launch, and grow your first app to 10k users.

That's achievable AND it's a non-financial promise they could actually deliver on.

Give 1-2 homework assignment per week

If students complete all homework assignments, they should be able to achieve the main promise realistically.

This means all the homework should be about building and growing apps. No busy work.

If they can't get there by doing the homework, make the program better or promise less (example 1k users instead of 10k).

Limit the students so you have more time for support on the live Q&As and in the community

• Standard ($999) limited to 500 students

• VIP ($10k) limited to 50 students

What could have happened

With Zach and the AppMafia team’s credibility (and building + marketing a product the RIGHT way), they could have made $1M-$2M+ in a month.

Then much more from future cohorts.

After 2-4 live cohorts, it could be turned into an evergreen course once the product is proven and improved.

Last thing

What disappoints me about this is all the wasted potential. The AppMafia guys seem to be good builders. I'm a Cal AI customer.

But this whole course was arrogant and lazy.

If the marketing is this lazy, imagine how bad the product could be.

I don't love sharing stuff like this, but I hope this helps people learn from their mistakes.

"Courses" are not bad. You just need to take the time to learn how to build a product, support students, and sell it the right way.