Hooked with Julia and Nick

In this episode, we sit down with Rohan Kumar, the strategist who led MrBeast’s TikTok to become the fastest-growing account three years in a row. He’s now advising brands and startups on how to break through the noise with moments that actually stick. Rohan walks us through how he went from a COVID-era college grad pestering Colin & Samir weekly to running content strategy for one of the biggest...

In this episode, we sit down with Andrew Monreal, founder of Arrow and Scratch AI, to break down how he grew multiple consumer apps using organic TikTok, product-led virality, and influencer distribution. Andrew walks through exactly how Arrow hit 100K users with slideshow content, why most founders focus on trends instead of building marketable products, and how Scratch AI scaled quickly using in...

How to Build & Scale a UGC Program (Without Burning Out) UGC doesn’t fail because creators are bad. It fails because the operating system behind it is broken. In this webinar, Julia Pintar (Co-Founder of PlayKit) breaks down exactly how to go from zero → one with an in-house UGC program and how to scale it into a sustainable growth channel that actually drives downloads. This session is less about...

In this episode, we sit down with Zehra Naqvi, founder of Lore, the internet’s home for obsession. Before launching a single feature, Zehra and her team built a waitlist of over 100,000 users, generated 215M+ organic views, and grew a 14,000-person Discord community, all by rallying Gen Z around one shared frustration: the internet is broken for fandom. We get into everything from why TikTok’s alg...

In this episode, we sit down with Lillie, co-founder of Ditto, the app often described as “Pinterest meets your Notes app.” After scaling major skincare brands as a marketer, Lillie pivoted into building consumer social: raising capital, launching Ditto, and now running one of the most ambitious campus ambassador programs in tech. We get into everything from how Ditto is reinventing social media a...

In this episode, we sit down with Mia Mirzayan, NYC-based strategist, content creator, and founder of Creator Vault. Mia has spent the past three years creating organic and paid content for brands like ADIDAS, Banana Republic, Canva, and Haus Labs. We get into everything from landing higher-paying gigs, to what separates top UGC creators from the rest, to the real difference between influencer vs....

Paid ads are getting more expensive. Consumers are tuning them out. The brands still winning are the ones with a repeatable organic content strategy that turns views into installs. On Wednesday, November 19th, I’m hosting a live session breaking down exactly how to create high-performing viral formats that drive real business outcomes: installs, signups, and sales. You’ll learn:- How to identify a...

At just 25 years old, Quinn Slocum has built an empire of over 4 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, with zero paid ads. He’s the founder of @BestCelebrations (nearly 3 million) and @Culture (100k+), two of the internet’s most viral and community-driven social pages. In this episode, Quinn shares the exact systems, frameworks, and mindset that took him from editing Vine clips as a teena...

How do you go from dropping out of college to building an AI engine that hits 100,000 organic views a day on TikTok? In this episode of Hooked, Zuhair Lakhani, founder of DoubleSpeed (backed by a16z’s Speedrun program), joins us to break down the future of AI video content, the creator economy’s next phase, and what happens when AI replaces the influencer. Zuhair reveals how he: • Used Midjourney...

He built three 7-figure brands. Shut one down. Then grew his personal Instagram account from 0 to 150K followers in three months by turning content into a system. In this episode, Caleb Ulffers breaks down the exact playbook founders can use to grow faster through short-form video (even if you’ve never posted before). We talk about gear, process, mindset, and why founder-led content is the most po...

What if your next marketing campaign didn’t need a single dollar in ad spend? Ben Schaefer, co-founder of Cinque, built a 400-person community in San Diego through authentic experiences (surfing, music, and connection), all grown through organic social. No ads and no agency. Just people who cared. In this episode of Hooked, Ben joins Julia and Nick to break down how he turned one simple idea into...

How do you build a tech startup that actually brings people together and then walk away from it to chase your dream? In this episode of Hooked, Playkit co-founders Julia Pintar and Nick Sanchez sit down with Avery Kokka, the 23-year-old co-founder and former CMO of Plots, a venture-backed startup backed by a16z that’s reinventing how Gen Z connects IRL. Avery shares how she turned her passion for...

This week’s episode is just us (Julia and Nick) answering the top questions we’ve been getting from founders and creators about UGC, virality, and scaling content. From how to find your first creators to how some people are making $10K+ a month filming TikToks, we’re breaking it all down this week. Whether you’re a founder trying to drive installs or a creator trying to land your first brand deal,...

This week on Hooked , we sit down with Anna Greene, PlayKit’s Head Strategist, crochet YouTuber with nearly 100K subscribers, and the Gen Z marketer behind hundreds of millions of TikTok views. Anna’s journey is anything but traditional: she went from being a teenage photographer working with brands like Vogue, to running a viral crochet channel in high school, to studying computer engineering (be...

Alexis Hedley went from posting one viral TikTok in college to managing 200+ creators and millions of views as Playkit’s Campaign Manager. In this episode, she pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to succeed as a creator or land your first role in the UGC space. From monetization frameworks to horror stories of creator outreach, Alexis shares the tactical insights every founder, brand,...

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 Tik...

Chris Josephs (founder of Autopilot and the Pelosi Stock Tracker) joins us for a no-BS breakdown of what makes each platform tick, and why creators and brands keep getting it wrong. We cover how Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter actually work, why authenticity always beats polish, and the creator strategies that scale. If you’ve ever felt lost about what to post and where — this episode gives you the...