Steven Cravotta
Founder, Posted · 2 appearances on the record.
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founderoperator@StevenCravotta ↗LinkedIn ↗stevencravotta.com ↗
Steven Cravotta is a mobile app entrepreneur and the founder of Posted. He previously created and scaled the quit-vaping application Puff Count prior to its acquisition.
31statements → 12claims → 0claims resolved → 3.97/5average certainty → 2/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →
12 not checkable as stated how the 12 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
1 prediction · 11 assertions · 3 opinions · 14 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 12 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 12 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Steven argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Steven Cravotta on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Steven Cravotta said on Starter Story that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Steven Cravotta Says Mobile Apps Must Be Built Marketing-First to Succeed
“Every mobile app that you build should be approached from a marketing first standpoint, because as long as you can market your product, you will make money. And if your product is not marketable, you could have the best product in the world, but if no one know…”
Steven Cravotta Claims First Viral Video Permanently Raises Baseline View Floor
“Once you get that first viral video, the floor of the amount of views that you get will increase over time because the platforms trust you more, and there's more engagement to your videos, so they will be shown more.”
Steven Cravotta Recommends Only Starting Paid Ads on Facebook and TikTok
“Facebook and TikTok are really the only two places that you should start running paid ads.”
Cravotta: Mobile apps are an untapped space requiring zero experience
“The biggest misconception people have is that like, it's hard to get into. So like not a lot of people are doing mobile apps right now. It's untapped, but I honestly don't think you need any experience to build mobile apps”
Cravotta: Hire Eastern European developers for best quality at lower prices
“I recommend only hiring developers from Eastern Europe. They're going to give you the best quality code for a cheaper price.”
Cravotta: Pay app developers upon completion, not hourly
“So I don't pay anyone per hour. I pay them when the app is complete. It's on the store. There's no bugs, but 100%, you can build an app for less than a thousand dollars.”
Cravotta: Marketing is 95% of a mobile app's success
“Marketing really is 95% of the success of a mobile app.”
Cravotta: TikTok is the best marketing channel for any mobile app
“And TikTok is the best way to market any app.”
Cravotta: Hard paywall boosted Puff Count conversion rate to 20-25%
“When I changed PuffCount to a hard paywall, and I made users commit to a free trial before they could use any features in the app, it changed my business overnight. My conversion rate shot through the roof upwards of 20, 25%.”
Cravotta: Long onboarding boosts app paywall conversion by reinforcing user problem
“The onboarding is super important because this is an opportunity for you to walk the user through their own problems. So for example, on PuffCount, my onboarding is extensive and I ask the users a lot of questions. And some people say that's annoying. I don't …”
Cravotta: App founders should never upgrade Mixpanel or Amplitude
“I don't think you should ever really upgrade mixed panel or amplitude. Like you should get your data, understand what you need to change and then get out.”
Cravotta: Nimble founders can beat legacy apps with one viral TikTok
“Being a young founder, you truly do have an advantage. Because all these old heads in the industry, these big, slow moving companies that never iterate on their idea, a small, nimble entrepreneur can take them out. All it takes is one viral TikTok.”
Steven Cravotta Uses Two-Second CTAs to Force Algorithmic Rewatch Loops
“The two-second call to action simply showing the product in your video works so well because if people miss that, they have to rewatch your video again, and it creates an engagement loop.”
Steven Cravotta Says Top-Of-Funnel Videos Should Skip Explaining Product Features
“You don't need to explain every part in your funnel for your video to be effective. All you have to do is take the person from your TikTok video To the app store. That's exactly what all these videos do, right? There's no explanation of the product. There's no…”
Steven Cravotta Believes High Posting Volume Negates Luck in Video Marketing
“The way to get there is by posting volume. Volume negates luck, right? So you need to be posting as much as possible, and when you get a video that pops off, recreate that concept.”
Steven Cravotta Paid Mega-Creators Just $110 Per Video Using Posted
“For example, this creator right here who has 552,000 followers, she made a post for us for 110 bucks. It got 30,000 views. This creator here with 2.7 million followers, a 110 bucks a video, or this creator right here who only had 768 followers, but made an ama…”
Steven Cravotta Warns Initial Ad Campaigns Cannot Optimize for Direct Purchases
“So your first campaign cannot be a purchase campaign. You can't optimize for those users just quite yet because TikTok and Facebook don't really know who those users are yet.”
Steven Cravotta Scaled Puff Count to $44K MRR on $82K Spend
“We spent a total of 82,000 dollars on our paid ads before exiting the business. This is how we scaled from three K to 44,000 dollars in monthly recurring revenue.”
Cravotta: High-performing organic TikTok videos reliably convert as paid ads
“The beautiful thing about organic TikTok is if the video does well organically, it's a great indicator that it's a great creative in general. You can put them on paid ads and click the spend my money button. That's literally all you have to do because as long …”
Cravotta: Health and self-improvement mobile apps will absolutely crush
“When I look at like the most profitable niches in mobile apps, I think a lot of them do have to do with helping people be better, lose weight, quit vaping, quit drinking, anything in the health space, I think will absolutely crush.”
Steven Cravotta Scaled Puff Count to $44K MRR Before European Acquisition
“I built puff count. My quit vaping app scaled it to 44,000 dollars in monthly recurring revenue before exiting the company and selling it to a larger mobile app studio in Europe.”
Steven Cravotta Logged TikTok Data for Seven Days Before Publishing Content
“Before I posted a single video on the puff count TikTok, I scrolled for seven days straight.
I saved all the videos to the market research, just like this”
Appearances (2)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| The $1M Mobile App Playbook | Sep 20, 2025 | 17m |
| How I Built It: $40K/Month iPhone App | Sep 24, 2024 | 11m |