#3 Zoplo

I sat down with Tom Cullen to go through the Numbers of his company, Zoplo.

What is Zoplo and who is Tom?

Zoplo is a Gen-Z social app where users post and vote in polls, helping Gen-Z understand the world and settle any debate.

Tom worked in investment banking for four years before starting Zoplo. When he was a teenager, his brother bought him a book about financial markets (which he requested as a Christmas present) and ever since then he was determined to work in investment banking. At first, he struggled to get internships to break in. Studying at a non-target uni he knew he needed to differentiate himself. Starting something entrepreneurial seemed like the best idea.

Like most founders, he mentioned that his Google Drive is filled with documents and research of startup ideas. Eventually, he set up Newcastle University’s investment society and took it to the 3rd largest society at the university. He then went on and launched Newcastle’s student managed fund. This experience and knowledge landed Tom a graduate job in investment banking.

He quickly realised that there was a purpose missing in life, although he didn’t quite know what. He began experimenting with ideas outside of work, however most of them either weren’t going to make him much money or were solving a problem that didn’t exist. He partnered with his second in command at the investment fund he set up at university to start an ESG data analytics firm. Given the ESG tailwinds in 2018/19, the timing was perfect. They then spent a year building a number of sophisticated models, allowing them to rebalance client portfolios based on ESG scoring. They could also provide ESG reports of stock portfolios. Pretty cool. 

They began reaching out to asset managers and he quickly realised that in order to build a client base, he needed to quit his job. He weighed up the risks of launching a startup and decided not to quit his job. At this point, Tom expressed his feelings about not quitting his job to pursue the venture, saying it was the ‘biggest mistake of his life’. 

You can only connect the dots afterwards, though. Tom not pursuing the ESG analytics firm eventually led him to Zoplo. Tom and his housemate were posting polls on Instagram and realised that polls get way more engagement than any other social media feature. They also noticed that the larger social apps weren't built for opinion sharing. The idea of Zoplo was born but it was covid, so Tom didn’t pursue it…yet. 

Fast forward two years later, Tom quit his job to travel to Australia. Nine weeks into travelling, he read an article that “changed his life." It featured a graph explaining how and why people don’t finish projects that they start. That same day he mentioned the idea of Zoplo (a 2-year-old idea) to a friend, and the friend mentioned that they vote in every poll they see. The lightbulb moment happened. The next day Tom got on a flight and came back to London. 

Timeline and Numbers

When Tom arrived back to the UK he decided he needed feedback from his core target market, Gen-Z. He began going to universities and stopping people in the street to pitch them Zoplo and get early signups. These early signups were fundamental to getting constant consumer feedback. He also implemented a strategy of polling all UI/UX decisions on his personal instagram of 1.4k followers.  

After paying £12k to an agency to design Zoplo, he decided using a freelancer was the best option. He then paid $20k to build the MVP, hiring a developer from UpWork. Zoplo launched in April 2023. The MVP was basic, with lots of features missing, but it was enough to launch with. After an initial spike in traction of around 400 users, growth slowed down. 

Tom had no money and no VC would invest in a social app without traction. In order to make Zoplo work, he knew he had to master organic social. After weeks of finding social media growth hacks and testing all of them, things began to click, and they picked up momentum around August, hitting 1000 downloads by September. By the end of September, they had 11,000 users. His strategy was working.

Tom applied scrappy acquisition strategies like using X poll accounts to drive interest in Zoplo by posting polls in the comments. Tom also used TikTok a lot to get eyes on polls. To date, they have had 17 million views on the app. He strongly believes that for a social app to win, you need to be able to acquire users at zero cost until the app hits a critical mass (+1m users). 

Over the past 12 months, Zoplo has gained over 60,000 users, boasting 11.6% MoM growth even in its MVP phase, without spending a penny on acquisition. An interesting statistic from the numbers was Zoplo’s highly targeted niche. Of its 60,000+ user base, over 84% are female. 

Across 20,000+ polls, users have cast ~5 million votes, a crazy amount of engagement. Social apps are really looking for engagement beyond the initial number of signups. It validates that users really do like the function of the app. Again, this is all with £0 of marketing spend. To dive deeper into engagement, over the past 60 days, 3900+ users have voted in more than 50 polls. People who have voted in more than 100 polls have been categorised as super users and make up ~2,000 people in the last 60 days. In 2024, Zoplo recorded 11,000 average consistent users, with 50% of downloads coming back after day one.

Tom is mastering the ability to leverage existing social apps like TikTok to grow organically. Using unique and sometimes scrappy strategies, Tom has virtually cracked organic growth on social media. He has achieved insane levels of growth in exchange for zero CAC. Additionally, Zoplo’s global growth is very strong. As a result of social media’s global reach, the app has acquired users in every country that it has launched. The top locations are the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. Although 80% of users are based in Europe, Zoplo has proven its ability to penetrate the Americas too. 

Lessons so far from building Zoplo

The first lesson Tom mentioned was that he has seen so many startups fail because people jump into co-founder relationships too quickly. He stressed that it’s important for co-founders to work together in some capacity first. That could be on a different small project, or on the startup itself.

Secondly, you don't need a product before selling it. In consumer, distribution is the most important part. If you can’t nail distribution then the product will never take off. A grade B product with an A* distribution channel will win over the opposite. Especially when it’s organic growth.

Next steps for Zoplo

Having proved that Zoplo can generate users on mass with zero ad spend, the next phase is scaling to 1 million+ users. 

Zoplo is currently pre-revenue, and Tom is sticking with this until they hit critical mass. At critical mass, the revenue opportunity is huge. Zoplo is employing a unique form of advertising that unfortunately cannot be shared publicly at this stage. Based on Zoplo forecasts, Tom will generate ad revenue once they have hit their 1m user target, scaling aggressively from then with exponentially more downloads. 

Thanks to Tom for sharing the Numbers. Zoplo will be a force to be reckoned with.

Links:

• Tom’s LinkedIn

• Take a look at Zoplo by following on Instagram and TikTok and downloading on the app store.

- Luke

If you own a growing business or know someone who does and wants more eyes on what they’re doing, let’s connect on LinkedIn

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