597: How She Built a $33M App with ZERO Ads | Tezza Barton

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Tezza Barton bootstrapped the Tezza app from a two-person passion project into a 25M+ download, $33M/year creative-tech brand—with just 15 employees and zero paid ads for the first four years. In this interview, Tezza breaks down the scrappy path from negative bank balances and collage kits in a 250-sq-ft apartment to building a category-defining editing app and community that creatives actually love. From community-led growth and brand-first product design to pricing pivots, lean teams, and culture-shifting collabs, you’ll learn exactly how she scaled profitably while staying fan-obsessed and creatively uncompromising. What you’ll learn from this interview: • How Tezza grew a bootstrapped, creator-led app to 25M+ downloads and $33M revenue • The community-first playbook: DMs, feedback loops, and building demand before launch • Product-led marketing: naming filters (e.g., “Wildflower”), seasonal drops, and experiential launches • Pricing and retention: recovering from a bumpy subscription rollout and increasing LTV • Why a lean, high-leverage team can out-execute bigger competitors • Collaboration strategy: pitching value, co-creating effects, and tapping partner audiences • Creative brand building: designing an app like a beauty brand, not a utility • Where AI helps (ops, grunt work) without replacing human taste, curation, and intent By the end of this interview, you’ll walk away with a proven roadmap to build, market, and scale a profitable consumer app—so you can turn audience insight and great creative into durable, compounding growth

SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to ⁠https://your.omnisend.com/foundr⁠ to get started. HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+ Start your $1 trial → ⁠https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial⁠ PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING? → Starting from scratch? Apply here → ⁠https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application⁠ → Already have a store? Apply here → ⁠https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application⁠ CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN Instagram → ⁠https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan⁠ LinkedIn → ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/⁠ CONNECT WITH TEZZA BARTON Website → https://www.shoptezza.com/ Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/tezza.barton/ LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessa-barton-6b73091b3/ FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES YouTube → ⁠https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt⁠ Website → ⁠https://www.foundr.com⁠ Instagram → ⁠https://www.instagram.com/foundr/⁠ Facebook → ⁠https://www.facebook.com/foundr⁠ Twitter → ⁠https://www.twitter.com/foundr⁠ LinkedIn → ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/⁠ Podcast → ⁠https://www.foundr.com/podcast