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Builders

He helped shape WallStreetBets. Now Kevin Xu is betting on his own social app.

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Daniel Bean
Managing Editor @ Mixpanel
Last Edited:
Jul 1, 2024
Published:
Sep 21, 2023

AfterHour more or less began with your online persona, Sir Jack. Would you say his growth in following and level of influence is something that you actively built, maybe pulling from your experience building products?

So your community was gathering on Reddit and Twitter, but I’m guessing you started to see the product gaps that something like AfterHour could fill?

A WallStreetBets post from Sir Jack leading up to the GameStop short squeeze.

Social media is a messy product landscape right now with the stumbles of X, formally Twitter, giving an opening for copycats to take the crown of the best “virtual town square” platform. AfterHour is going in a different direction and targeting a specific purpose and audience. Is that where the user appetite is?

Build better products.

What would you say has been more helpful for finding product-market fit, your experience as a product builder or your experience as Sir Jack?

Screenshot of the AfterHour app.

Let’s talk about growth. I saw a Reddit post from years back where you, as Sir Jack, called your stock market gains “luck.” I’m assuming you’ll be relying on more than luck for growing AfterHour. What levers are you pulling?

You mentioned you’re seeing good retention. Is that something you’ve helped along by acting on user trends you’ve seen in Mixpanel?

A post from Xu on X (formally Twitter), where he says he likes to generate FOMO in tech VCs.

I’ve seen you poke at fun on social at founders who love to post unlabeled Mixpanel charts that go up and to the right or talk about vanity metrics wins. Do you see any value in “building online” or throwing out proof here and there that you’re growing?

What else have you learned in your first months that you’ll use to take AfterHour to the next level?

Before we wrap, I have to ask: Who is playing you in the Dumb Money movie? It’ll be a crime if Sir Jack isn’t in it. I’m hoping at the very least they called you up for script research.

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Daniel Bean
Daniel Bean
Managing Editor @ Mixpanel