Hitting one million downloads is both an enviable plateau and a significant milestone for mobile app developers. Even more impressively, Glam Up co-founder Nicole Cheung ’25 achieved the million-download landmark while a senior at CMC.
Inspired by her success, Cheung devoted her senior thesis, “From 0 to 1 Million Users in 6 Months: How I Built My Viral App,” to detailing how she co-founded and scaled the AI beauty app Glam Up, which provides facial analysis, color analysis, makeup guides, and product recommendations.
“There’s no need to ‘gatekeep’ anything about viral marketing or AI consumer app growth. I wanted to provide a guide that I would have wanted when I just started Glam Up,” she said.
Cheung, a dual-major in Psychology and Economics with a Leadership sequence, launched Glam Up in April 2024, deploying “viral growth strategies, behavioral psychology, and referral loops — without paid ads or funding” to reach one million-plus users and $150K in MMR (Monthly Recurring Revenue, another key performance metric).
Now at work scaling her second app, Prep AI, Cheung praises CMC Professor Darren Filson and tech entrepreneur Josh Jones HMC ’98, founding partner of HMC INQ, for their mentorship.
Filson, Director of the Randall Lewis Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, served as her thesis reader and helped to elevate Cheung’s presence within the CMC community, which Cheung describes as “tight-knit and extremely willing to help.”
As she scales up Prep AI, an app for jobseekers, Cheung said she feels proud to be “building a team of trusted, experienced, and smart people, and apps that actually help users.”
To that end, she encourages those who need advice or are curious about the AI consumer app space to reach out to her via LinkedIn.