Aakash GuptaHow I Wrote My 3 Most Viral Posts
Aakash Gupta and Aatir Abdul Rauf on two creators dissect viral posts, frameworks, and their creation process.
In this episode of Aakash Gupta, featuring Aatir Abdul Rauf and Aakash Gupta, How I Wrote My 3 Most Viral Posts explores two creators dissect viral posts, frameworks, and their creation process Aatir proposes a “new trio” for SaaS growth—PM, Product Marketing, and Growth—to maintain sustainable product-market fit as markets shift and AI lowers build costs.
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Two creators dissect viral posts, frameworks, and their creation process
- Aatir proposes a “new trio” for SaaS growth—PM, Product Marketing, and Growth—to maintain sustainable product-market fit as markets shift and AI lowers build costs.
- They map shared alignment areas for this trio (vision, prioritization, magic moment, metrics, competitive playing field) and clarify distinct responsibilities across PM, PMM, and Growth.
- Aatir catalogs multiple growth-loop archetypes (invites, UGC/SEO, reviews, expert-driven, personalized shareables, referrals, multi-party goals, achievement sharing) and explains why some loops fail.
- Aakash explains how three viral posts were produced—Netflix decline lessons, “Roadmap ≠ Strategy,” and the Sriracha founder story—emphasizing strong hooks, fresh research, and simple visuals.
- Both creators share pragmatic workflows: comment/engagement tactics, balancing creation with a full-time job, building visual systems in Canva, and using AI as a helper (especially for hooks) without losing human editorial judgment.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasBuilding is getting cheaper; scaling profitably is the harder differentiator.
Aatir argues AI is collapsing feature-building effort, so competitive advantage shifts toward positioning, messaging, channels, retention, and unit economics—not just shipping features.
Treat PMF as unstable; design for continuous maintenance.
Using the “ping-pong ball on a blow dryer” analogy, they stress external forces (competition, AI shifts, macro changes) can quickly dislodge PMF, requiring ongoing GTM + retention work.
The PM–PMM partnership should start at discovery, not at launch handoff.
They criticize siloed “API handoffs” where PM builds then PMM markets; instead, PM and PMM should share VOC, constraints, and feedback loops throughout development to improve what gets built and how it’s sold.
Protect the product’s ‘magic moment’ from growth experiments and messaging drift.
They define the magic moment as the most powerful “aha” (e.g., Uber ride arrival, Booking check-in) and warn growth tactics or positioning that bypass it can erode core value and retention.
Growth loops work when user motivation is real—not when sharing is forced.
Examples like Spotify Wrapped (shareable identity/status) and Wordle (achievement signaling) succeed, while a telecom app asking users to share a data purchase fails because it’s socially meaningless.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesEvery product out there has a magic moment, and it's important that that magic moment is protected.
— Aatir Abdul Rauf
Even if you've achieved product market fit, there's no guarantee that you're gonna stay within it.
— Aatir Abdul Rauf
I would say always use the latest tools, but fundamentally what made this post succeed, I don't think AI is gonna be able to research or write at this quality today.
— Aakash Gupta
You only get negative comments when you go super viral, right?
— Aakash Gupta
I was so bogged down by making sure that I was doing releases, writing the PRDs, working with designers, engineers... But I felt that I missed out on a lot of the business value simply because I didn't understand the concepts.
— Aatir Abdul Rauf
QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS EPISODE
5 questionsIn your “new trio,” where should Customer Success or Sales fit—do they become a fourth pillar, or are they stakeholders PMM/Growth cover?
Aatir proposes a “new trio” for SaaS growth—PM, Product Marketing, and Growth—to maintain sustainable product-market fit as markets shift and AI lowers build costs.
How do you operationally define and measure a product’s “magic moment” (events, time-to-value, activation thresholds), and what are common false positives?
They map shared alignment areas for this trio (vision, prioritization, magic moment, metrics, competitive playing field) and clarify distinct responsibilities across PM, PMM, and Growth.
Which growth loop types are most viable for early-stage B2B SaaS without network effects, and what prerequisites must exist before trying them?
Aatir catalogs multiple growth-loop archetypes (invites, UGC/SEO, reviews, expert-driven, personalized shareables, referrals, multi-party goals, achievement sharing) and explains why some loops fail.
What’s a concrete weekly cadence (meetings + artifacts) you’ve seen work best to keep PM–PMM–Growth aligned on vision, prioritization, and metrics?
Aakash explains how three viral posts were produced—Netflix decline lessons, “Roadmap ≠ Strategy,” and the Sriracha founder story—emphasizing strong hooks, fresh research, and simple visuals.
Aakash, can you show the exact ‘hook iteration’ workflow you used with GPT-4 on the Sriracha post (prompting, selection criteria, and final edits)?
Both creators share pragmatic workflows: comment/engagement tactics, balancing creation with a full-time job, building visual systems in Canva, and using AI as a helper (especially for hooks) without losing human editorial judgment.
Chapter Breakdown
Episode premise: dissecting each other’s favorite LinkedIn posts
Aakash and Aatir set up the episode: they’ll each pick three LinkedIn posts and break down why they worked, how they were created, and what made them resonate. They frame the conversation as a practical deep dive into writing, visuals, hooks, and distribution dynamics.
The “new trio” in product: PM + Product Marketing + Growth
Aatir introduces a shift from the classic PM–Designer–Engineer trio to a new trio designed to scale sustainable product-market fit. With AI reducing build friction, he argues differentiation, positioning, and scalable acquisition/retention matter more than ever.
Why PMF is fragile: protecting the “magic moment”
They discuss PMF as a dynamic equilibrium that can be disrupted by market shifts, competitors, and platform changes. Aatir explains the “magic moment” concept—one or two key aha experiences that must be preserved across product, messaging, and growth experiments.
Shared understanding across the trio: vision, priorities, metrics, obstacles
Aatir lays out what the PM/PMM/Growth trio must align on to avoid rowing in different directions. He emphasizes vision, problem prioritization, the magic moment, north-star/product metrics, and adoption barriers/objections.
Role mantras and responsibilities: PM vs PMM vs Growth
They translate the trio into concrete responsibilities and day-to-day activities. PMM owns positioning, messaging, launches, and channel strategy; Growth owns lifecycle optimization, experiments, retention hooks, and growth loops.
Alliance problems in orgs: breaking the “handoff” model
Aatir explains the motivation behind the “new trio” post: product, PMM, and growth are often siloed with shallow handoffs. He argues PM and PMM should collaborate from discovery through launch, with growth joining once PMF signals exist.
Growth loops taxonomy: invite, UGC, reputation, expert-driven, and more
Aatir walks through his post cataloging growth loops, using recognizable product examples. The goal is to show how loops create compounding acquisition by embedding sharing, discovery, or multi-user participation into the product experience.
When loops fail: incentives and motivation must match the user’s context
They discuss referral incentives and why even classic loops can backfire if they feel spammy or low-value. Aatir shares an example of a telecom app prompting users to share a mundane purchase—highlighting that loops need authentic user motivation.
“Six Languages of Product Management”: PMs must be multilingual
They unpack the collaborative post about PMs needing to speak multiple stakeholder “languages.” Aatir shares personal stories of learning business terminology and how humorous naming made the post memorable while still delivering a serious point.
Switching to Aakash’s posts: his content evolution and incentives
Aakash explains how his writing evolved across eras: long-form company deep dives, then shorter daily LinkedIn posts to grow Substack, then a split free/paid model. He frames content strategy as downstream of incentives and audience willingness to pay.
Post teardown #1: Netflix decline thread—chart hook + fast research
They break down Aakash’s “5 lessons from Netflix’s decline” post as a Twitter-to-LinkedIn repurpose. The chart served as the hook, and the five-point structure came from Twitter constraints (two tweets per point) and portability to LinkedIn.
Post teardown #2: ‘Your roadmap is not a product strategy’—simple visual wins
Aakash shares how a disagreement with an existing framework (why/what/who/when/where/how) sparked the post. For LinkedIn’s image-post era, he created an ultra-simple visual in Google Docs, screenshot it, and paired it with clear conceptual framing.
Post teardown #3: Sriracha virality—story + dense details + AI-assisted hooks
They analyze Aakash’s most viral LinkedIn post: a rich founder story, novelty at the time, and meticulous research packed into tight copy. Aakash reveals he used early GPT-4 via Bing to generate hook variations—showing AI as an enhancer, not a replacement.
Aatir’s creator workflow: balancing full-time work, Notion ideation, Canva systems
Aatir describes how he sustains output while working full-time: capture ideas in Notion, write from momentum rather than a blank page, and build visuals first. He shows how brand consistency and reusable templates reduce effort and create instant recognizability.
Closing takeaway: be cross-functional, learn the business, think above your role
They end with career advice for early PMs: avoid being trapped in shipping and execution alone. Learn sales, marketing, exec metrics, and customer objections (via CRM/call recordings) to contribute meaningfully to strategy and build products that work for the business.
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