Marketing Ideas

Marketing Ideas

How Instinct got so viral (and how you can copy it) 🔑

No launch, no website, no socials- just a very specific playbook

Tom Orbach's avatar
Tom Orbach
Sep 17, 2026
∙ Paid

A lot of you asked me how to get Instinct-level buzz for your own product.

In case you missed it, Instinct is a personal AI assistant. You can text it and ask anything: it books the doctor, cancels your subscriptions, orders the groceries, and negotiates with vendors on WhatsApp.

It went from a company no one has ever heard of, to this:

And this is the website (yes, really):

Everything about it is unusual:

  • ❌ No signup button and no app to download, just a waitlist link

  • ❌ No employees talking about it on social

  • ❌ No ads that anyone has seen

  • ❌ No press releases or PR

  • ❌ No launch, anywhere

When the founder finally posted, after tons of rumors, he got 2 million views.

I’m going to show you *exactly* what the company did, because you can copy it too. Even if you barely have users or an audience.

And no, this isn’t “make your product invite-only”. If limiting signups worked so well, every waitlist on the internet would be viral. What worked is a set of decisions the company made about its first users, and every one of them can work on your existing product/service. ✅

Here’s everything you need to know:

🔐 Step zero: how the first users got in

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