Her DMs were overflowing. Her next business was hiding in them.
Vivan Tu. Photo: Courtesy Subject
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Vivian Tu’s latest business began with questions she could not keep answering. The creator behind Your Rich BFF told me she was receiving about 1,000 direct messages a day.
Many came from people trying to understand their finances. Some sent information that did not belong in a social media inbox. Others wanted help with decisions too specific for a general video. The volume gave her a product idea. It also showed the limits of the business she already had.
“I wasn’t able to get back to everybody,” Tu said. “And that really frustrated me because it essentially left people hanging.”
Tu, the CEO and founder of Your Rich BFF and Ask Dolly, built the latter around that gap. The financial platform combines educational content with account tools and access to human financial professionals, according to its current website.
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For founders, the useful part of the story starts before the app. Tu had a recurring customer problem arriving in her inbox, and a decision to make about who would own the response.
Read beyond the engagement
An audience can applaud content without wanting to buy a related product. Repeated questions offer a different signal. They show where a general answer stops being sufficient.
Tu said people asked about retirement accounts and medical bills, often supplying details about their individual situations. A public post could explain a concept. It could not give every person the private, ongoing attention they were seeking.