Isaac Tebbs on Building Viral Brands and the Future of Consumer Growth

In today's consumer tech landscape, attention is the scarcest commodity—and the most valuable. For companies trying to stand out, paid ads and performance funnels aren't enough. Winning brands are the ones that feel alive: responsive, emotionally intelligent, and natively integrated into the platforms where their users live.

That's where Isaac Tebbs has built his edge.

A self-taught growth strategist who launched his first company at 17, Tebbs has scaled everything from Web3 marketing agencies to debit card startups and fintech infrastructure platforms. At Millions—a gamified debit card targeting Gen Z—he helped attract over 40,000 users and built one of the largest organic social followings in fintech: 1.3 million TikTok followers, 23 million likes, and zero reliance on traditional ads.

"We didn't buy attention. We earned it," he says. "Instead of running ads, we gave money directly to the community. Our message was simple: follow us, play with us, and you might win. It worked because it felt real."

That authenticity was more than a brand strategy—it was the growth engine. One of the most viral moments came during a flight when Tebbs and his team spontaneously filmed a trivia game onboard, rewarding passengers $5 per correct answer. The video racked up 60 million views, 100,000 shares, and drove a wave of new users. No script. No agency. Just a clever idea executed at the right moment.

"People think virality is about scale," he adds. "But it's about emotion. Make someone feel something—curiosity, joy, even surprise—and they'll do the scaling for you."

Tebbs doesn't confine that philosophy to consumer brands. At Knot, a fintech infrastructure company, he leads growth for products like CardSwitcher, which automates the process of updating new cards across dozens of apps. It's the opposite of flashy—but the value is real, and so is the trust it requires from major partners like PayPal and American Express.

The trick, he says, is knowing when to dial the volume down. "At Knot, growth isn't about getting eyeballs. It's about building confidence with billion-dollar platforms. You still need clarity and story—it just plays to a different audience."

That adaptability is a thread that runs through Tebbs' career. Whether it's running CryptoBoost during the 2021 bull run or launching GlareSquare, a guerrilla marketing studio that creates real-world brand moments designed to go viral without attribution, he gravitates toward ideas that challenge convention.

One GlareSquare campaign involved planting the logo of a well-known lifestyle brand in unexpected public spaces—with no announcement, no call-to-action, and no reveal. The goal? Let the internet do what it does best: speculate, share, and amplify.

"It was about mystery. We created a loop people wanted to close. And because it wasn't trying to sell anything, it spread faster," Tebbs recalls. "The best campaigns don't always shout. Sometimes they whisper."

That balance—between boldness and restraint, between emotion and infrastructure—is where Tebbs thrives. He credits much of his growth success to the ability to move fast, test constantly, and stay honest about what's working. Not every idea hits, but the ones that do resonate deeply.

"There's no playbook," he says. "You have to be curious. You have to care enough to ask why people engage—or why they don't."

What he doesn't buy into is the obsession with metrics over meaning. "Clicks, views, installs—those are symptoms," he says. "But the root of growth is connection. Did you earn someone's attention? Did you respect it? Did you give them something worth remembering?"

Looking ahead, Tebbs is most excited about where consumer growth meets data. As platforms evolve and user-permissioned data becomes more accessible, he sees an opportunity to build financial products that are not just reactive, but intelligently responsive.

"You'll see fintech tools that adapt in real time to a person's spending behavior, financial goals, and even mood," he says. "That kind of personalization is where the next wave of growth will come from—if you can make it feel human."

At 25, Isaac Tebbs has already helped shape how fintech brands go viral, how infrastructure gets adopted, and how emotion drives engagement. But if you ask him what matters most, it isn't the follower count or the growth charts.

"The question I always come back to," he says, "is: why would anyone care?"