Everyone’s calling App Mafia scammers. Honestly? Selling a course is fine, I sell one too!
The outrage is misplaced
It's not the $997 price tag, not the cringe Lambos
It's that they treated people like furniture in their movie
First law of persuasion: people don’t want to watch your story
They want to be the star in their own
Donald Miller calls this StoryBrand (aka "not being a narcissistic asshole")
The rule: the customer is the hero, you’re the guide. The customer is using your tool/system to get to their goal, you're helping them.
App Mafia broke it:
Hero mode (What they did):
> We made $70M!
> 300M downloads!
> $3.6M / month!
> Look at our mansion!
> Party every day!
> You could never do this without us
> Slap this badge on your profile, hype us up., then we'll drop a $997 course and kick you out
Translation: "Worship us, losers"
Guide mode (What works):
> Stuck at 12 downloads? We’ve been there. Here’s how we solved it
> Our first 10 apps failed, this trick made the 11th work
> Think you’re too small to compete? So did we, until we figured out distribution
> We’ll help you get to 1,000 true users faster than we did
Translation: "We see you. Let’s fix this together"
Make yourself the Hero and you’re basically saying:
"Your job is to bankroll my lifestyle"
That’s why the backlash feels so visceral, not because it’s a course, because it’s an ego status play
The tragedy? These guys did build real apps. Some of the knowledge is worth $997
But humans have bullshit detectors. We know when we’re being cast as NPCs in someone else’s story.
That’s why the "affiliate badge" stunt blew up, they turned other creators into unpaid interns
You want to sell something? Make it about THEM:
- their struggle (stuck under 100 users)
- their villain (the algorithm ignoring them)
- their transformation (shipping something people want, becoming a founder)
- their wins (freedom from 9-5, +$1k/mo)
Not your rented lambo
The best marketers disappear from their own marketing:
-
@marclou sells a boilerplate & course but has a leaderboard of customer wins!
-
@arvidkahl (author of "Zero to Sold") spotlights bootstrapped founders' transformations in his podcast, framing his advice as the guide to help you sell your business and live your best life
-
@dvassallo sells courses on small bets but it's about the community and YOUR wins
- Airbnb doesn’t brag "we raised billions", their story is always about your trip, your host, your adventure
- Shopify (Tobi Lütke) rarely brags, he frames Shopify as the tool that empowers entrepreneurs
- Alex Hormozi (ironically), makes you the hero, his frameworks become your success story
Think about it:
Someone uses Hormozi's $100M Offers to rewrite their pricing page
Who's the hero? Not Hormozi
It's the entrepreneur who doubled revenue
They brag to friends about THEIR win, not Alex's
For me the switch flipped when I realized:
-
@LinkDR_ doesn’t "get you backlinks" It’s the tool the Hero uses to get backlinks
-
@GenPPT isn’t "making slides", you are, the tool just empowers you
-
@MagicSpaceSEO doesn't brag "we got 3x more traffic in 6 months" The client (Hero) is the one who grew traffic, we’re just the Guide who helped
The brand isn’t the Hero, the user is the Hero, always
App Mafia made themselves the Hero, and sold tickets to their own movie
The market always punishes this
Because people don't hate courses
They hate being told their hopes & dreams are just your revenue stream
You're not angry they're selling something
You're angry they made it clear you don't matter
And you should be
Because anyone selling "success" who doesn't get this basic human truth isn't successful
They're just assholes with metrics