As of October of this year BeReal is at 10 million daily active users and is now valued at over $600 million. She’s still going hard despite the competition of TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter.

Did you know the app started in the basement of a burger shop at Harvard University?

Students were offered free admission to a party at Tasty Burger if they downloaded BeReal and shared it with 5 friends. What college kid would turn down free food?

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Related story: Is authenticity boring? What the BeReal content mix has taught us

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BeReal kickstarted an ambassador program that swept the nation. The entire program is built around empowering their ambassadors, a big risk. Unlike other ambassador programs, BeReal ambassadors manage a marketing budget, host parties, and execute their own creative, and get PAID. 

Here’s their College Class of Fall 2022 application. 

The more signups you got, the more money you made. And that meant more users on BeReal’s app. BeReal identified who they wanted using their app, aligned incentives with their ambassadors, and grew.

What to learn from BeReal:

1. People trust people more than they trust brands. When done right, ambassador programs are extremely effective.
2.  Authenticity works. Consumers are craving authenticity. Brands that can be human and real will be way ahead of their competition 
3. People want to follow people, not companies. Again, Be Human

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This content appeared in this week’s edition of The Sauce newsletter. Subscribe here.