Pat Walls + Starter Story: X Growth Playbook

Pat Walls, the founder of Starter Story, has mastered the art of growing his platform on X (formerly Twitter). His strategy is straightforward but highly effective.

He posts simple captions paired with 2-3 images.

The captions often highlight how much money a successful entrepreneur is making with their app or SaaS.

The images typically include a screenshot of the app or SaaS being discussed, along with a link to the Starter Story article about it.

For example, in one post, Pat shares:

"weekend AI project + a few tiktoks = $16K/month business. we're in the golden age of solopreneurship. get on the ride!"

While in another post, he shares:

"Woah... this $190K/month AI app sends flirty texts for you 🤯"

This format works because it combines curiosity with inspiration — people want to know how others are succeeding and how much they’re earning.

Similarities with Starter Story's X Account

Starter Story's X Account is extremely similar to Pat Walls personal X account.

Earlier, Starter Story used its logo in X posts, but it didn’t perform as well. Now, Pat uses his own face for the Starter Story account as well, and the engagement has improved significantly.

This aligns with advice from Sam Ovens, who explains in his masterclass Ninja Shit — Playing To The Biases Of Facebook's Algorithm that personal fan pages outperform business pages.

This approach works because people connect with people, not logos.

Pat Walls’ strategy mirrors this: by using his face, he makes the brand feel more relatable and less corporate.

Inspiration Over Knowledge

Starter Story isn’t just about sharing knowledge—it’s about inspiring future entrepreneurs.

Daniel Vassallo nailed this idea when he tweeted: "People need inspiration more than knowledge."

I've watched plenty of videos on Starter Story's YouTube Channel and the videos mostly contain surface-level stuff but they do really well because they provide one thing better than anyone else: inspiration.

People love hearing about others’ success because it helps them visualize their own potential.

Pieter Levels is a prime example of how sharing earnings can build a following.

Pieter frequently tweets about his income, like this: "Making $50k/mo with NomadList and Remote OK on a single PHP server."

This is one reason why motivational pages have a mega fan following. Every person lives their own life as their own hero. When they see someone making $50k/mo, they think of themselves in that position and not the person making $50k/mo.

Starter Story’s vast library of over 4,000 case studies provides endless content for this approach.

If you’re looking to grow on X or any brand account, take a page from Pat Walls’ playbook: keep it simple, focus on inspiration, and let your audience see the human behind the brand.

Top Tweets of the day

1/

Go where your customers are.

2/

The reason XML is better for prompt engineering over Markdown:

LLMs were trained on the web which has over 96% HTML and HTML is a subset of XML.

That's why LLMs respond the best to XML.

Its kinda like responding to your native language. XML is LLMs' mother tongue.

3/

Before you can become an influencer, you have to go through this rite of passage.

Bonus points if you can use mean screenshots for engagement.

Rabbit Holes

1. Building a phone farm for manipulation… by Jacky Chou

2. We spent $3800 on FB ads for Dental Clinic — Here’s What Actually Worked by /r/Entrepreneur

3. My AI/LLM predictions for the next 1, 3 and 6 years by Simon Willison

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2. Marketing Genius of Spotify Wrapped (LINK)

3. Josh Richards TikTok Growth Strategy (LINK)

4. 1 Billion Organic Views in 180 Days (LINK)