I cannot be entirely sure if nineteen-year-old Justin Jin is playing an elaborate joke on me. To be fair, Jin’s company Giggles—“a trading app mixed with TikTok,” as he describes it—began as a mock idea.
“This was around 2023, when TikTok faced potential bans, and people were searching for a new social media outlet,” Jin shared with TechCrunch. “I created a meme about an app named Giggles, which wasn’t real then, but it went viral on TikTok.”
The name plays on a joke where TikTok users respond to stale memes with, “bro got banned from google giggles.” It was intended as a place to post millennial cringe moments (like Threads), though initially fictional. But Jin made it real.
Jin devised a landing page and logo mimicking a Google app, along with a waitlist sign-up. The page drew 100,000 visits in a single day, prompting Jin to partner with Edwin Wang to develop the app.
Jin and Wang’s connection isn’t through traditional avenues like Stanford, McKinsey, or startup incubators—Jin met Wang while he ran a controversial Minecraft marketplace as a YouTuber, which was eventually closed for platform rule violations.
The resulting company, befitting a Minecraft YouTuber and NFT collector, is a TikTok-Kalshi hybrid where users share “brainrot” videos and earn “aura points” through investments. Soon, it will allow crypto investments instead of aura. Despite being invite-only, Jin states that 450,000 users have joined.
“Our aim is to be the first crypto platform where users engage for over 30 minutes daily,” Jin expressed. “By crafting a captivating doomscroll experience, we capitalize on dopamine cycles, potentially retaining users.”
A meme-driven crypto app harnessing dopamine cycles founded by a Minecraft YouTuber? A funding round precisely totaling $1,234,567? While writing this, I became suspicious—my mind overwhelmed by brainrot as I confronted AI misinformation and the challenge of discerning online reality.
It seems crazy that someone might create an app as a joke, but we live in a time of vibe coding, and journalists are often tricked. If Jin fooled Google, perhaps TechCrunch is next? Could I become infamous as the writer who took Giggles too seriously, ruining my vocation through faith in a magnetic nineteen-year-old who sold fidget spinners at school?
My doubts weren’t baseless. Looking into Jin’s prior venture, Mediababy (formerly Poybo), the testimonials and press claims were sketchy. One journalist cited on Mediababy’s site hadn’t made the quoted testimonial. It’s probably just a young entrepreneur overstepping growth hacking, yet it felt unsettling.
I felt akin to the Pepe Silvia meme, spiraling, linking disconnected clues to craft a narrative. Even the launch video contained Rickroll—was it a hint?
Giggles secured $1,234,567 from 1k(x), so I reached out to its investors to verify their involvement, despite already emailing the firm’s marketing lead. Some scammers have mimicked the TechCrunch domain to prey on founders—had Jin tried this too? By then, trust had vanished!
I eventually got 1k(x)’s confirmation of the deal’s authenticity. I dined and ventured outside, feeling foolish for sending those LinkedIn messages. (You must admit, those fake testimonials are odd.)
Ordinarily, I’d avoid self-indulgent reflections in a startup article. But with Giggles, it’s justified. Jin’s comments during our conversation resonated with me.
“I suspect bots are taking over these social media platforms, and since their current advertising revolves around likes and views… botting might become a major issue,” he stated. “I see trading predictions on virality as a method to better organize information.”
Emerging social media apps must recognize the surge of AI content and bots. Social media promises connectivity, yet it’s morphing into a digital haystack where humans can’t find each other. It’s unsurprising that Jin’s peers embrace nihilistic humor, labeling their own creations as brainrot.
“Everyone is more content-oriented, and anonymity encourages authenticity—you won’t post brainrot on Facebook, for instance,” he noted. “Honestly, many young people are anxious. The world is bizarre.”
Giggles, now a plausible venture, employs eight individuals, aged 19 to 38, with Jin as the youngest.
“It’s risky starting a company,” Jin mentioned. “It’s essentially gambling. You’re betting on outperforming traditional jobs.”
I asked him if launching Giggles feels like gambling.
“It’s not gambling. Lottery tickets are gambling. Pure luck-based activities are gambling and exploitative,” he answered.
Despite this, he admits to recreating memecoins—cryptos based on valueless memes and often subject to rug pull scams.
“Many view memecoins as