Twitter Growth Masterclass: How Lovable's Dual-Account Strategy Built 176K Followers in 18 Months
@lovable_dev and @antonosika achieved remarkable growth through dramatically different approaches—one focused on milestones and product excellence, the other weaponized controversy and bold claims. Together they created a symbiotic growth engine that propelled Lovable to $100M ARR faster than any software company in history.
The Dual-Account Advantage
@lovable_dev grew from zero to 112K followers as a brand-new company account starting April 2024, while @antonosika accelerated from ~1K to 64.4K followers by transforming a 14-year-old dormant personal account into a founder brand. The company account focuses on milestones and product excellence, while the founder account weaponizes controversy and bold claims. Together, they created a symbiotic growth engine that propelled Lovable from beta to $100M ARR in 8 months—faster than any software company in history.
The most striking finding: both accounts maintained or improved engagement rates despite explosive follower growth, indicating genuine audience building rather than vanity metrics. @lovable_dev's posts now receive 10-30x more engagement than early posts, while @antonosika's viral moments generate 40x more likes than his 2023 baseline—all while the company achieved an unprecedented 85% 30-day retention rate that turned users into organic amplifiers.
Early Posts vs. Current Performance: Dramatic Scaling
@lovable_dev launched with immediate traction by leveraging the existing GPT-Engineer community of 50,000+ GitHub stars and 27,000 waitlist signups. Early posts (April-October 2024) averaged 50-200 likes and 10-30 retweets, focused on beta announcements and product demos. The account's first major viral moment came with their Product Hunt #1 launch in October 2024, which generated thousands of signups in 24 hours.
Exponential Engagement Growth:
The September 29, 2025 "Introducing Lovable Cloud & AI" announcement achieved 3.9M views with 8,800 likes and 1,800 retweets—representing a 10-30x increase in engagement compared to similar early content. Major announcements now routinely break 1-2M views, while standard product updates garner 100K-300K views versus estimated 10K-50K for early equivalent content.
@antonosika's transformation is even more dramatic. His June 10, 2023 gpt-engineer launch tweet marked the account's first breakout moment with 662.4K views and 2.5K likes—after years of dormancy. This established his technical credibility and developer audience. By 2025, his posts regularly exceed 1M views, with his April 2025 Figma controversy post hitting 4M views and 17K likes—a 6x increase in views compared to the gpt-engineer launch that first put him on the map.
Engagement Growth Multipliers
- • @lovable_dev: 4-5x growth in average likes on regular posts
- • @antonosika: 40x growth in average engagement
- • Both achieved this despite massive follower increases that typically dilute engagement rates
Follower Growth Patterns: Orchestrated Milestone-Driven Acceleration
@lovable_dev: Classic SaaS Hypergrowth Curve
@lovable_dev followed a classic SaaS hypergrowth curve, averaging 6,000-6,200 followers per month across 18 months, but with distinct acceleration phases tied to company milestones:
Building Phase
April-Sept 2024
3,000-4,000 followers/month through community engagement and beta access
Launch Phase
Oct 2024
Product Hunt #1 + Hacker News drove 10K+ followers in days → 20K-40K total
Hypergrowth Phase
Jan-Oct 2025
$10M ARR → $100M ARR announcements drove to 112K followers
January 2025's $10M ARR announcement triggered the second acceleration to 50K-70K followers as tech media coverage went mainstream. The July 2025 unicorn moment—announcing $200M funding at $1.8B valuation alongside $100M ARR—created peak visibility, pushing the account toward 100K followers. By October 2025, they reached 102K-112K followers, representing 28,000% theoretical growth from launch in just 18 months.
@antonosika: Three Distinct Eras
@antonosika's growth reveals three distinct eras. After minimal growth from 2009-2022 (likely under 1K followers), the June 2023 gpt-engineer launch initiated the first acceleration phase, adding an estimated 500-1,000 followers monthly to reach ~5K by late 2023.
| Period | Monthly Growth | Total Followers | Key Catalyst |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-2022 | Minimal | ~1K | Dormant/Academic |
| 2023 | 500-1K | ~5K | gpt-engineer launch |
| Late 2024 | 800-1.2K | ~15K | Lovable public launch |
| Dec 2024-Oct 2025 | ~5K | 64.4K | Viral posts + Figma controversy |
The April 2025 Figma controversy alone added an estimated 15K followers in one week, while the July 2025 funding announcements brought another 10K. From 15K followers at the end of 2023 to 64.4K in October 2025, Anton added 49,400 followers in 10 months—a 6,340% increase from his 2023 baseline.
Critical Growth Accelerators:
- ✓ Product Hunt success
- ✓ Funding announcements coinciding with viral posts
- ✓ Controversy positioning them as underdogs against giants
- ✓ Transparent metric sharing that built credibility
Engagement Metrics: Healthy Audience Quality
@lovable_dev's engagement rates remained remarkably stable despite 112K follower growth—indicating high-quality, non-inflated audience:
| Metric | Early (Apr-Oct 2024) | Recent (2025) | Growth Factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg Likes (Regular) | 50-200 | 200-1,000 | 4-5x |
| Avg Retweets | 10-30 | 50-150 | 5x |
| Avg Replies | 5-15 | 20-50 | 3-4x |
| Views (Major Posts) | 10K-100K | 300K-3.9M | 10-30x |
| Engagement Rate | ~2-3% | ~3-5% | 1.5-2x |
Peak performing posts include the Lovable Cloud & AI launch (3.9M views, 11,299 interactions), founder Anton's $200M funding thread (2.5M views, 16,361 interactions), and the $100M ARR announcement (1M+ views, significant viral spread).
@antonosika: Even Stronger Engagement Rate Improvement
| Period | Avg Likes | Avg Retweets | Avg Views | Engagement Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early 2023 | 50-200 | 20-80 | 50K-200K | 0.15-0.3% |
| Late 2023 | 200-800 | 80-200 | 200K-500K | 0.3-0.4% |
| 2024 | 800-3K | 150-500 | 500K-1.5M | 0.4-0.5% |
| 2025 | 3K-17K | 500-2.5K | 1M-4M | 0.5-0.7% |
His engagement rate doubled even as followers increased 60x—from 0.15-0.3% in early 2023 to 0.5-0.7% in 2025. This represents 40x growth in absolute likes (50 → 2K average) and 25x growth in retweets (20 → 500 average).
The Rare Feat
Both accounts achieved the rare feat of maintaining or improving engagement as they scaled. This contradicts typical social media growth where engagement rates decline as follower counts increase, suggesting their audiences are genuinely interested rather than accumulated through artificial means.
Both accounts also show strong reply engagement (10-50% of like counts), indicating two-way conversations rather than broadcast-only accounts—a key quality signal.
Viral Moments: Compounding Growth Loops
@lovable_dev: Three Categories of Virality
@lovable_dev's viral moments clustered around three categories: product launches, funding/milestone announcements, and manufactured controversy.
- October 2024 Product Hunt Launch: #1 ranking and perfect 5-star rating established credibility overnight, creating the "fastest growing startup in Europe" narrative
- December 2024 "$4M ARR in 4 weeks": (1.2M views, 4,400 likes) triggered mainstream tech media coverage and established unprecedented speed narrative
- July 2025 Unicorn Announcement: Anton's $200M funding origin story thread (2.5M views) followed by $100M ARR milestone generated sustained visibility across multiple days and platforms
Viral Growth Hack: "Linkable"
They released a free LinkedIn-to-website tool that generated 20,000 websites in days, each featuring "Edit with Lovable" CTAs—converting viral moment into thousands of signups. The Cognizant hackathon partnership (53,000 participants, 24 hours, Guinness World Record) provided enterprise validation at scale.
@antonosika: Weaponized Controversy
@antonosika weaponized controversy with stunning results. His April 15, 2025 Figma dispute post achieved 4M views—his highest-performing post ever: "figma says we can't use the word 'dev mode' in lovable 😄"
The underdog-vs-giant narrative resonated powerfully, with developer community outrage amplifying reach. This single controversy likely added 15K followers in one week.
Common Viral Elements
Content Strategy:
- ✓ Superlative claims backed by specific data
- ✓ Comparison anchoring to known brands
- ✓ Controversy positioning as underdog
- ✓ Founder authenticity and vulnerability
Execution:
- ✓ Visual proof through demos
- ✓ Community participation mechanisms
- ✓ Strategic timing aligned with industry narratives
- ✓ Personal storytelling angle
Strategic Insights: Replicable Growth Mechanics
The comparative analysis reveals @lovable_dev and @antonosika operate as symbiotic growth engine: the company account focuses on product excellence, milestone celebration, and community building, while the founder account takes bold stances, engages controversy, and provides authentic personal narrative.
Pre-Built Audience: The Decisive Advantage
GPT-Engineer's 50K+ GitHub stars and 27K waitlist signups provided launch momentum that most startups lack. The open-source-to-commercial pipeline built trust before asking for payment—developers validated technical capability, then became customers.
Viral Mechanics Embedded in Product Design
Self-Reinforcing Growth:
- • "Launched" showcase platform with "Edit with Lovable" buttons on every project
- • User-generated content amplification through reposts
- • Hackathon participations creating mass exposure
- • Each created app serving as advertisement for the platform
Founder-Led Brand Strategy
Anton's 64.4K followers provided separate distribution channel, personal vulnerability in threads humanized company success, technical credibility from physics/CERN background validated AI claims, and willingness to challenge larger companies (Figma dispute) generated underdog support.
Content Formula Optimization
| What Works | What Doesn't |
|---|---|
| "$100M ARR in 8 months" | "Rapid growth" |
| "Build in 30 seconds" | "Powerful tool" |
| Compare vs Notion, Figma, OpenAI | Generic statements |
| Narrative threads (3-5x engagement) | Single tweets for major news |
| Working demos | Feature lists |
| Vulnerability and honesty | Over-polished corporate speak |
The Replicable Playbook
What You Can Copy:
- ✓ Build open-source credibility first
- ✓ Document every milestone as content
- ✓ Empower users as heroes and amplifiers
- ✓ Partner strategically with complementary companies
- ✓ Maintain strong founder presence
- ✓ Create community showcase platforms
- ✓ Practice radical transparency
- ✓ Move fast in rapidly evolving spaces
Unique Advantages (Can't Be Replicated):
- • Perfect timing riding AI coding boom at inflection point
- • Exceptional product achieving 85% 30-day retention
- • Experienced technical founders with physics/YC credentials
- • Significant capital ($200M) enabling rapid scaling
The Bottom Line
The @lovable_dev and @antonosika case study demonstrates that in the AI era, community-driven growth combined with bold positioning, authentic storytelling, and product excellence can achieve extraordinary results:
- • 112K company followers and 64.4K founder followers in 18 months
- • Building what became the fastest-growing SaaS in history
- • Dual-account strategy: institutional credibility + founder authenticity
- • Created more impact than either could achieve alone
For founders and solopreneurs looking to build an audience, the lesson is clear: you need both the polish of a company brand and the authenticity of a founder voice. The two working together create a growth engine that's greater than the sum of its parts—and when backed by a product people genuinely love, that engine can achieve the kind of velocity that changes industries.
Ready to Build Your Own Dual-Account Strategy?
The same principles that drove Lovable's Twitter growth can power your own social media presence. Start with authentic storytelling, document your milestones, and maintain consistent engagement with your community.
Need help managing your social media schedule and maintaining that crucial consistency? We can help.