Recently, I’ve been mesmerized by the content pumped out by the guys behind QOVES. Both Shafee and Leo try to walk their audience through what it takes to gigantic tech empires. What makes QOVES remarkable is how they turn faces into data—and data into a product. Their content is also about faces. It’s a brilliant setup because people care about their looks. So humans, as social animals, want that shit. And there are good reasons behind it too. Studies have found that physically attractive workers can earn up to 15% more than those considered less attractive. Data from longitudinal studies reveal that less attractive individuals may face disadvantages beyond earnings, including shorter lifespans, potentially due to cumulative social and economic discrimination. So yeah face is something you will worry about as a primal instinct. Their whole model is built on something primal—our obsession with appearance and social standing. QOVES isn’t just selling beauty analysis; they own the narrative on what “scientific beauty” means. And by being the authority, they control both the information and the solutions (products, consultations, etc.)
I believe all successful tech business that are not b2b (soulless and process driven), are primal. Facebook, Twitter, Robinhood, YouTube, WhatsApp—they don’t win because of features; they win because they tap into primal instincts. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram thrive on social validation, where likes and followers act as digital status markers. WhatsApp, Reddit, and Discord fuel tribal belonging, giving people a sense of identity, communication and security. Robinhood and crypto exchanges play on greed and fear, leveraging FOMO and an implied promise of quick wealth by the communities that surround them. YouTube and TikTok hook users with curiosity and entertainment, mimicking our instinct to keep hunting for new information. Tinder, Instagram, and Snapchat tap into sexual selection, amplifying social signaling and desirability. The formula is simple—find a primal trigger, digitize it, and scale.
While tech products built on primal drives flourish, those without a primal hook often face engagement and adoption challenges. Google+ didn’t falter for lack of features—it missed the raw social validation loops that make Facebook addictive. Google Glass, though innovative, never integrated into daily habits or tapped into our intrinsic desires, rendering it a novelty rather than a necessity. Enterprise software like Salesforce succeeds through necessity, but its adoption is forced through sales cycles rather than organic spread. Even ed-tech, despite its clear value, struggles with low retention because learning requires effort, unlike the effortless dopamine loops of social media. Some non-primal products succeed by embedding themselves into workflows, but they rarely dominate culture.
What lets us be human, for better or for worse, enjoys tailwinds. If you want something to spread effortlessly, align it with what people already are.The best tech products don’t teach, they exploit defaults. People were already status-obsessed before Instagram, already addicted to novelty before TikTok, already gamblers before Robinhood. The companies that win don’t create new behaviors—they strip away friction from old ones until indulging feels automatic. This is why primal tech scales, while rational tech stalls. Any product that asks people to be better, smarter, or more disciplined fights gravity. The ones that let us be more of what we already are? Those take off like wildfire.
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