Sub Club by RevenueCat
- Episodes
- 178
- Released
- every two weeks
- Latest episode
- Nov 11, 2026
About the podcast
Interviews with the experts behind the biggest apps in the App Store. Hosts David Barnard and Jacob Eiting dive deep to unlock insights, strategies, and stories that you can use to carve out your slice of the 'trillion-dollar App Store opportunity'.
Episodes 178
What 80M users taught Flo about A/B testing — Mike Charniatsou
On the podcast: separating paywall wins from business wins, the A/B test that lost twice before delivering a 23% lift, and why you should borrow ideas, not steal solutions.Top Takeaways:🕰️ A subscription …
Show notes
On the podcast: separating paywall wins from business wins, the A/B test that lost twice before delivering a 23% lift, and why you should borrow ideas, not steal solutions.
Top Takeaways:
🕰️ A subscription doesn't have to start in week one
40% of subscriptions arriving more than six months after install is a healthy number when you track how each user’s needs change and sell only when something new is worth paying for.
🧭 Paywall conversion is not your monetization strategy
A subscription is a lifecycle (trial start, activation, retention), and a conversion win at one step of the funnel can still be a business loss.
🧮 Check whether your A/B wins actually compounded
Add up a year of 5–10% reported uplifts, then ask whether the business grew by that much; the gap is the share of wins that weren't real.
🔎 When a test fails, iterate on evidence, not on an explanation
An onboarding step lost 10% twice while the team guessed at design fixes; the postmortem found 75% of users hit an "oops, sorry" screen, and the rewrite won 23%.
📣 Marketing finds the unmet need before product does
An ad narrative that over-performed in the existing funnel became its own onboarding branch, and a strong revenue driver, once product built for it.
🧩 Borrow the idea, not the solution
A paywall pattern that other teams reported as a 10% win was copied pixel for pixel and did nothing, and the Blinkist-style reminder paywall and the trial toggle both failed at two different companies.About Mike Charniatsou:
🗣️Senior Growth Product Manager at Flo Health, the world’s leading period and ovulation tracker, empowering over 400 million women globally to take control of their health. With 77 million monthly active users, including 25% of US women, Flo has become a trusted partner in women's health.👋 Linkedin
🖥️Learn more about Flo Health
💼 Flo Health Careers
Follow us on X: David Barnard - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @SubClubHQEpisode Highlights:
[00:00] Introducing Mike Charniatsou of Flo
[01:48] Scaling Luna to Nearly $6M ARR
[02:52] Why Mike Left a CPO Role to Build Again at Flo
[04:25] Building Web Onboarding Without a Playbook
[06:27] The Hidden Cost of Web-to-App Funnels
[07:00] How Growth Changes From Early Stage to Flo’s Scale
[08:28] What Ad Budget Scale Unlocks for Experimentation
[09:54] Turning a Meta Ad Insight Into a New Onboarding Goal
[12:35] Easing the Tension Between Marketing and Product Teams
[13:52] How Flo Shares Insights Through Weekly Syncs
[14:36] Why Paywall Conversion Is Not Your Monetization Strategy
[16:31] When a Hard Paywall Win Led to a Spike in Refunds
[17:45] How to Tell a Short-Term Win From a Business Win
[19:19] Balancing Freemium Users and Monetization
[20:12] Why 40% of Flo’s Subscriptions Come After Six Months
[23:02] Building Monetization Around a Woman’s Life Stages
[24:59] Cherishing the Customer Relationship
[26:29] Measuring Free Trial Experiments With Proxy Events
[28:22] Learning From Failed Experiments With Evidence
[29:41] The Perimenopause Step That Went From a 10% Loss to a 23% Win
[33:25] Why Flo Runs Blackout Tests
[34:14] Borrowing Ideas Instead of Copying Solutions
[36:51] Why the Blinkist Paywall Failed at Flo and Luna
[37:27] The Problem With Adding Streaks to Everything
[39:21] Mike’s Biggest Win of the Year
[39:54] Why Partner Mode Failed in Onboarding
[40:43] Growth Would Be Easier If....More content from the RevenueCat family:
👉 Launched – Our sister show that features indie app developers and solo creators about what it really takes to ship something new into the world: https://www.youtube.com/@LaunchedFM
👉StartApp School – Practical courses on monetization, growth, acquisition, and everything else that turns an app into a business. Completely free: https://www.startapp.school/
👉RevenueCat blog: Monthly plans might be your best option: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/monthly-subscriptions-when-to-offer/
👉Web-to-app funnels: the complete 2026 guide: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/web-to-app-funnels/
👉Is localization the next great growth opportunity for subscription apps?: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/is-localization-the-next-great-growth-opportunity-for-subscription-apps/
👉Annual subscriptions for apps: The pros and cons: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/annual-subscriptions-apps-pros-cons/How Praktika Built a Profitable $50M ARR AI Business — Adam Turaev, Praktika
On the podcast: the month they went from $1M to $12M ARR, selling Brazil on career upgrades instead of English lessons, and why you shouldn’t tell influencers how to do their job.Top Takeaways:🔍 Filter creators …
Show notes
On the podcast: the month they went from $1M to $12M ARR, selling Brazil on career upgrades instead of English lessons, and why you shouldn’t tell influencers how to do their job.
Top Takeaways:
🔍 Filter creators by reach, not following
Under 5,000 followers but tens of millions of views means the algorithm has already picked them and nobody else has priced them yet.🙅 Don't tell influencers how to do their job
The creator video the CEO didn't like did 30M views across three platforms and took ARR from $1M to $12M in a single month.🧱 Keep the creator program and paid acquisition as separate streams
Creators keep generating angles the in-house team has run out of, and paid reproduces whichever video goes viral.🎓 Staff the program with ex-creators, not managers
The influencer lead and the country coaches were all making videos first, and each coach now rotates a roster of 20 or 30 creators.💼 Sell the outcome, not the activity
A $100-a-year subscription sold in a market with weak purchasing power because the claim was a better job, not better English.🚧 Growth can be unhinged; the product can't
Cursing avatars went viral upper-funnel, then users rejected them inside the app, so product rules now live on a one-pager whilst creators keep almost unlimited freedom.About Adam Turaev:
🗣️ Co-founder of Praktika, an immersive language learning app with generative AI Avatars, empowering the next billion learners to overcome language barriers and seize new opportunities.👋 Linkedin
🖥️Learn more about PraktikaFollow us on X:
- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Introducing Adam Turaev of Praktika[01:26] Why Adam Left Enterprise Chatbots for Language Learning
[04:22] Betting on Conversational AI Before the LLM Boom
[06:45] How Early Chatbot Experience Shaped Praktika
[08:53] Competing With Duolingo by Targeting Career Growth
[10:03] Why Brazil Became Praktika’s First Target Market
[12:23] Selling Better Jobs Instead of English Lessons
[14:07] Building AI Language Tutors Before the Technology Was Ready
[18:41] Will Real-Time AI Translation Make Language Learning Obsolete?
[21:07] Why Speaking a Language Is About More Than Translation
[23:09] What Separates an AI Coach From ChatGPT Voice
[26:10] Why the Job to Be Done Should Drive Product Decisions
[29:16] How AI Could Help Human Tutors Reach More Students
[30:51] Why Praktika Uses Animated Avatars to Reduce Speaking Anxiety
[34:19] Finding Micro-Influencers With High Reach and Low Followings
[37:15] The Correction Video That Took Praktika From $1M to $12M ARR
[40:19] Replicating a Viral Format Across Countries and Creators
[41:49] Hiring Gustavo and Giving Creators Freedom
[43:58] Building an Influencer Program With Over 100 Creators
[46:41] How Praktika Pays Creators and Turns Wins Into Paid Ads
[48:47] When Unhinged AI Avatars Backfired Inside the App
[50:36] Setting Different Creative Boundaries for Growth and Product
[52:25] Reaching $50M ARR With a Team of Just Over 40
[53:14] Building Proactive AI Coaches Beyond Language Learning
[55:13] Balancing AI Inference Costs With Product Quality
[58:04] Why Switching From Flutter to Native iOS Improved Conversion
[01:00:03] Praktika’s Biggest Failed Experiment With AI Avatars
[01:00:35] Why Copycat Competitors Make Growth Harder
How Cal AI turned creators into a growth machine — Jake Castillo, Cal AI
On the podcast: the “magic moment” test for whether creators can sell your app, the one number that caps what you can pay them, and why cloning hit apps like Cal AI rarely pays off.Top Takeaways:🥊 Choose …
Show notes
On the podcast: the “magic moment” test for whether creators can sell your app, the one number that caps what you can pay them, and why cloning hit apps like Cal AI rarely pays off.
Top Takeaways:
🥊 Choose creator niches by what the viewer wants, not what the creator does
UFC fighters track every calorie, but their audience is on the couch with pizza, and thousands of dollars of posts produced no download spike.✨ Creator content only sells an app that has a magic moment
A scan-analyze-result sequence made viewers do a double take; without that, the app’s appearance in a creator’s video reads as an ad and never goes viral.🧮 Never pay a CPM above your revenue per thousand views, and go flat rate
Break-even is set by a creator's average views, and the profit sits in the one post that goes mega viral, which a flat fee lets you keep.🏷️ Keep the price low on purpose when the goal is to be the app everyone has
$30 a year, among the cheapest in the category, was a deliberate choice to be the easiest app to buy rather than the most profitable per user.🧬 Sharing the playbook publicly is safe when the edge is a thousand tested details
The clones that copied a public growth story were never going to catch up with a team that was obsessed with small compounding improvements.
About Jake Castillo:
🚀Co-founder of Cal AI, the AI-powered app for easy calorie tracking. Snap a photo, scan a barcode, or describe your meal and get instant calorie and nutrient info👋 Linkedin
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Why the truth is always in the comments[00:29] How Jake met Zach and joined Cal AI
[06:11] The creator partnership that changed Cal AI's trajectory
[09:45] Why fitness creators were the perfect channel
[13:57] Cal AI's three-step "magic moment"
[17:40] Why Cal AI wasn't afraid of copycats
[19:53] The UFC and mukbang creator bets that flopped
[25:21] How to spot creators who will convert
[28:00] Finding creators before they blow up
[30:12] Pricing creator deals around revenue per 1,000 views
[35:30] Measuring creator performance when attribution gets murky
[39:04] Building the systems to manage hundreds of creators
[43:09] The real secret to signing creators at scale
[46:50] When and how Cal AI added paid ads
[51:59] Keeping the experience consistent from ad to onboarding
[55:07] Why Cal AI kept its price at $30 a year
[58:47] The MyFitnessPal acquisition
[01:03:36] Lightning round: affiliate deals and doing the work
How WeWard Hit 20M Users Without Paid Ads — Yves Benchimol, WeWard
On the podcast: growing for four years on press and organic alone, affiliate deals as an underexplored revenue stream, and why deciding to pivot is the hardest part.Top Takeaways:🗞️ A PR retainer can beat paid …
Show notes
On the podcast: growing for four years on press and organic alone, affiliate deals as an underexplored revenue stream, and why deciding to pivot is the hardest part.
Top Takeaways:
🗞️ A PR retainer can beat paid UA for a mass-market app
A $3–5K monthly retainer produced months with half a million downloads and four years of growth with zero Meta or Google spend.🤝 Affiliate deals are the revenue stream most subscription apps still ignore
Brands pay commission only on sales, so the pitch to Nike-sized partners is low-risk for them and the deals are reached directly, not invented.📏 Pick the metric that is the user's outcome and A/B test every feature against it
A walking app that refuses to track time in app and measures steps instead shipped a feature that lifted steps 10% by locking social media behind a step goal.🌍 A growth playbook that works in one country can fail completely in the next
The PR strategy that pulled 300,000 downloads from a single French TV segment produced nothing in the US, where nobody knew the founder or the app.⭐ A celebrity works harder as a shareholder than as a spokesperson
An ambassador-plus-investor deal changed hiring, press replies, CAC and retention at once, though the impact can be difficult to precisely quantify.⏱️ At scale, app review times are a growth constraint, not an inconvenience
The more parallel A/B tests you run, the more a 24-hour (or five-day) release cycle caps how fast you can learn.
About Yves Benchimol:
🚶 Founder of WeWard, a free mobile app backed by Venus Williams designed to make walking a more rewarding part of people's lives. WeWard’s mission is simple: to get more people walking the world over.
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Meet Yves Benchimol of WeWard
[01:36] Why Yves left B2B retail analytics
[05:04] Shutting down a business to start over
[07:31] Building an app that rewards walking
[09:29] Why WeWard ditched blockchain
[12:24] Choosing user value over technical complexity
[15:55] Loyalty, gamification, and motivational layers
[17:41] Why WeWard measures steps, not screen time
[18:37] Building revenue beyond subscriptions
[21:46] How affiliate marketing fits WeWard
[23:54] Using PR as the first acquisition channel
[25:18] 300,000 downloads in under five minutes
[28:32] Four years without paid UA, and why US press fell flat
[31:12] Why US growth required local credibility
[33:11] Pitching Venus Williams at lunch
[37:47] What Venus Williams brings as ambassador and investor
[42:01] What's next for WeWard's global growth
[43:14] Staying ahead of copycat apps
[46:25] Locking social apps until users walk
[48:27] Motivational layers and staying focused on walking
[50:11] Localizing rewards across 29 countries
[52:35] Why growth strategies change by market
[54:10] Moving to the US to scale WeWard
[57:13] Why big growth requires bigger bets
[1:00:06] Biggest win: rebuilding the onboarding
[1:00:46] Biggest fail: returning to B2B
[1:01:46] Why mobile app iteration is still too slowWhy BoldVoice Charged From Day 1 and Ignored the Duolingo Freemium Playbook — Anada Lakra
On the podcast: scaling to $10M ARR with a team of ten, having every employee do two user interviews a week, and why their hard paywall "win" backfired.Top Takeaways:🧪 Trial-start rate is the wrong scoreboard A …
Show notes
On the podcast: scaling to $10M ARR with a team of ten, having every employee do two user interviews a week, and why their hard paywall "win" backfired.
Top Takeaways:🧪 Trial-start rate is the wrong scoreboard
A hard paywall and a no-exit discount both lifted trial starts, then refunds spiked by more than the gain; judge paywall tests on net revenue after refunds, on a matured cohort.🗣️ Every employee does two user interviews a week, engineers included
Automated invites to a mixed sample of users book whoever has calendar space, so the whole team hears customers directly instead of through a PM.💳 Charge from day one to find out who you're building for
A plain $10-a-month paywall with a one-week trial at launch filtered for willingness to pay and freed the team to work on onboarding and the core product instead of pricing tests.🧩 Mixing other apps' playbooks is the worst strategy of all
Duolingo's freemium base only works because it teaches the basics of everything to hobby learners; a product for high-intent professionals should ignore that base entirely.📅 Lead with annual to know your channel ROI the week the trial ends
Annual cash lands after the seven-day trial, so payback per channel is visible immediately and can be reinvested; monthly leaves you guessing between one month and 24.🧑💻 $10M ARR with 10 people runs on owners, one meeting a week, and everyone shipping
Hire founder-type doers, hold a single Monday sync, and let AI coding tools turn the whole team, including a non-technical CEO, into builders.
About Anada Lakra:
Anada Lakra is the Co-Founder and CEO of BoldVoice, an AI accent and speech coach for the billion people who speak English as a second language. The app provides real-time feedback powered by our proprietary speech models and lessons from Hollywood accent coaches.👋 LinkedIn
Follow us on X:
- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Building a subscription app by focusing on product value over paywall hacks
[01:12] Anada's personal experience with communication barriers
[08:53] The early founding story of BoldVoice
[13:30] Why BoldVoice charged from day 1
[16:36] Why over-optimizing paywalls distracts teams from improvement
[18:40] Why mature net revenue after refunds is an important metric
[22:04] How hard paywall experiments backfired once refunds were factored in
[24:17] BoldVoice's reverse-trial freemium model & why it ignored the Duolingo playbook
[33:32] How BoldVoice found its real ICP: professionals over students
[36:42] Keeping customer obsession alive with user interviews
[43:29] How Accent Oracle drove a major viral growth moment
[48:33] BoldVoice's approach to paid growth and annual plans
[50:45] How BoldVoice reached $10M ARR with 10 people
[55:02] The expansion from accent training to spoken-English fluency
[1:00:37] The stigma around accents and how BoldVoice hopes to change thatScaling Meta Ads from zero to $100K a month — Ethan Ethier, Built With Science
On the podcast: scaling Meta ads from zero to $100,000 a month, why they waited a year after launch before buying ads, and how a pricing page experiment shifted users toward annual subscriptions.Top Takeaways:📉 …
Show notes
On the podcast: scaling Meta ads from zero to $100,000 a month, why they waited a year after launch before buying ads, and how a pricing page experiment shifted users toward annual subscriptions.
Top Takeaways:📉 A big audience buys you a launch spike, not a growth engine
Even 7 million subscribers produce a bump at launch and a steady trickle after; durable growth still came from paid ads, SEO, and a product that converts cold traffic.🧱 Fix trial-to-paid before you spend a dollar on ads
A full year of product work before the first ad lifted the conversion floor for every channel, because paid traffic always converts colder than organic.🧲 Cold traffic converts better on a quiz than in the App Store
A long, personalized web quiz educates users, overcomes objections, and raises perceived value — and it beat direct-to-store traffic in a head-to-head test, which is why 90% of traffic goes there.💰 Show annual first and shrink the perceived risk, not the price
Presenting annual upfront with a day-by-day trial timeline and a promised day-12 reminder shifted plan choice from 60/40 to 75–80% annual, with no price change.👯 A two-person plan is retention insurance disguised as a discount
15% off for adding a workout partner gets 15% of trial starts to take it, raising order value and keeping both users subscribed longer.🔬 70% of experiments fail on the first try — winners come from documenting why
Locking in the problem before brainstorming solutions, and writing every test down, turns failures into iterations instead of dead ends.About Ethan Ethier:
🏋️Head of Growth and Operations at Built With Science, a science-based fitness app founded with YouTuber Jeremy Ethier. Personalized workout plans, nutrition guidance, and AI-powered coaching designed to help users train with research-backed methods.👋 LinkedIn
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
$10M ARR Without Ever Testing A Paywall — Luke Martin-Fuller, Visible
On the podcast: hitting $10M ARR without ever testing a paywall, paying their own customers to help make video ads, and why you might want to turn away some potential customers.Top Takeaways:💸 You can reach …
Show notes
On the podcast: hitting $10M ARR without ever testing a paywall, paying their own customers to help make video ads, and why you might want to turn away some potential customers.
Top Takeaways:💸 You can reach $10M ARR with the growth playbook still in the box
$1M to $10M in subscription ARR in two years, with no lifecycle email, no paywall test, and no SEO, TikTok, or AdWords. The precondition was over a year of giving the product away first.🚪 Screening buyers out protects every metric that matters
A web quiz that tells some visitors the product isn't for them caps conversion on purpose, because the wrong subscriber wrecks retention, reviews, and product signal.🎬 Your own customers can be a creative engine
Members submit an audition tape, get a weekly brief, and receive a flat fee in real money (not credits, not discounts) for any video that’s used as an ad.🏷️ Where you put the hardware margin is a bet on where the value lives
Sell the band at cost, roughly $80, and the $20 subscription carries the value; charge a premium for the device only if it reads as an object people want.🆓 Hardware kills the free trial, so the free tier has to do the de-risking
You can't give away a physical device, so the free tier becomes the proof of quality that a trial would normally provide.🔬 Published research is a moat nobody can clone over a weekend
Opt-in anonymized data sharing, ethics sign-off, and peer-reviewed papers move no revenue number this quarter, but are exactly what a skeptical buyer finds when they research your product.
About Luke Martin-Fuller:
🫀Co-founder of Visible, a wearable activity tracker built for illness, not fitness. Real-time heart rate data and personalized insights help users pace activity within their energy envelope.👋 LinkedIn
🛥️Visible
Follow us on X:
- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[00:00] From $1M to $10M ARR in Two Years[01:57] How Long COVID Led to Visible's Founding
[04:18] 5,000 Waitlist Signups for a Product That Didn't Exist
[05:54] Building the Founding 100 With a Free App
[07:33] Raising Just Enough Money to Get Started
[08:27] Why Visible Won't Call Itself a Cure
[11:06] Turning Research Into a Credibility Engine
[16:49] The Stigma Around an Invisible Illness
[19:40] Why Lived Experience Matters for Investors and Employees
[21:57] Why an Existing Wearable Wasn't Good Enough
[24:46] Designing for Brain Fog and Limited Energy
[26:53] Partnering With Polar Instead of Building Hardware
[29:12] The Hidden Complexity of Hardware-Enabled Subscriptions
[30:59] Oura, Whoop, and the Three Hardware Pricing Models
[37:13] From $1M to $10M ARR Without Testing a Paywall
[42:09] Meta, UGC, and the One Paid Channel Behind Growth
[44:37] Paying Customers to Create and Test Video Ads
[47:56] Running an Influencer Program With a Team of Two
[51:21] Why Visible's Funnel Qualifies Customers Before They Buy
[55:24] Why Hardware Forces Visible to Sell Through the Web
[58:49] A 10-Day Journey From Landing Page to Purchase
[1:00:44] Using the Free App to De-Risk a Hardware Purchase
[1:02:08] A Quiet Series A at $7M in Revenue
[1:07:11] Biggest Win: Rebuilding the Web Funnel In-House
[1:08:00] Biggest Fail: An AI Feature Users Hated
[1:09:41] Why Growth Depends on Insurance, and Who Visible Is Hiring Next
Why He Crowdfunded Millions Instead of Raising VC — Jelte Liebrand, Savvy Navvy
On the podcast: crowdfunding millions of dollars to accelerate growth, the two-year subscription that transformed his CAC payback, and why removing signup friction backfired.Top Takeaways:💰 Raising money means …
Show notes
On the podcast: crowdfunding millions of dollars to accelerate growth, the two-year subscription that transformed his CAC payback, and why removing signup friction backfired.
Top Takeaways:💰 Raising money means selling your business
Equity crowdfunding turned 10,000 engaged users into 2,500 investors, and the smartest founders still raise half of what they think they need.📈 A 2-year subscription can transform CAC payback
Offering 2 years at a ~30% discount ($183 vs. $129/year) pulls revenue forward, funding marketing spend the moment it happens.🚧 Removing signup friction can backfire spectacularly
Killing account creation looked like a huge win in early tests, but multi-device sync complaints and support grief erased the gains at 100% rollout.🤝 Not every mouth is worth the same in word of mouth
Instructors and industry insiders who refuse affiliate kickbacks carry more trust than any paid channel, precisely because they aren't sales reps.🧪 Most startups don't have the sample size to A/B test properly
With a billion users, testing is easy; without them it's dangerously easy to read whatever you want into the numbers while a metric further down the funnel quietly breaks.About Jelte Liebrand:
🚀Founder of Savvy Navvy, a marine navigation app that is Google Maps for boats. Charts, tides, weather, and everything you need for sailing and motorboat navigation👋 LinkedIn
🛥️ Savvy Navvy
Follow us on X:
- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:[00:00] Six Days to an Oversubscribed Crowdfunding Raise
[00:36] Introducing Jelte Liebrand of Savvy Navvy
[01:46] A Bad Day at Google and a Yacht Race Sign-Up
[03:09] Plotting Courses by Hand on a Racing Yacht
[05:12] Realizing This Wasn't Just an Ocean Racer's Problem
[06:10] Buying a Clipboard to Research the Boating Market
[08:16] What AI Teaches Us About Shifting Expectations
[13:15] Even Dropping a Pin Is Starting to Feel Dated
[14:31] Sitting Down With VCs and Walking Away
[16:46] What Equity Crowdfunding Actually Means
[20:56] Why VC Only Fits a Narrow Set of Businesses
[24:44] Raise Half of What You Think You Need
[27:31] Inside Savvy Navvy's First and Later Funding Rounds
[29:25] No Preferred Shares and the Same Terms for Everyone
[32:35] Why He Tells Founders Not to Raise At All
[35:42] Setting a Revenue Multiple Instead of a VC Multiple
[39:34] From Just an App to a B2B Platform
[42:27] The Arc Boats Partnership That Opened Doors
[46:50] Spotting Hardware Opportunities Like Tessie and Tesla
[48:30] How the Manufacturer Flywheel Actually Works
[52:57] Instructors, Chandleries, and Trust Without Kickbacks
[57:44] Two-Year Subscriptions and the CAC Payback Win
[01:00:13] Biggest fail of the year: The Anonymous Accounts Experiment That BackfiredMake Ugly Ads to Grow Your App – Yuliya Lennox (Solid Starts)
On the podcast: why founders belong in the marketing trenches more often, what makes ‘ugly’ ads perform so well, and why stable ad performance is actually a red flag.Top Takeaways:🚨 Stable ad performance is a …
Show notes
On the podcast: why founders belong in the marketing trenches more often, what makes ‘ugly’ ads perform so well, and why stable ad performance is actually a red flag.
Top Takeaways:
🚨 Stable ad performance is a warning sign, not a win
A $30 acquisition returning $50 can feel safe enough to scale, but that comfort may stop the search for the breakthrough creative that halves CPA or triples purchases.👀 Ugly ads earn the attention that polished ads lose
When every feed looks perfectly branded, an unpolished ad that explains the product in the first second has a better chance of stopping the scroll.🛠️ Founders cannot outsource market intuition
Sitting in acquisition meetings and developing early creative gives founders a firsthand understanding that no agency or marketing hire can manufacture for them.🧪 Validate demand before building the product
Selling a PDF, concept, or promise—even if it must be refunded—is a cheaper test than spending months building an app the market never asked for.🌍 Localization is a testing advantage, not just a translation task
Similar-converting international markets can turn a $1,000-a-day US creative test into a $10-a-day experiment, provided the team still accounts for local culture.
About Yuliya Lennox:
🚀App marketing professional helping apps scale through strategy, experimentation, and deep understanding of user behavior. Experienced in B2C growth, monetization design, and funnel optimization across startups and established teams. Thrives on turning data into actionable insights and collaborating cross-functionally to drive sustainable, user-focused growth.👋 Linkedin
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] The founder thesis: Why marketing has to be felt, not just understood.
[2:34] Stability is the enemy. Steady CPMs and CPAs mean you've stopped pushing.
[6:54] The case for ugly ads: Why the least polished creative usually wins.
[8:46] Sell before you build a single line of code.
[14:47] No silver bullet: Why founders can't outsource marketing to a hire.
[19:02] The belly fat ad. When brand caution costs you your best-performing creative.
[24:49] When brand actually matters: The Solid Starts backlash that proved the exception.
[26:31] Betting on localization for cheaper testing and bigger markets outside the US.
[32:45] The case for a marketer camp: Why sharing wins beats guarding them.
[40:11] Inside Higgsfield's grind: 17-hour days and an early bet on AI video.
[46:43] Organic growth's double edge. How Replika and Solid Starts hit a ceiling.
[56:14] Hire the obsessed: Why passion beats headcount on a great team.
[1:01:06] The end of black hat growth. Subscription quizzes, regulators, and a reckoning.
[1:06:45] The $1 trial that charged $350, dissected.
[1:10:32] Lightning round: Biggest win, biggest fail, and the red ocean/blue ocean divide.
The Bootstrapper's Path to $10M ARR – Andrew Maguire, Volo Ventures
On the podcast: the bootstrapper's path to $10 million in ARR, what's actually investable in consumer in 2026, and why product taste is the new bottleneck, not engineering.Top Takeaways:🎨 Product taste is the …
Show notes
On the podcast: the bootstrapper's path to $10 million in ARR, what's actually investable in consumer in 2026, and why product taste is the new bottleneck, not engineering.
Top Takeaways:🎨 Product taste is the new bottleneck, not engineering
Build costs have collapsed, but the number of great apps is still capped by the rare ability to make hundreds of small product decisions well.💰 There has never been a better time to bootstrap a $10M app
With infrastructure like RevenueCat, paid UA financing, and near-zero build costs, a solo developer can now reach eight figures without ever talking to a VC.🔒 Low churn is the only thing that makes consumer investable
Network effects and deep AI-powered personalization are the two credible paths to building a subscription product that retains long enough to compound.🚫 Don't raise venture unless you can articulate the billion-dollar outcome
Venture capital comes with preferred stock, liquidation preferences, and outcome expectations that will make your life miserable if the ceiling ends up being $10M, not $1B.🏗️ Bootstrap first, raise later if the market proves bigger
Building a cash-flowing business before raising gives you better terms, less dilution, and the option to stay indie if the venture-scale opportunity never materializes.🛡️ Apps aren't going anywhere — agents won't replace beautiful visual experiences
People want to interface with products using their eyeballs, and dedicated apps built by focused teams will always beat bespoke AI-generated software.About Andrew Maguire:
🚀Andrew founded Volo Ventures in 2021 and is now the Managing Partner. Andrew has spent 20 years building and backing technology companies. He founded Looksharp (acquired) and later became a Partner at Oakhouse Partners, where he invested in a top-decile fund. He also served as COO of The Mind Company, helping scale Elevate (Apple's App of the Year) and Balance (Google's Best App of the Year).👋 LinkedIn
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- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
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- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[1:36] The consumer thesis: Why AI makes this a great time to build consumer apps.
[3:39] The real bottleneck: Taste and judgment, not capital, drive app quality.
[6:49] Money doesn't buy PMF: Why more engineers won't get you there faster.
[11:12] Breaking the one-shot myth: How X1 turns app-building into modular decisions.
[13:09] Neutral by design: What models trained to avoid a point of view cost consumer products.
[19:29] The power of utility: Why 15-year-old apps like Strava still win.
[22:48] The indie developer moment: Building a $10M app without raising a dime.
[25:39] The personal coach thesis: How AI personalization creates a new moat.
[28:02] The inference cost bet: Why timing matters more than direction.
[36:36] Should you raise venture capital: A real conversation with a founder chasing the wrong outcome.
[38:28] Debt vs. equity: What venture debt and preferred stock mean for founders.
[53:00] The problem with star ratings: Why review farming broke app quality signals.
[1:02:31] Biggest fail of the year: The rise in AI-driven security incidents.
How Simply Finally Cracked Facebook Ads with Web Funnels – Yoav Sharon, Simply
On the podcast: reaching brand-new audiences through web funnels, how they created their own ‘Big Mac index’ for global pricing, and why monthly plans can beat annual for LTV.Top Takeaways:🌐 Web funnels unlock …
Show notes
On the podcast: reaching brand-new audiences through web funnels, how they created their own ‘Big Mac index’ for global pricing, and why monthly plans can beat annual for LTV.
Top Takeaways:
🌐 Web funnels unlock audiences that app stores can't reach
Moving users from a lean-back social scrolling mindset to an active download requires an intermediate web flow to build intent and explain value.
🍔 Global pricing requires more than currency conversion
Building a custom purchasing power index for international markets can dramatically increase conversion, but impact can be further improved by combining it with deep, culturally aware localization.
🗓️ Monthly plans create a faster feedback loop for product value
While annual plans offer better upfront cash flow, monthly subscriptions provide the undeniable truth about usage and retention. With strong retention, monthly plans can generate much higher lifetime value.
🎨 Delightful product moments are the best ad creatives
Features that create genuine emotional reactions—like bringing a child's drawing to life—naturally become high-performing marketing assets because they clearly demonstrate the product's core value.🤝 Treating platforms as partners yields strategic advantages
Sharing roadmaps, challenges, and user insights with Apple and Google unlocks beta access and design partnerships that adversarial approaches miss.About Yoav Sharon:
🎹 Head of Growth and Product at Simply, the company behind Simply Piano, Simply Guitar, Simply Sing, and Simply Draw, which are apps used by millions of learners across more than 180 countries.👋 LinkedIn
💪 X
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
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Episode Highlights:
[2:57] Dreams into habits: Helping people learn creative skills through smaller steps.[7:10] The portfolio playbook: How Simply expanded into different instruments.
[10:05] Avoiding cannibalization: Measuring interactions between apps and channels across a multi-product business.
[15:15] Family first: Why multi-profile and multi-app households become the strongest retention segment.
[18:02] Beyond attribution: How web funnels unlocked new audiences and new growth channels.
[21:11] From lean-back to action: Using onboarding flows to move users from passive browsing into active intent.
[24:24] Web as audience expansion: Why Simply views web funnels as a growth engine, not a fee-reduction strategy.
[26:26] Partners, not platforms: Building close relationships with Apple and Google.
[32:54] The future of learning: Why immersive platforms could transform skill development.
[37:52] The case for monthly plans: How faster renewal cycles improve product learning and LTV.
[44:24] The truth about pricing: Balancing annual discounts with long-term customer value.
[50:54] The localization advantage: Building a pricing model inspired by the Big Mac Index.
[56:01] Japan surprise: The localization lesson that completely changed a paywall strategy.
[59:11] AI and visible value: Bringing children's drawings to life and increasing willingness to pay.
WWDC 2026: What Subscription Apps Need To Know
Every year, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference introduces updates that ripple through the App Store economy for years to come. In this special post-WWDC edition of Sub Club Live, host David Barnard sits …
Show notes
Every year, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference introduces updates that ripple through the App Store economy for years to come. In this special post-WWDC edition of Sub Club Live, host David Barnard sits down with RevenueCat developer advocate Charlie Chapman and world-renowned growth expert Thomas Petit to cut through the keynote hype. Together, they analyze the technical realities and strategic implications of the biggest announcements coming out of Apple Park.
Rather than offering a generic recap of consumer features, the panel focuses entirely on the practical mechanics that impact subscription app growth, retention, and monetization. From the deprecation of SiriKit in favor of mandatory App Intents to the introduction of App Store Creative Assets and new subscription bundling options, this session provides a clear roadmap of what subscription businesses should test immediately, adopt eventually, or safely ignore.
More content from the RevenueCat family:
👉 Launched – Our sister show that features indie app developers and solo creators about what it really takes to ship something new into the world: https://www.youtube.com/@LaunchedFM
👉 StartApp School – Practical courses on monetization, growth, acquisition, and everything else that turns an app into a business. Completely free: https://www.startapp.school/
👉 RevenueCat blog: Mobile Paywalls: The Ultimate Guide for Subscription Apps: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/guide-to-mobile-paywalls-subscription-apps/
👉 Subscription App Churn: Why Users Cancel and How to Fix It: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/subscription-app-churn-reasons-how-to-fix/
👉 App Trial Conversion Rate: Benchmarks and Insights: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/app-trial-conversion-rate-insights/
👉 Apple Search Ads: The Complete Guide for App Marketers: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/apple-search-ads-guide/
📆 Subscribe to the Sub Club livestream calendar: https://rev.cat/subclubcalendar
🔔 Subscribe to the Sub Club YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SubClubPodcast?sub_confirmation=1Follow us on X:
David Barnard - @drbarnard
Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
SubClub - @SubClubHQEpisode Highlights:
00:00 Intro
01:11 Welcome to Sub Club Live WWDC 2026 Special Edition
02:00 Upcoming Events: UGC Marketing & Meta Ads Masterclass
03:02 Meet the Panel: Charlie Chapman & Thomas Petit
04:47 Is Apple Competing for Payments? The "Carrot Era" of the App Store
08:45 Why Apple Omitted Hardware Announcements This Year
10:33 Keynote Vibes: A Return to a More Authentic, Humble Apple
17:07 The Siri Overhaul: Hands-On Beta Impressions of iOS 27 Speed
24:22 App Intents: The Mandatory Shift That Could Make Your App Invisible|
01:21:54 App Store Creative Assets: Images & Videos in Search Results
01:31:51 Custom Product Pages: A Workaround for Testing Header Images
01:35:06 The App Store Cleanup: Why Apple Is Cracking Down on Limited Utility Apps
01:38:42 The Ad Attribution Stalemate: Why Apple Didn't Update SKAdNetwork
01:13:11 Seat-Based Licensing & Group Pricing: Supporting Prosumer & B2B Apps
01:05:05 Subscription Bundles & Suites: New Packaging and Retention Strategies
01:45:57 Live Q&A: Resetting Trial Eligibility & App Store Cancellation APIs
01:49:38 Outro & Wrap UpHow Removing the Free Trial Grew Monthly Subs 2000% – Nancy Anderson, Natal
On the podcast: why authentic founder-led content outperforms, tapping into HSA payments to unlock a whole new audience, and the growth lever no dashboard can measure.Top Takeaways:🗣️ Authentic founder-led …
Show notes
On the podcast: why authentic founder-led content outperforms, tapping into HSA payments to unlock a whole new audience, and the growth lever no dashboard can measure.
Top Takeaways:
🗣️ Authentic founder-led content consistently outperforms manufactured UGC
Real expertise and genuine personality compound over time in a way no UGC agency can replicate — and it shows up in your conversion metrics.🏥 HSA payments can open your app to a whole new paying audience
Accepting pre-tax HSA dollars at checkout effectively gives eligible users a 30–40% discount — and targets people who already see your app as a health investment, not a discretionary spend.
📊 The growth lever no dashboard can measure is trust
You can't A/B test trust, but you can see it in every downstream metric — trial conversion, retention, word-of-mouth. The apps that invest in it consistently outperform benchmarks across the board.🧪 Removing the free trial can dramatically increase paid monthly subscriptions
If your audience already trusts you, a free trial is just a delay. Removing it from a monthly plan can force high-intent users to commit — and the results can be dramatic.
🏗️ Consolidating multiple apps into one ecosystem reduces user confusion and increases LTV
A portfolio of niche apps sounds smart but usually just creates decision fatigue. One cohesive ecosystem lets you go deeper, price lower, and keep users longer.About Nancy Anderson:
🚀 Founder & Business Owner of Natal, Birth Recovery Center, Nancy Anderson Fit, & Move Your Bump, digital health and fitness platforms supporting a global community of hundreds of thousands of women each month through pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and long-term strength.
👋 LinkedIn
💪 Website
Follow us on X:
- David Barnard - @drbarnard
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- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Fitness is expensive; HSA payments make programs more accessible.
[1:36] Identified a gap: limited science-based programs for pre/postnatal women.
[2:38] Shifted from in-person to online coaching, keeping high-touch engagement.
[4:20] First online challenge: 100 participants, before-and-after results drove organic growth.
[5:51] Lessons from multiple apps; pivot to a single custom ecosystem.
[6:53] Founder-led growth: build trust before selling.
[9:30] Audience quality over follower count; engagement drives retention.
[11:39] Treating online clients like real-life clients strengthens the connection.
[14:50] Authentic, relatable content strategy.
[18:52] Real coaches respond to all DMs, comments, and emails within 24 hours.
[22:06] Soft selling drives high trial conversion and app downloads.
[27:01] Prioritize long-term trust over short-term revenue.
[30:27] User feedback informs product roadmap; App Rehab program launched.
[36:08] Consolidated four apps into one to reduce decision fatigue.
[38:45] HSA integration opens access for new audiences.
[46:47] Onboarding logic: phase-specific content improves activation.
[48:57] In-app community boosts early engagement and retention.
[50:15] Posture assessment acts as an organic “lead magnet.”
[51:23] Avoid free workouts to maintain perceived program value.
[53:43] HSA simplifies pre-tax payments and incentivizes subscriptions.
[59:15] Closing: trust-first, founder-led growth is sustainable for niche appsFreemium at Scale: Why Life360 Protects its Free Users – Giordano Contestabile
On the podcast: about making growth everyone’s job, protecting the free experience even when it hurts conversion, and why an inconclusive experiment is the only kind he hates.Top Takeaways:🎯 An inconclusive …
Show notes
On the podcast: about making growth everyone’s job, protecting the free experience even when it hurts conversion, and why an inconclusive experiment is the only kind he hates.
Top Takeaways:
🎯 An inconclusive experiment is the only true failure
A losing test teaches you what doesn't work, but an inconclusive one wastes time and yields zero learnings.
💰 Protecting the free tier can be your biggest competitive moat
Stripping value from free users to force conversions often sacrifices long-term network effects for a short-term revenue bump.
📊 Growth is a company-wide system, not an isolated team
When every department—from finance to HR—has the tools and mandate to run experiments, velocity compounds.
🤖 Machine learning can unlock new subscriber segments without cannibalizing existing ones
Predictive targeting can identify users willing to pay for a premium tier who would have otherwise ignored the standard offer.💬 Social dynamics dictate virality, not in-app buttons
You can't force referral loops if your core demographic doesn't naturally share products; understand who actually drives word-of-mouth before building features for it.
About Giordano Contestabile:🚀VP of Product at Life360, the family connection and safety app. Life360’s mission is to keep people close to the ones they love.
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Why Life360 refuses to weaken its free tier for short-term subscription growth.
[1:35] Inside Life360: 100M users, subscription scale, and the company’s growth strategy.
[4:01] Why growth should be a system, not just a dedicated team.
[5:54] How Life360 enables every team to run experiments and contribute to growth.
[9:13] Velocity, win rate, and the experimentation framework driving compounded growth.
[12:40] Why segmentation and machine learning personalization matter more than broad averages.
[16:10] Using contextual onboarding and feature education to improve long-term retention.
[18:13] Why the first 7 days determine whether users stick around for years.
[21:44] How AI personalization is making sophisticated growth tactics accessible to smaller apps.
[21:58] Why Life360 protects its free experience even when it costs short-term revenue.
[25:15] The tension between freemium monetization and long-term product trust.
[29:24] How Life360 measures LTV across subscriptions, devices, ads, and virality.
[31:38] Why the “circle” changes everything about Life360’s product and monetization strategy.
[35:16] How pets, Tile devices, and hardware products increase retention and LTV.
[39:17] The vision for Life360 as a family super app.
[43:20] Ads, partnerships, and monetization strategies designed to add user value.
[47:48] The machine learning experiment that doubled platinum subscriptions.
[49:43] The biggest failed experiments and why “parents are not viral.”
[52:46] Why growth gets easier when every team thinks like a growth team.Why Opal Stopped Chasing Revenue – Kenneth Schlenker, Opal
On the podcast: why retention is the only real moat, how dropping paid conversion from 20% to 9% increased revenue, and why he sees the rise in competition as a net positive for Opal.Top Takeaways:🔄 Retention …
Show notes
On the podcast: why retention is the only real moat, how dropping paid conversion from 20% to 9% increased revenue, and why he sees the rise in competition as a net positive for Opal.
Top Takeaways:🔄 Retention is the only real moat
While revenue and acquisition grab headlines, the ability to keep users coming back is the ultimate proof of value and the only sustainable foundation for a consumer app.📉 Dropping paid conversion can multiply revenue
Giving away more of the core product for free might cut conversion rates in half, but the resulting explosion in organic growth and daily active users can pay back tenfold in the long run.🤝 The "would a free user recommend it?" test determines freemium success
If the free tier feels like a restricted trial rather than a complete experience, it won't generate the word-of-mouth growth needed to make a freemium model work.🎨 Teams create product soul, you can't vibe code a brand
AI can instantly generate functional tools, but building a multi-billion dollar category winner requires a distinct brand, emotional resonance, and a team that cares about the details.🤖 AI should be built to make the user win
Instead of using new technology to trick users or add flashy but useless features, AI implementation must be entirely focused on delivering more of the app's core value to the user.
About Kenneth Schlenker:
🚀 Founder & CEO, Opal, a free and fun app to improve your focus and make the most of every day, with 10M+ people improving their focus. Opal's core mission is to align computers with human well-being.👋 LinkedIn
💭 @kschlenker on X
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
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Episode Highlights:
(00:00) Introduction to Kenneth Schlenker and Opal
(01:21) From $5 Million to $10 Million ARR: Scaling the Business
(02:11) The Mindset Shift from Efficiency to Company Building
(04:06) The Importance of Teams and Brand in Building a Product’s Soul
(05:07) AI in Consumer Apps: Enhancing Value for Users
(07:24) Freemium Model: The Pros and Cons of Giving Opal Away for Free
(10:47) Organic Growth and Network Effects with the Freemium Model
(12:45) The Value of Retention: The Only Real Moat
(13:37) Why Competition in the Screen Time App Space is a Positive
(15:07) Opal’s Expansion into Schools: Aligning with the Mission
(19:56) The Importance of Building the Most Loved Brand in the Screen Time Space
(23:56) Retention Metrics and Organic Growth Strategies
(27:43) Balancing the Focus on Product with Business Sustainability
(30:14) The Role of AI in Enhancing User Experience
(32:10) Leveraging Customer Feedback to Drive Product Improvements
(35:01) Importance of Having a Strong, Authentic Connection with the Product’s Community
(38:12) Future Plans for Opal: Innovation and New Features
(42:04) Closing Thoughts on Opal's Journey and Future Prospects12 AI Growth Lessons for Subscription Apps – Phil Carter, Elemental Growth
On the podcast: how AI can turn your onboarding from a chore into magic, hyper-personalized experiences that drive both retention and revenue, and why your value-to-noise ratio matters more than how many …
Show notes
On the podcast: how AI can turn your onboarding from a chore into magic, hyper-personalized experiences that drive both retention and revenue, and why your value-to-noise ratio matters more than how many features you ship.
Top Takeaways:
⏱️ AI can make the first 60 seconds of onboarding feel like magic
When a new user experiences a personalized, interactive setup rather than a generic questionnaire, they are significantly more likely to convert to a trial on day zero.🪞 Hyper-personalization is the new competitive moat
Adapting the product experience to an individual's unique needs creates a sense of being heard, which distances an app from generic competitors and drives long-term retention.
💪 Extrinsic triggers are essential for building new habits
In an ecosystem flooded with distractions, subtle and useful reminders—like calendar integrations or desktop widgets—help users remember to engage with a product until it becomes an intrinsic habit.
💭 The value-to-noise ratio matters more than the feature count
Adding more AI features increases absolute value, but if it overwhelms the user's capacity to absorb the product, the overall experience degrades; pruning features is as important as shipping them.
💰 Cheaper LLMs often provide a good enough user experience compared to frontier models
For many consumer use cases, the speed and cost-efficiency of a smaller model outweigh the marginal performance gains of the most expensive options.
📊 Multi-step paywalls can unlock massive growth for the right product
Transitioning from a hard paywall to a freemium model with strategic upgrade prompts can dramatically increase the top of the funnel and overall LTV, though it requires a highly retentive core product.
About Phil Carter:🚀Founder & CEO, Elemental Growth, growth advisor and angel investor who helps Seed - Series C consumer subscription companies define their growth strategy, build their growth model, hire their growth team, scale their growth processes, optimize their growth channels, and achieve their full potential.
📚Consumer Subscription Growth Course (Maven)
💭@philgcarter on X
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] The AI Opportunity: Why this is a once-in-a-generation moment for app builders.
[2:31] The Subscription Value Loop: Value creation, delivery, and capture explained.
[6:34] Magical First Impressions: How AI is transforming onboarding and day 0 conversion.
[13:03] Hyper-Personalization: Why “n-of-1” experiences are the new competitive edge.
[19:58] Building Habits: Using triggers to drive retention and repeat usage.
[25:02] Shipping Fast: Why speed of innovation is now critical to survival.
[30:28] Product-Led Growth: How AI apps are driving viral loops and organic acquisition.
[35:05] Community & Content: Leveraging UGC and creators to scale adoption.
[39:09] AI + Paid Growth: Scaling creatives and lowering CAC with AI tools.
[46:10] Monetization in the AI Era: Pricing, tiers, and usage-based models.
[54:53] Trials, Freemium, and Costs: Rethinking free access in AI products.
[1:01:29] Wins, Fails, and Lessons: What’s working (and not) in subscription growth today.How the World's #1 VPN App Reached 1 Billion Downloads – Tanuj Chatterjee, Super Unlimited
On the podcast: the product-driven growth loop behind the #1 VPN app in the world, why they intentionally leave money on the table, and how the prettiest design often loses in their A/B tests.Top Takeaways:📐 …
Show notes
On the podcast: the product-driven growth loop behind the #1 VPN app in the world, why they intentionally leave money on the table, and how the prettiest design often loses in their A/B tests.
Top Takeaways:
📐 Your top-of-funnel is a product decision, not a marketing one
The apps that dominate app store search aren't winning because of ad spend; they're winning because frictionless, high-quality free experiences generate the ratings volume and engagement signals that compound into organic dominance.💸 A low conversion rate can be a sign of a great free product
If your free tier is genuinely excellent, your conversion rate will look bad on paper. That's not a problem to fix — it's a trade-off to own deliberately, especially if volume and LTV math still works.
🛡️ Restraint in monetization is a growth strategy
Aggressive paywalls, forced ads on first install, and dark patterns erode the trust that drives word-of-mouth and ratings. Leaving money on the table in the short term protects the flywheel that generates far more over time.
🔧 Service quality is the moat that marketing can't replicate
The first 85% of any app is a commodity. The last 15% — the edge cases, the network transitions, the offline states — is where category leaders are built and where competitors quietly give up.🗂️ Put customer support inside the product team
When support reports to product rather than a separate org, the feedback loop from user pain to product fix closes in days, not months. The slower the loop, the more quality debt you accumulate.
📸 Your A/B test data will humble your design instincts
The prettier, more modern screenshot almost always loses. Users gravitate toward what they already recognize, and familiarity beats novelty in app store conversion tests far more often than designers expect.
About Tanuj Chatterjee:🚀CEO, Super Unlimited, a global leader in building trusted VPN, eSIM, and security products that put users' privacy first.
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] The Super Unlimited Journey: From product acquisition to global success.
[3:15] Building a Billion-Download VPN: How Super Unlimited achieved such rapid growth.
[6:50] The Freemium Philosophy: Why Super Unlimited offers a powerful free version of their app.
[10:00] Monetization and User Trust: How they balance free and paid models without over-monetizing.
[14:30] Service Quality Over Design Trends: The surprising reason Super Unlimited keeps it simple.
[20:45] User Privacy: How Super Unlimited protects users while scaling.
[25:10] The Power of Organic Growth: How word-of-mouth and product-driven growth led to massive success.
[30:00] Handling Global Challenges: The complexities of serving users in different regions.
[35:00] The Future of Super Unlimited: What’s next for Super Unlimited as they expand their product suite.
[40:02] Lessons for Entrepreneurs: What Tanuj has learned along the way and the advice he’d give to new founders.Bootstrapped to $6.7M ARR and an Exit to Quizlet in 2 Years – Brett Bauman & Zack Hargett, Coconote
On the podcast: hitting $1M ARR in four months with no paid ads, why trial extensions beat discounts for saving cancellations, and why you should be hiring content creators, not influencers.Top Takeaways:📈 …
Show notes
On the podcast: hitting $1M ARR in four months with no paid ads, why trial extensions beat discounts for saving cancellations, and why you should be hiring content creators, not influencers.
Top Takeaways:
📈 Momentum is oxygen — get to revenue fast
Reaching your first dollars quickly, even with a minimal product, creates a flywheel of confidence and capital that compounds over time.🎯 Frame your product as a solution, not a toy
Content that positions your app as the answer to a real problem converts; content that makes it look fun and novel does not.🤝 Hire content creators, not influencers
Follower counts are irrelevant in the age of algorithmic distribution. Look for creators with 5K followers and a Gmail address, avoid influencers repped by an agency.⏳ Trial extensions beat discounts for saving cancellations
When a user tries to cancel during a free trial, offering more time converts better than offering a lower price, and it avoids devaluing your product.🚪 Move login to after the paywall
Forcing account creation before users have experienced any value is a silent conversion killer. Removing it from the front of onboarding can cut drop-off by 10% or more.
About Brett Bauman & Zack Hargett:🚀Brett Bauman & Zack Hargett, Co-founders, Coconote, an AI-powered note-taking app revolutionizing how students engage with lectures.
👋 Brett Bauman LinkedIn
👋 Zack Hargett LinkedIn
💬Brett on X - @brttbmn
💬Zack on X- @zackhargett
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Introducing Coconote: The AI note-taking app that scaled to millions in ARR
[2:15] The founding insight: Why students desperately needed better notes
[5:05] Launch momentum: Hitting $100K ARR in the first 45 days
[7:40] From idea to $1M ARR in just four months
[10:12] Why most founders misunderstand marketing early on
[12:31] The key distribution insight: Where your customers actually spend time online
[15:22] Creator marketing vs influencer marketing: Why the difference matters
[18:05] How short-form content became Coconote’s primary growth engine
[21:40] Turning viral attention into real revenue with better messaging
[24:25] Premium pricing for students: Why Coconote charged $99+ per year
[27:11] Building trust when your product affects exams and grades
[30:03] Improving conversions: The onboarding experiments that increased trial starts
[33:20] Removing friction: Why login moved after the paywall
[36:05] Retention lessons: Why trial extensions beat discounts
[39:00] The psychology behind cancellations and keeping users subscribed
[42:10] Managing explosive growth while keeping the team small
[45:35] Acquisition conversations with Quizlet begin
[48:10] Keeping acquisition talks confidential while running the company
[51:05] The emotional moment when the acquisition finally closed
[54:01] Reflecting on the journey from scrappy startup to exit
[56:22] Final lessons for founders building AI products todayHow ElevenLabs Turns Feature Launches Into a Growth Engine – Luke Harries
On the podcast: how ElevenLabs turns every new feature launch into a growth engine, how they're deploying over a hundred million dollars in paid ads, and why directing AI agents is quickly becoming a core skill …
Show notes
On the podcast: how ElevenLabs turns every new feature launch into a growth engine, how they're deploying over a hundred million dollars in paid ads, and why directing AI agents is quickly becoming a core skill for marketers and solo founders.
This conversation is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report. Each episode in this series will explore one crucial topic and share actionable insights from top subscription app operators.
Top Takeaways:🚀Turn every feature launch into a full-funnel growth engine
Don't just ship and announce. Coordinate each release across organic posts, landing pages, and refreshed ad creative simultaneously so earned attention compounds into paid efficiency.
💰 Train a custom GPT on your own winning ad copy
Feed your top and bottom performing Meta and Google copy into a custom GPT, then use it to rapidly translate brand messaging into proven high-performing ad formats. It turns institutional knowledge into a scalable creative tool.🤖Directing AI agents is the new core marketing skill
The future of marketing isn't just using AI tools but directing agents to handle messaging, storyboarding, ad creation, and localization, all grounded in your creative taste and brand direction.
About Luke Harries:🚀Growth / Engineering at ElevenLabs, is an AI research and product company transforming how we interact with technology. Their vision is to make communication and creation with technology seamless.
👋 LinkedIn
Follow us on X:
- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Introduction to Luke Harries, Growth Lead at ElevenLabs
[1:05] ElevenLabs' approach to growth through "growth engines"
[2:20] The power of AI to unlock viral moments during product launches
[3:34] How ElevenLabs maximizes attention through paid ads alongside earned media
[4:41] The role of AI in optimizing ad copy and creative for paid campaigns
[5:42] Balancing AI-generated content with UGC and in-house production
[7:32] Why ElevenLabs stays away from AI influencers for product endorsements
[8:51] Leveraging user-generated content (UGC) for effective campaigns
[10:30] How ElevenLabs plans to spend over $100M in paid ads and approach campaign scaling
[11:38] The importance of localization and segmentation in paid advertising
[12:56] How ElevenLabs measures success and uses data to adjust their budget allocation
[13:18] Blending brand-building with performance marketing
[14:53] The future of marketing with AI-driven creative direction
[16:39] How AI could enable solo founders to create billion-dollar startups
[17:45] ElevenLabs' upcoming product, Flows, and recruitment effortsWhy App Economy Disruption Won’t Happen As Fast As Everyone Thinks – Eric Seufert
On the podcast: why app economy disruption won't happen as fast as everyone seems to think, how AI is just as useful for defending against copycats as creating them, and why the real barrier to app success is …
Show notes
On the podcast: why app economy disruption won't happen as fast as everyone seems to think, how AI is just as useful for defending against copycats as creating them, and why the real barrier to app success is still distribution, not code.
This conversation is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report. Each episode in this series will explore one crucial topic and share actionable insights from top subscription app operators.
Top Takeaways:📲Distribution is the moat, not code
As AI lowers the barrier to building apps, it raises the barrier to getting discovered. More software competing for attention means user acquisition becomes harder and more expensive, not easier.🛡️Use AI to defend against copycats, not just to build faster
Use AI to scan the app store daily for copycat apps, monitor rising competitors, and track their ads. Build automated defense processes that keep you ahead of clones.📊App economy disruption won't happen as fast as everyone thinks
No-code tools, game engines like Unity, and now vibe coding have all promised to democratize app building. None eliminated the real barriers: distribution, product intuition, and the compounding advantage of iterating on user feedback over years.About Eric Seufert:
🚀 Founder of Mobile Dev Memo, a mobile advertising and freemium monetization trade blog.
👋 LinkedIn
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Introduction to Eric Seufert, Founder of Mobile Dev Memo
[1:00] Why disruption in the app economy is taking longer than expected
[2:00] The real barrier to app success: Distribution over code
[3:15] How AI is reshaping app development and marketing
[4:30] Eric’s thoughts on why AI won’t eliminate the need for great apps
[5:45] Standing out in a saturated app market: How to break through
[7:00] The role of customer feedback in driving growth
[8:15] Why vibe coding isn’t sustainable for scalable app development
[9:30] Using AI defensively against copycats in the app economy
[10:45] The importance of scalable user acquisition strategies
[12:00] The long-term impact of AI on app monetization
[13:15] Balancing revenue and user experience in app monetization
[14:30] Why building a successful app requires technical expertise and distribution
[15:45] The evolving app economy and AI’s future role in scaling
[17:00] Closing thoughts on staying competitive in an ever-changing marketThe Art of Driving Retention Through Product – Ben Gammon, Ladder
On the podcast: product-driven retention as the foundation for lifecycle marketing, working backwards from results to nail activation, and why talking to individual users can lead you astray.This conversation …
Show notes
On the podcast: product-driven retention as the foundation for lifecycle marketing, working backwards from results to nail activation, and why talking to individual users can lead you astray.
This conversation is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report. Each episode in this series will explore one crucial topic and share actionable insights from top subscription app operators.
Top Takeaways:🎯 Product-driven retention is the foundation for lifecycle marketing
Lifecycle marketing hacks and perfect push notifications won't save you if the core product doesn't deliver results. Work backwards from what users say in five-star reviews to identify the results that matter, then build the product loop around consistently delivering those results.📊 Teach features in the moment, not in onboarding
Users adopt features at far higher rates when coached during the action itself. In-context prompts while users are actively engaged are far more effective than FAQs or standalone tutorials.⚡ Surveys beat user interviews for consumer product decisions
Individual interviews with five to ten users can lead you astray in diverse consumer markets. Large-scale recurring surveys provide stronger signal and reduce the risk of over-indexing on outlier feedback.
About Ben Gammon:🚀 VP of Product at Ladder, a fitness app dedicated to providing the world's best strength training plan from the world's best coaches, every single day.
👋 LinkedIn
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Introduction to Ben Gammon, VP of Product at Ladder
[1:08] Ben explains product-driven retention at Ladder
[1:55] Retention is the key metric for Ladder's success
[2:50] Activation: Work backward from user results to simplify the experience
[3:53] Introducing the journal feature to track progress and boost retention
[6:10] The journal as a reinforcement loop for ongoing user engagement
[6:37] The widget: A powerful external tool for retention and reminders
[7:30] Using subconscious interactions with the widget to maintain user engagement
[8:09] Balancing user feedback with business goals and company vision
[9:23] Collecting feedback through chat, surveys, and AI tools
[10:19] Using feedback to create a positive feedback loop for improvements
[11:47] Nutrition tracking: The next major retention challenge
[14:15] Hybrid users (workout + nutrition) show higher retention rates
[15:03] Secondary product-market fit: How nutrition complements fitness goals
[17:03] User expectations vs. behavior: Asking for features but not always using them
[18:08] AI and data help guide product iteration and decision-making
[19:02] Ladder's vision for product expansion and retention growth
[19:33] Ben discusses building a product-first team and a strong culture
[20:01] Closing thoughts on user-focused product developmentThe 2026 State of Subscription Apps Report
On the podcast: what the explosion in new apps means for the market, how the top 10% of apps grew 306% while the median barely beat inflation, and why hard paywalls convert 5X better than freemium.This …
Show notes
On the podcast: what the explosion in new apps means for the market, how the top 10% of apps grew 306% while the median barely beat inflation, and why hard paywalls convert 5X better than freemium.
This conversation is focused on RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report.
Head to https://www.revenuecat.com/state-of-subscription-apps to download the report.Top Takeaways:
📊 The app economy is a sorting machine
The top 10% of apps grew 306% while the median grew just 5.3%, and that gap is only widening as AI raises the ceiling for the best-positioned apps.
💰 Hard paywalls crush freemium on conversion, but context matters
Hard paywalls convert five times better than freemium (10.7% vs 2.1% download-to-paid by day 35) with nearly identical year-one retention, but freemium remains the right call when free users drive word of mouth, network effects, or long-term brand scale.
⚡ Day zero is your best shot at converting a user
The first session is when users decide both whether to pay and whether to stay. The majority of trial cancellations happen on day zero, meaning users who don't see value immediately rarely come back to find it.
🤖 AI apps sell, but they don't stick
AI-powered apps generate 41% more revenue per customer but people churn 30% faster. Apps that solve that retention problem early will own their category; those that don't are just riding a wave of consumer curiosity.
📈 The App Store is experiencing a supply shock
The number of new subscription apps launching each month has grown 7X since 2022, creating a hyper-competitive environment where distribution, not just features, is the primary barrier to success.
About RevenueCat:
🚀Jacob Eiting, CEO at RevenueCat.🚀David Barnard, Growth Advocate at RevenueCat.
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:27] Unpacking the key findings from the 2026 State of Subscription Apps Report
[2:52] How “vibe coding” and new AI development tools have dramatically lowered the barrier to building apps
[5:42] The emerging “supply shock” in the app economy as cheaper development leads to a flood of new apps competing for the same users
[20:13] Breaking down the SOSA report methodology and why low-traffic apps were excluded from the dataset
[21:57] Why the report separates AI apps from non-AI apps—and how AI apps tend to generate higher revenue per paying user
[23:15] The explosion of new subscription apps, with launches increasing roughly 7× since 2022
[25:33] Why iOS now accounts for about 77% of new subscription app launches, and what that says about platform economics
[30:19] The “power law” reality of the app economy: the top 10% of apps grew 306%, while the median app barely grew
[39:20] A key finding from the report: hard paywalls convert about five times better than freemium models
[45:42] Trial behavior insights: over half of free-trial cancellations happen on day zero
[47:40] The “billion-dollar leak” on Google Play: a large share of cancellations come from involuntary billing failures
[51:21] The AI app paradox: AI apps generate higher revenue per payer but also churn faster than traditional apps
[54:51] Why longer free trials appear to convert better—and why the data may reflect correlation rather than causation
[1:00:54] How AI agents could change how developers analyze subscription business dataHow To Repurpose Offline Events Into Millions Of Online Impressions – Larissa Morimoto, PhotoRoom
On the podcast: breaking free from the paid acquisition treadmill, how to repurpose offline events into millions of online impressions, and why a celebrity partnership can go viral but still completely …
Show notes
On the podcast: breaking free from the paid acquisition treadmill, how to repurpose offline events into millions of online impressions, and why a celebrity partnership can go viral but still completely flop.
This conversation is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report. Each episode in this series will explore one crucial topic and share actionable insights from top subscription app operators.
Top Takeaways:
🎯 Measure brand campaigns by search uplift, not cost per install
Comparing offline and other brand campaign CPAs to paid acquisition CPAs kills creativity before it starts. Track branded search lift and run awareness surveys instead.📹Design every offline moment for online distribution
Bring ad creatives to your events and plan for UGC from the start. An in-person activation that reached 15,000 people generated over 4 million impressions once repurposed across ads, social, and even LinkedIn.⚠️Celebrity reach without audience fit is wasted spend
A famous partner whose audience doesn't overlap with your ICP will move zero needles. Calm's LeBron James partnership was their most expensive and worst-performing campaign because his fans care about basketball, not better sleep.
About Larissa Morimoto:🚀 Senior Growth Manager (Special Projects) at PhotoRoom, the best AI photo and design platform for e-commerce.
👋 LinkedIn
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Introduction to Larissa Morimoto, Senior Growth Manager at PhotoRoom
[1:10] Why PhotoRoom is turning to offline marketing for growth
[2:35] How offline experiences create real human connections with users
[3:50] The importance of building brand love over chasing growth metrics
[5:10] Turning offline interactions into user-generated content (UGC)
[6:25] Why UGC is a key driver of PhotoRoom's digital strategy
[7:40] The success of PhotoRoom’s London campaign and key learnings
[9:05] How PhotoRoom uses creative campaigns to amplify brand awareness
[10:20] The role of brand awareness in scaling beyond paid acquisition
[12:15] Balancing offline and online efforts to maximize ROI
[13:05] How PhotoRoom’s focus on emotional connections leads to long-term growth
[13:45] The impact of celebrity partnerships and influencer marketing on brand perception
[15:01] PhotoRoom’s strategy for turning offline events into online assets
[16:20] Why PhotoRoom believes in repurposing content from offline campaigns for digital platforms
[17:05] The importance of testing and experimenting with new marketing strategies
[18:02] PhotoRoom’s creative offline campaigns
[19:29] Larissa shares upcoming initiatives and job openings at PhotoRoomWhy Web Onboarding Should Sell The Problem, Instead Of The Solution – Leon Sasson, Rise Science
On the podcast: why web onboarding should sell the problem instead of the solution, how discounted paid trials are beating free trials, and why creative that flopped for app ads might crush it for web …
Show notes
On the podcast: why web onboarding should sell the problem instead of the solution, how discounted paid trials are beating free trials, and why creative that flopped for app ads might crush it for web funnels.
This conversation is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report. Each episode in this series will explore one crucial topic and share actionable insights from top subscription app operators.
Top Takeaways:
🎯Web funnels should sell the problem, not the solution
App onboarding works by rushing users to an "aha moment" because they already want a solution. Web audiences are higher in the consideration phase, so effective web funnels go deeper on helping users recognize and personalize the problem before introducing the product.💰Discounted paid trials outperform free trials on web
Rise found that offering a heavily discounted first month instead of a free trial improves both conversion quality and ad optimization. Free trials often attract users who cancel immediately, polluting the signal that ad platforms use to find high-value customers.🎨Creative that flops on app campaigns can crush it on web, and vice versa
Web funnels attract a different audience than app install campaigns, often older and more e-commerce minded. Rise runs creative across both channels separately and regularly finds winners on one side that failed on the other, effectively doubling the chances of finding a hit from every creative concept.About Leon Sasson:
🚀 Leon is Co-Founder and CTO at Rise Science. RISE is the first energy management app that makes it easy to improve your sleep and daily energy to reach your potential.
👋 LinkedIn
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:[0:00] Introduction to Leon Sasson, Co-Founder & CTO at Rise Science
[1:05] Leon discusses the evolution of web funnels and their unique challenges
[2:10] The difference between app onboarding and web onboarding strategies
[3:15] How Leon’s team pivoted to improve web funnels and found success
[4:25] The shift in consumer behavior: Web audiences vs. app users
[5:50] Insights on why discounted paid trials work better than free trials on the web
[7:00] Balancing the user experience with a smooth billing process
[8:20] How to test and optimize creatives for both web and app funnels
[9:35] Leon’s approach to personalizing funnels based on user personas
[10:40] Lessons learned from handling subscription billing outside Apple’s ecosystem [11:55] The future of hybrid monetization and web/app funnel strategies
[12:30] Closing thoughts on evolving marketing and product strategies through testing and iterationDynamic Paywalls That Drove Millions in New Revenue – Shawn Gong, Tinder
On the podcast: how Tinder's ML-powered paywalls drove millions in new revenue, the art of selling features à la carte without killing subscription revenue, and why Tinder Select flopped despite users saying …
Show notes
On the podcast: how Tinder's ML-powered paywalls drove millions in new revenue, the art of selling features à la carte without killing subscription revenue, and why Tinder Select flopped despite users saying they'd pay for it.
This conversation is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report. Each episode in this series will explore one crucial topic and share actionable insights from top subscription app operators.
Top Takeaways:🤖Users need fewer options, not more
Decision overload kills conversion. Tinder saw multimillion-dollar annual revenue gains by using ML to predict and surface the single best product for each user instead of showing every tier and plan at once.
🎯Anchor a la carte prices to subscriptions to prevent cannibalization
Unbundling features can capture non-subscribers, but pricing too low steals from subscription revenue. Tinder priced its standalone Passport feature equal to the weekly equivalent of a full-featured subscription, making the subscription the obvious better deal.🧠 Design for emotional decisions, not logical ones
Users don't read every feature comparison and weigh their options rationally. They decide in seconds based on feeling. Observe how users actually behave, not how you assume they should, and build your purchase flows around that.
About Shawn Gong:🚀 Product Growth & Monetization at Tinder, the world's most popular dating app, with over 55 billion matches made across 190+ countries since launching in 2012.
👋 LinkedIn
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Introduction to Shawn Gong, Product Leader in Monetization & Growth at Tinder
[1:05] The challenge of decision overload and how Tinder tackled it with dynamic pricing
[2:47] How machine learning helps Tinder predict and serve the right product for each user
[4:25] Simplifying user choices: Reducing overwhelming options for better conversion
[5:48] Shifting from static to dynamic pricing: The role of AI in optimizing Tinder’s paywall
[7:06] A/B testing the dynamic pricing model: How Tinder validated the ML model's effectiveness
[8:12] Unbundling features like Passport mode: Meeting specific user needs without subscriptions
[9:33] The impact of pricing changes on conversion rates and subscription cannibalization
[10:57] Long-term retention metrics: Measuring the success of dynamic pricing beyond just revenue
[12:00] Tinder Select: Lessons from launching a high-end tier and why it didn’t work
[13:18] The importance of aligning product offerings with user emotions for better decision-making
[14:25] How Tinder continues to optimize pricing strategies through iterative testing and learning
[15:48] Shawn’s advice for startup founders: Focus on retention and building better product decision designThe Hidden Cost of Underpricing Your Subscription – Patrick Rills, Lose It!
On the podcast: testing prices from $5 all the way to $120 per year, why rising CACs forced a pricing rethink, and how raising the price allows them to discount more aggressively.This conversation is shorter …
Show notes
On the podcast: testing prices from $5 all the way to $120 per year, why rising CACs forced a pricing rethink, and how raising the price allows them to discount more aggressively.
This conversation is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report. Each episode in this series will explore one crucial topic and share actionable insights from top subscription app operators.
Top Takeaways:💰 Retest prices you've already ruled out
Market conditions shift constantly. A price point that couldn't beat the control for years can suddenly break even as competitors raise prices and consumer expectations change.📈A higher base price unlocks more aggressive discounting Going from $40 to $80 creates room for steeper percentage discounts that drive higher conversion, even when the absolute dollar price is still higher.
🔒Rising CACs demand pricing that funds acquisition At $40/year, paid UA math barely worked. Doubling the price gave the marketing team room to compete on acquisition channels where costs keep climbing.
About Patrick Rills:🚀 Chief Product & Technology Officer at Lose It!, the app-based weight loss program mobilizing the world to achieve a healthy weight.
👋 LinkedIn
Follow us on X:- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Introduction to Patrick Rills, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Lose It!
[1:05] How pricing changes unlocked new growth opportunities at Lose It!
[2:12] Balancing customer acquisition costs (CAC) with retention through pricing strategy
[3:25] Key insights from years of price testing, ranging from $5 to $120 per year
[4:42] Raising prices to enable deeper discounting and improve conversions
[5:58] Aligning product value with pricing to retain loyal users
[7:06] The role of the freemium model in keeping users engaged after price increases
[8:02] Using smart pricing and AI to drive growth
[9:14] Leveraging data to fine-tune pricing decisions
[10:27] How customer feedback and product data shape pricing strategies
[11:38] Challenges and benefits of raising prices for an established product
[12:33] Future plans for pricing tiers and new monetization strategies
[13:18] Patrick shares iOS developer hiring opportunities at Lose It!
[13:41] Final thoughts on driving sustainable growth and user valueHow Clarity and Personalization Help Drive Duolingo’s Growth – Anmol Tiwari, Duolingo
On the podcast: how Duolingo prioritizes clarity over persuasion on their paywalls, why they offer users multiple free trials instead of just one, and how adding friction to their trial reminder flow actually …
Show notes
On the podcast: how Duolingo prioritizes clarity over persuasion on their paywalls, why they offer users multiple free trials instead of just one, and how adding friction to their trial reminder flow actually boosted conversions.
This conversation is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report. Each episode in this series will explore one crucial topic and share actionable insights from top subscription app operators.
Top Takeaways:
🎯 Prioritize clarity over persuasion on your paywalls
Show users a timeline of exactly what happens during their trial, when they'll be charged, and how refunds work. Duolingo found that removing uncertainty about the purchase process drives more conversions than trying to sell harder.
⚡Shorter trials compound experimentation velocity
Cutting their free trial from 14 days to 7 doubled Duolingo's experimentation velocity. Faster feedback loops let the team kill losing tests sooner and run significantly more experiments per quarter.🔬Adding friction to trial reminders can boost conversions
Duolingo tested letting users pick which day they get their expiration reminder. The extra step signaled transparency, built trust that they wouldn't be surprised by a charge, and gave them time to experience real value before deciding.
About Anmol Tiwari:🚀 Director of Product Management at Duolingo, the world's most popular way to learn a language.
👋 LinkedIn
🖥️Carers at Duolingo
Follow us on X:
- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Introduction to Anmol Tiwari, Director of Product at Duolingo
[1:05] Anmol discusses Duolingo’s focus on clarity in free trials and product offerings
[2:10] How transparency in trial terms and refunds builds confidence and boosts conversions
[3:45] The benefits of shorter trials for faster experimentation and better user engagement
[5:10] Why Duolingo offers multiple trials to cater to different user life stages
[6:30] Using machine learning to personalize subscription offers and in-app ads
[7:40] How Duolingo uses contextual paywalls to increase conversions
[8:50] Regional differences in trial strategies, especially in markets like China
[10:10] The impact of "free tastes" and trial-like experiences in premium tiers
[11:30] Using timers and reward-based copy to clearly communicate trial benefits
[13:00] How Duolingo reduces day-zero cancellations and builds trust with users
[14:15] Personalizing paywalls based on individual user behavior
[15:30] Experimenting with new creative strategies to promote subscriptions
[16:40] The role of AI in optimizing engagement and conversions
[17:50] Understanding global trial preferences, particularly in China
[19:10] How trust drives conversions and prevents cancellations
[19:55] Closing thoughts on how transparency, experimentation, and personalization fuel growthHow Mojo Increased ARPU 60% In Just Five Months – Michal Parizek, Mojo
On the podcast: the experiments behind Mojo's 60% lift in ARPU, why a winning paywall in Japan completely failed in the US, and why not relying on day one for most of your revenue is actually a strength.This …
Show notes
On the podcast: the experiments behind Mojo's 60% lift in ARPU, why a winning paywall in Japan completely failed in the US, and why not relying on day one for most of your revenue is actually a strength.
This conversation is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report. Each episode in this series will explore one crucial topic and share actionable insights from top subscription app operators.
Top Takeaways:
🌍Show free users a paywall every week after onboarding
Triggering a paywall on app open once per week for free users drove 15% of new revenue with no backlash. The more generous your free tier, the more users tolerate the ask.
💪A winning paywall in one region can completely fail in another
A long, detail-rich paywall lifted revenue 20% in Japan but flopped in the US, where cleaner designs with punchy copy outperformed. Always retest winners in each market before rolling out globally.⚡Experiment velocity is a huge unlock for revenue optimization
Running parallel paywall tests across geo segments on a weekly cadence compounds gains fast. More iterations mean shorter feedback loops, faster learning, and fewer months leaving revenue on the table.
About Michal Parizek🚀 Senior Growth Product Manager at Mojo, a mobile-first content creation platform that empowers businesses and creators to produce professional, animated social media content in minutes.
👋 LinkedInEpisode Highlights:
[0:00] Introduction to Michal Parizek, Senior Growth Product Manager at Mojo
[1:02] How Mojo achieved a 60% increase in average revenue per user
[2:16] The impact of paywall design experiments on Mojo's revenue
[3:31] Why the same paywall design worked in Japan but failed in the US
[4:45] Mojo’s global pricing strategies and the role of regional differences
[5:45] How Mojo optimized early revenue with the 7-day ARPU metric
[7:02] The role of customer feedback in shaping Mojo’s growth strategies
[8:15] Testing different pricing models: How Mojo decided on the $79 price point
[9:30] Why focusing on new revenue, rather than renewals, was crucial for Mojo’s growth
[10:45] The benefits of running paywall campaigns for existing users
[12:02] How Mojo balances customer experience with aggressive monetization strategies
[13:15] The importance of experiment velocity and fast iteration in scaling Mojo
[14:34] Surprising results: Mojo’s success with paywall strategies for existing users
[15:41] Closing thoughts on scaling an app with data-driven experimentation and customer focusStop Celebrating Conversion Wins Before Checking Renewals – Sara Grana, Yousician
On the podcast: about the cost of not tracking your experiments and decisions, how refunds and chargebacks quietly erase your paywall wins, and why stacking A/B test wins should compound your growth, but almost …
Show notes
On the podcast: about the cost of not tracking your experiments and decisions, how refunds and chargebacks quietly erase your paywall wins, and why stacking A/B test wins should compound your growth, but almost never does.
This conversation is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report. Each episode in this series will explore one crucial topic and share actionable insights from top subscription app operators.Top Takeaways:
💸 Map your revenue history before running new experiments
Chart revenue across new subscribers, upgrades, renewals, and win-backs over time. Matching spikes and dips to past decisions reveals what actually moved the business and prevents you from re-learning expensive lessons.🤫 Refunds and chargebacks are silent killers
A paywall “win” can quickly become a net negative if you aren’t tracking the downstream effects of cancellations, refunds, and chargebacks, which often hide the true cost of a seemingly successful experiment.📈If your A/B test wins aren't showing up in top-line growth, something is wrong
Stacking 5% and 10% experiment wins should compound, but many teams see modest growth despite a long list of "winners". Set calendar reminders to recheck winning cohorts at 3 and 6 months, especially for price changes, to catch lifts that don't hold.
About Sara Grana:🚀 Revenue Strategy Lead at Yousician, a revolutionary music platform for anyone to learn, play, create, and teach music.
👋 LinkedIn
Follow us on X:
- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:[0:00] Introduction to Sara Grana, Revenue Strategy Lead at Yousician
[1:05] The importance of tracking experiments and business decisions in subscription apps
[2:19] Mapping revenue and understanding its evolution across different user segments
[3:06] Tracking revenue changes and connecting them to business decisions
[4:34] The pitfalls of focusing too much on early funnel metrics and ignoring long-term impacts
[5:26] The impact of chargebacks and refunds on paywall performance and customer retention
[7:20] Why understanding downstream effects is crucial for making smart pricing decisions
[8:44] The challenges and opportunities of introducing new subscription plans (e.g., lifetime subscriptions)
[9:43] How commercial strategy influences churn rates and renewals
[13:13] The importance of rechecking experiments after months to measure long-term impact
[14:52] Sara's advice on when to revisit experiments based on their impact on pricing and user behavior
[15:49] Tracking cohort data for subscription retention and understanding renewal trends
[16:21] Why surprising lifts in experiments may require deeper investigation
[17:13] The mismatch between short-term experiment results and long-term growth expectations
[18:02] Final thoughts on driving sustainable growth, tracking, and adapting strategies over timeThe Boom In Non-Game App Revenue And What's Driving It – Olivia Moore, Andreessen Horowitz
On the podcast: the tailwinds driving a boom in non-game app revenue, how vibe coding and AI workflows are fueling growth in categories that have nothing to do with AI, and why people predicting the "death of …
Show notes
On the podcast: the tailwinds driving a boom in non-game app revenue, how vibe coding and AI workflows are fueling growth in categories that have nothing to do with AI, and why people predicting the "death of apps" have never been more wrong.
This conversation is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report. Each episode in this series will explore one crucial topic and share actionable insights from top subscription app operators.
Top Takeaways:
🚀 The app revenue boom isn't just about AI apps
Non-game in-app purchases grew 21% year over year, but only $3.5 billion came from generative AI. Billions more flowed into short dramas, social media, utilities, entertainment, and other categories.💰 ChatGPT helped reset what consumers will pay
Pre-AI, most consumer subscriptions topped out around $60 a year. ChatGPT normalized $20 a month, and usage-based pricing is pushing some users into hundreds monthly. AI apps monetize at 2x pre-AI ARPU.🎯 Vertical, opinionated products beat thin AI wrappers
Build deep products around a specific use case bigger platforms won't prioritize. The litmus test: your product should get better, not fear for its life, when the underlying models improve.About Olivia Moore:
🚀 AI Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology.
👋 LinkedIn👋 @omooretweets on X
Follow us on X:
- David Barnard - @drbarnard
- Jacob Eiting - @jeiting
- RevenueCat - @RevenueCat
- SubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Introduction to Olivia Moore, AI Partner at Andreessen Horowitz
[1:05] Olivia discusses the role of AI in transforming startup growth strategies
[2:10] The importance of aligning product development with user needs and market demands
[3:15] How Olivia helps portfolio companies leverage AI to scale effectively
[4:25] The challenge of balancing innovation with user experience and feedback
[5:50] Olivia shares insights on identifying and seizing AI-driven market opportunities
[7:00] Navigating the complexities of integrating AI solutions into existing business models
[8:20] The importance of long-term growth strategies over quick wins
[9:35] Olivia talks about the evolving role of AI in user retention and engagement
[10:40] Discussing the ethical considerations of AI implementation in growth initiatives
[11:55] Olivia’s thoughts on the future of AI in the startup ecosystem
[12:30] Closing thoughts on driving innovation and growth through AI
These are the latest 40 of 178 episodes. You’ll find older episodes in the podcast’s feed.
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