Sub Club by RevenueCat

By David Barnard, Jacob Eiting

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 slic... more

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The podcast currently has 176 episodes available.

Best of Sub Club by RevenueCat

The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

Number 1: Scaling 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: 📉 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 🚀 Built with Science 🖥️ Built with Science Careers Follow us on X: David Barnard - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @SubClubHQ
September 02, 20261h 1min
Number 2: 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 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 🖥️ Savvy Navvy Careers 💬 Savvy Navvy on X Follow us on X: David Barnard - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @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 Backfired
August 05, 20261h 8min
Number 3: Make 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 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 - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @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.
July 22, 20261h 18min
Number 4: 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 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 🖥️Volo Ventures 💻 Zo Computer Follow us on X: David Barnard - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @SubClubHQEpisode 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.
July 08, 20261h 5min
Number 5: Signal Engineering: Strategic Data Filtering for Better Ad Performance — Thomas Petit, Independent Consultant
On the podcast I talk with Thomas about using signal engineering to optimize ad spend, how AI is changing creative testing, and why most people should avoid app2web… for now. Top Takeaways: 🧠 The biggest AI opportunity in ads is smarter analysis, not faster production AI is now good enough to produce ad-quality video and variants at scale — but that’s where 95% of the industry focus stops. The underused frontier is AI for analysis: spotting winning hooks, predicting performance, and even pre-testing creatives with “AI humans” before spend. The teams that combine rapid AI production with AI-driven analysis can iterate faster and scale what works more reliably. 🔍 Signal engineering starts with fixing broken data If the events you send to ad networks are inaccurate or poorly mapped, you’re sabotaging the algorithms. First step: make sure event counts match internal analytics within ~5–10% (not 30–50%). Then move from “normal” to “sophisticated” by filtering for quality — for example, optimizing to high-LTV trial signups instead of all trials — and sending value-adjusted revenue that reflects predicted LTV, not just day-one spend. ⚖️ Balance exploitation of winners with exploration of new concepts When a creative crushes it, it’s tempting to flood your account with variations. But over-reliance on a single concept speeds fatigue and leaves you exposed when performance drops. Keep iterating on winners and testing new hooks in parallel — especially on fast-moving platforms like TikTok, where trends expire in weeks. 🌐 App-to-web works best for big brands with deep resources Moving checkout to the web can bypass app store fees, but it’s a high-commitment experiment. Success usually requires brand trust, team bandwidth, and a well-tested flow — often with different plan structures than in-app. For most smaller teams, the opportunity cost outweighs the benefit. “Saying no to good ideas” is often the smarter prioritization. 💳 Hybrid monetization is powerful, but not plug-and-play Combining subscriptions with one-time or usage-based purchases can capture more revenue from different segments — especially for AI-powered apps with real compute costs. But designing it to avoid cannibalizing subscriptions is complex. Treat hybrid as a later-stage lever: exhaust easier wins in pricing, packaging, and paywall optimization first, then experiment, possibly starting with Android or non-US markets. About Thomas Petit: 👨‍💻 Independent app growth consultant helping subscription apps like Lingokids, Deezer, and Mojo. 📈 Thomas is passionate about helping subscription apps optimize their ad spend and increase ROI through smarter testing. 💡 “The whole idea of signal engineering and optimization of the data that you're sending back is: send the network something better, and they're gonna do a better job. They are doing a better job — it's you who are not doing yours.” 👋 LinkedIn Follow us on X: David Barnard - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @SubClubHQ Episode Highlights: [1:21] Testing smarter: How AI may be changing the game for testing ads. [13:09] Untangling the web: App-to-web can work for some, but it’s not a slam dunk. [21:19] Hedge your bets: The benefits of moving away from subscription-only and embracing hybrid monetization strategies. [26:50] Going global: When and why to consider experimenting with hybrid monetization outside the US. [31:15] Signal vs. noise: The signal engineering framework for sending the most valuable user interaction data to ad platforms. [44:47] Multi-platform: Optimizing your data and event mapping for multiple ad networks. [53:01] Low-hanging fruit: Scoring easy wins with signal engineering. [1:08:04] Hands-off: Why ad networks likely won’t (and maybe shouldn’t?) implement built-in signal engineering tools for app marketers. [1:14:05] Going deep: Advanced signal engineering techniques. [1:26:09] Volume vs. quality: Why sending fewer events to ad networks may actually yield better results.
August 20, 20251h 34min