
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Despite a lot of doom and gloom out there about the slowdown of VC investment and how start-ups need to brace for the impact, smart and well-disciplined investors are still looking for home runs, and funding opportunities are still available for the best subscription app companies.
In this episode with Eric Crowley, partner at GP Bullhound, we talk about Consumer Subscription Software Flywheel, the investment north star that defines the main attributes of a successful CSS.
Then we talk about how subscription apps can maximize investors’ attention by
Listen to the episode to find out more about the investor’s inside scoop.
For noteworthy quotes and key takeaways from the episode, read the article -
What venture investors look for in subscription apps with Eric Crowley (GP Bullhound).
Episode Topics at a Glance
More about Eric Crowley
Eric is a Partner at GP Bullhound, focusing primarily on M&A, Capital Raises, and Advisory transactions with expertise in consumer subscription software, tech-enabled agencies and ad-tech. Over his career, he has completed transactions totaling over $3 billion in enterprise value.
Prior to GP Bullhound, Eric served as an executive at a software start-up where he focused on financial management and driving growth. In addition, Eric worked at Lazard and Antares Capital focusing on middle market transactions.
In addition to his CPA, Eric has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a B.S. degree from Xavier University.
Eric Crowley’s Links
Timestamps
00:20 Introducing Eric Crowley and GP Bullhound
01:08 Consumer subscription flywheel
03:35 What GP Bullhound looks for to invest in companies
05:13 The importance of UX and UI
06:55 The role proprietary data takes in building a business mode
08:41 Transitioning from founder-backed to venture-backed companies
11:20 Post-pandemic subscription net businesses
12:59 Examples of creative ways to engage consumers
15:01 Will the Winner-Take-All trend continue?
16:56 Best success stories
18:24 The digital to analogue transition
19:28 Should funders worry about reaching specific APIs?
21:03 Consumer subscription software conference
23:10 Where to learn more about GP Bullhound
Trancript
Episode production by Mobdesign: https://podcasts.mobdesignapps.fr
With his background as a software engineer and app productization expert, Sunny Dulay was inspired by his personal journey with Headspace, a meditation app, and founded an app development and management studio, Breakthrough apps.
Breakthrough is dedicated to helping fitness coaches to productize their coaching into an app. Since its birth, the company has been growing exponentially, with a one-of-a-kind business model that sets itself apart from app aggregators.
Breakthrough and its clients come together on a mission to productize fitness activities by bringing in complementary assets: coaches bring in their brand and community, and Breakthrough provides the technology and app business know-how.
Breakthrough is a business enablement platform similar to Shopify. Instead of presenting multiple services/coaches in a single place, it provides an infrastructure for coaches to monetize and productize their service within their unshared and exclusively branded digital space.
Listen to hear about
For noteworthy quotes and key takeaways from the episode, read the article -
Company Spotlight: Health and Fitness App Productization Platform, with Sunny Dulay (Breakthough)
Episode Topics at a Glance
More about Sunny Dulay
Sunny Dulay is the Co-founder and CEO of Breakthrough, an App Builder for Wellness Coaches. He is an experienced software engineer, product manager & sales manager. Based on his personal life-changing experience with a single coach-based app, Sunny is a believer in on-demand personality-based coaching through an app. His mission is to help coaches around the world productize and scale their coaching business with an app. The Breakthrough team helps coaches in wellness niches like Yoga, Meditation, Fitness, Nutrition & Sports launch & grow their apps. The Breakthrough platform has generated $2M+ for coaching apps. Sunny lives in NYC!
Sunny’s Links
Timestamps
00:21 Sunny Dulay background and introduction
02:40 The journey of founding Breakthrough Apps
06:36 Breakthrough Apps business model and money flow
07:31 Do you have examples of similar businesses?
08:13 Advantages of a brand and community before launching
10:43 Coaches' communities: engagement and retention
12:30 Sunny's strategy for the revenue split
13:28 What criteria are you looking for in coaches?
15:14 How can you shine compared to an aggregator?
18:47 Sunny's tactics to connect coaches and their community
22:10 App store fees vs self-store investment
24:09 Sunny's learnings fr
Episode production by Mobdesign: https://podcasts.mobdesignapps.fr
Named to TIME‘s list of the 100 Most Influential Companies of 2022, Together Labs is a Silicon Valley-based 3D social networking company that innovates technologies empowering people worldwide to connect, create and earn in virtual worlds. Jenny Pollock, Lead Subscription Monetization Manager at Together Labs, is involved in every aspect of interlocking subscriptions and revenue optimization, driving IMVU, the emblematic brand of the company, to the world’s largest friendship discovery and social metaverse platform with more than 7M MAU.
In this episode of Subscription League Podcast, we sit down with Jenny to talk about her advice on how app developers and marketers can leverage quantitative and qualitative user research to guide the product roadmap and monetization strategy. Listen to the full episode to find out about her 4-step user research framework and all her pro tips on user research.
For noteworthy quotes and key takeaways from the episode, read the article -
Leveraging user research to maximize subscription app monetization with Jenny Pollock (Together Labs).
Episode Topics at a Glance
More about Jenny Kay Pollock
Jenny Kay Pollock leads monetization at Together Labs, where she focuses on strategies that help keep IMVU a top 5 social app by spending in the US. Jenny routinely speaks on mobile monetization, women in the workplace, and building a tech career. She has published on these topics in outlets like Forbes and Ellevate. Find her discussing all things tech on Twitter at @Jennykaypollock.
Jenny’s Links
Timestamps
00:18 We're in a bedroom today!
00:50 Jenny Pollock background and introduction
01:16 What does Together Labs do?
02:12 What are your day-to-day responsibilities?
03:09 Subscription tiers of IMVU
04:20 How did IMVUA get into the top 5 social apps?
05:40 The difference between creators and regular users
07:03 Sharing revenue with the IMVU creator community
09:00 The value of listening to your community
10:05 User research: qualitative vs quantitative
11:40 Jenny's four-part framework for user research
13:00 Advice to start ups for managing data
15:21 How to have great user interviews
17:13 User research framework step #2: experiment
18:55 User research framework step #3: get creative
21:46 User research framework step #4: product roadmap
25:32 The motivation behind IMVU's VIP offering
27:27 Benefits of using this tiered model
29:00 Routing users to the right subscriptions
30:05 The value of Purchase League
30:57 Wrap Up
Episode production by Mobdesign: https://podcasts.mobdesignapps.fr
Tobias Boerner, now Chief Marketing Officer & Co-founder of a Luxembourg-based app aggregation company, Appic, has been laying a series of remarkable stepping stones in his career. The most noticeable are his achievements at LOVOO, one of the biggest dating apps in Europe which he made an exit for about $70 million, and Fastic, a five-star intermittent fasting app used by over 26M users worldwide, 92% of whom are happy customers. The Fastic app is also looked upon by many subscription apps and marketers for its exemplary onboarding process and its approach to building users’ trust and satisfaction with consistent delivery of personalized experiences.
For the Subscription League Podcast episode 15, we sat down with Tobias to discuss the nitty-gritty of how the Fastic app differentiates itself from other fasting apps with its extraordinary onboarding strategy.
For noteworthy quotes and key takeaways from the episode, read the article -
All about subscription app onboarding with Tobias Boerner (Appic)
Episode Topics at a Glance
More about Tobias Boerner
Tobias is a serial entrepreneur and Angel Investor. His passion is growth, product marketing and UX/UI. In his previous roles as a CMO and Co-Founder of LOVOO, Tobias was part of 2 exits worth 70M$ and 500M$.
After this almost 10-year journey in the dating environment, he started a new chapter as co-founder and growth officer for Fastic and helped them grow into one of the leading brands for well-being. Besides his passion for marketing, Tobi has made it his mission to be ahead of the times in market developments in the tech environment. With Admiral Studio he founded a collective in the NFT & Web3 space. Tobi is the CMO & Co-founder of App Aggregator Appic since 2022 where he is building a powerhouse for global mobile apps.
Tobias Boerner’s Links
Timestamps
00:21 Welcoming Tobias Börner
00:52 LOVOO: dating app
01:19 Fastic: fasting and health app
02:57 Epic.io: investment and benefits
03:40 Why is there a long onboarding process for Fastic?
05:39 Purpose of the onboarding categories
08:02 What is the ideal onboarding experience?
08:35 Response to very heavy onboarding flow
09:20 Other apps that inspired Tobias
09:54 Absolute don'ts for onboarding
11:28 Advice and tips for onboarding
12:45 Tobias' main struggles with designing onboarding
13:55 Onboarding without A/B testing
14:59 At what point do you not invest much effort anymore?
16:01 The expected effect of good onboarding
16:52 What % does good onboarding convert at?
17:25 The uplifting effect of good onboarding
19:30 Do you recommend a paywall in onboarding?
22:21 Did you run into bugs that helped?
24:01 Counterintuitive learning from Tobias
Transcript
Episode production by Mobdesign: https://podcasts.mobdesignapps.fr
We are steering down the barrel of recession, but consumers’ appetite for subscriptions will likely continue to develop, and an increasing number of subscription businesses will share the pleasure.
What’s driving the rise of Subscription models?
Despite the proven benefits, there are still many challenges that apps struggle with such as the notorious “subscription fatigue.”
Listen to the full episode to learn about the state of the subscription economy, and success strategy recommendations by Peggy Anne Salz, a leading mobile marketer, and the chief analyst and founder of MobileGroove.
For noteworthy quotes and key takeaways from the episode, read the article -
The Subscription Model - the state, benefits, and success tips by Peggy Anne Salz (MobileGroove)
Episode Topics at a Glance
More about Peggy Anne Salz
As the chief analyst and founder of MobileGroove — a top 50 ranked destination providing analysis, custom research, and strategic content marketing to the global mobile industry, and mentoring and consulting to tech startups — Peggy Anne Salz is recognized as one of the leading experts shaping the mobile world.
Peggy is also a nine-time author, a frequent Forbes contributor and guest contributor for a variety of leading media outlets — including Harvard Business Review — where she shares her insights on mobile marketing, mobile apps, customer engagement, and business innovation.
Peggy produces podcasts, videos, webinars, and blogs to equip mobile marketers with best practices and growth strategies to power campaigns, brand storytelling, and user engagement. She is also the Chief Content Officer of MMA Germany.
Peggy Anne Salz’s Links
Timestamp
00:22 Peggy Ann introduction
01:11 Potential upcoming subscription trends
02:12 Key points about the subscription economy
05:20 Good examples of subscription apps
07:51 How to connect with your customers
10:42 Dealing with subscription fatigue
13:24 What are psychographics?
17:40 What's the power behind value graphics?
20:10 Why are subscriptions so successful?
22:00 Benefits to subscription apps
26:24 Must-haves for subscriptions
28:52 Your brand and retaining subscribers
32:55 Peggy's book recommendations
34:23 Peggy's upcoming book
<
Episode production by Mobdesign: https://podcasts.mobdesignapps.fr
In today's technology-led world, new companies are taking off faster than ever. In 2010, the number of new business applications was 2.5 million. Fast forward 11 years to 2021, and the number jumped 116 percent to 5.4 million. But they are also failing faster. According to the latest data, 10% of new businesses don't survive the first year, and 90% of startups fail over the long run.
One of the culprits, other than the bad product or lack of proper product-market fit, is that some companies expand so quickly that they outrun the process of putting in place a holistic growth strategy that's based on adaptability, ongoing learning, and customer understanding.
For Subscription League Podcast Episode 13, we invited Hannah Parvaz, an award-winning app marketer and the Co-founder of a London-based growth agency, Aperture, to talk about some of the most valuable growth lessons she learned throughout years of research and experience in growing numerous brands to ten-figure yearly revenues.
In this episode, you will learn about:
For noteworthy quotes and key takeaways from the episode, read the article - Tips for Creating the Right Mindset for Business Growth by Hannah Parvaz (Aperture)
Episode Topics at a Glance
More about Hannah Parvaz
Hannah Parvaz is the Co-Founder of Aperture. A multi-award-winning marketer, coach and mentor, Hannah was named App Marketer of the Year in 2019 and has spoken internationally on the future of app growth, privacy, and leveraging data analytics.
Having worked with more than 200 companies, Hannah is passionate about supporting & lifting others within the industry; mentoring on Google Launchpad, coaching for Startup Core Strengths, and gaining a 5-star rating on GrowthMentor.
Hannah Parvaz’s Links
Timestamps
0:22 Hannah Parvaz background
1:32 Hannah’s take on growth and why it's important
4:30 Core values to embrace a growth mindset
5:36 How do you balance work in the backlog?
6:52 Hanna's #1 advice for startup subscription businesses
8:17 North Star metrics explanation and advice
11:31 The experimental process and growth mindset
16:28 How Hannah reached success with an app
19:03 Why doesn't like the term "user interview"
23:07 Understanding the "why behind the why"
23:47 What's the alternative to personas?
25:08 Recommendation for jobs to be done framework
26:46 An important lesson that Hannah learned
29:13 Wrap up
29:39 Thank you for listening
Transcript
Episode production by Mobdesign: https://podcasts.mobdesignapps.fr
Luni’s journey as an app empire started out only about four years ago as developers of utility apps such as Scanner. Their business extended to creativity and wellness apps, including Fitness Coach(wellness), Omada(social sports betting), Meditation Nest(wellness), and Photo Studio(creativity). Luni boasts all together over ¼ million daily downloads. The company’s success is essentially based on providing gratifying app content and continuous improvement through frequent testings and optimizations. Luni is also a big advocate of influencer marketing. About 60% of Luni’s users are based in the United States.
Adrien's secret recipe for starting from scratch to reach success?
Listen to the episode to steal all the step-by-step tips for growing small apps from scratch to success!
For noteworthy quotes and key takeaways from the episode, read the article - Subscription Marketing 101: tips to drive acquisition and retention with Adrien Miniatti (Luni)
Episode Topics at a Glance
More about Adrien Miniatti
A passionate autodidact, Adrien Miniatti started coding at 13, recruited engineers at 19, and today spends more than 2.2 million euros per month on marketing to take the mobile applications of the Luni empire, a mobile app publisher and developer of a wide variety of applications, to the top. Adrien founded gaming studios and launched Luni about four years ago. Adrien is also an investor in several tech companies.
Adrien Miniatti’s Links
Timestamps
00:19 Welcome and Introduction
01:05 Adrien Miniati Background
02:55 How do you approach user acquisition?
03:50 Organic User Acquisition Good and Bad
05:31 Advice for Early Start-Up
06:45 How are you building a brand?
08:25 Influencers Impact on Culture and Awareness
10:12 Converting Users to Customers with Fitness Coach
14:58 Profit and Conversion Rate
18:20 The Effect of App-Tracking Transparency
20:57 Apple Custom Code
25:09 Fitness Coach’s Development Process
30:42 Where to Learn More
Transcript
Episode production by Mobdesign: https://podcasts.mobdesignapps.fr
BlueThrone, a leading app aggregator, started buying apps in 2021 and has grown considerably since then. Today, there are over 30 apps under the brand, and those developers they purchased apps from are free to do what they do best: create extraordinary apps.
With BlueThrone is a culmination of experience, expertise and a proven record of changing the fortunes of apps, the company's CMO and Co-founder, Idan Waller, has some insider tips to share on what are the success factors that apply to all mobile apps and what the company looks for when acquiring a new app.
Listen to the full episode to learn more about how the In-App Subscription model can help apps earn big and build extraordinary products.
For noteworthy quotes and key takeaways from the episode, read the article - Product market fit, Subscription Model, and Other Key Secrets of Success by Idan Waller (BlueThrone)
Episode Topics at a Glance
More about Idan Waller
A die-hard digital entrepreneur. Idan Waller has rich experience in direct-response marketing, creating multi-million dollar funnels with the best direct marketers in the world. This led Idan to build Israel's biggest coaching company for digital-based SMB's. This business and marketing experience culminated in founding Bluethrone, with his brother and long-time business partner Alon. Bluethrone is like a VC for apps; it acquires and scales subscription app businesses.
Idan Waller’s Links
Timestamps
00:22 Idan Waller & BlueThrone background
01:06 BlueThrone business model
01:56 Examples of apps grown by BlueThrone
03:49 How long do your developers stay?
04:49 What do you look for in apps you buy?
06:17 Origin of BlueThrone's 5k MMR rule
07:08 How to get on BlueThrone's radar
09:25 Things that stand out in evaluations for apps
12:00 Higher match in the evaluation process: subscriptions
15:07 How BlueThrone scales apps
16:27 Idan's "secret sauce ingredient"
19:22 Must-haves for apps that were initially overseen
22:32 Importance of BlueThrone's digital researchers
Transcript
Episode production by Mobdesign: https://podcasts.mobdesignapps.fr
In the beginning, Jodel's choice of growth model was selling traditional ad spaces because it was a more effortless and quicker option to scale as a startup.
With the vision to provide advertisers with a unique experience to engage with the local community, Jodel revamped the In-App Advertising experience with In-App Purchases, simplifying the payment process and diversifying ad opportunities.
Today, Jodel’s primary revenue stream comes from the combination of In-App Subscription and In-App Purchase of Consumables.
Listen to the full episode to learn more about Jodel’s journey to improve the app with new features, unexpected winners and losers in its optimization journey, and its most significant challenges today in increasing revenues.
For noteworthy quotes and key takeaways from the episode, read the article - Shifting from ads to In-App Subscription-led revenue generation with Tim Schmitz (Jodel)
Episode Topics at a Glance
More about Tim Schmitz
Tim is the COO and Co-Founder of Jodel. Over time he managed all functions of the company like Product, Growth, Community, Tech and Monetization. Prior to Jodel, Tim studied at ESADE Business School and worked in banking and consulting. Tim grew up with strong ties to software development due to his father who owns a software company. During his exchange semester at San Diego State University, Tim met Alessio Avellan Borgmeye with whom he founded Jodel together.
Tim Schmitz’s Links
Timestamps
00:21 Presentation with Phiture
01:08 Welcoming Tim Schmitz and the Jodel app
01:33 Jodel's Hyperlocal Community and challenges it represents
04:08 Worldwide users for Jodel
04:48 Features and strategy behind Jodel's paywalls
09:31 How did you mix subscriptions and in-app purchases?
11:58 Strategy to determine what is free or purchasable
15:29 Unexpected features: winners & losers
17:13 Do you combine tests with user reviews to make your determinations?
20:39 Did you ever have a bug that became a feature?
23:35 How do you keep a pulse on feedback for hacking?
24:27 Challenges to increasing revenue and subscriptions
Transcript
Episode production by Mobdesign: https://podcasts.mobdesignapps.fr
As a long-time fan and a collaborator of the consultancy, we invited Andy to Subscription League Podcast for the second time to draw tips for optimizing mobile app subscriptions.
Andy is a Partner and Co-founder at Phiture, a multi-award-winning mobile growth agency and one of the top 100 fastest-growing agencies worldwide. If you are occasionally seeking advice on topics around subscription optimization and growth, you might already be familiar with Andy's expertise, often referred to by the In-App Subscription community.
In the first episode of the podcast series, All about Retention, Andy shares some valuable insights on how to boost retention. This time, he focuses on paywall practice recommendations for the entire subscription journey and four escalating levels of subscriber intent.
For noteworthy quotes and key takeaways from the episode, read the article - How to optimize mobile app subscription with Andy Carvell (Phiture)
Episode Topics at a Glance
More about Andy Carvell
Andy has over 20 years of experience in the mobile industry. His company Phiture, is a Berlin-based mobile growth consultancy and agency co-founded in 2016 with Moritz Daan with over 110 employees. Phiture consults clients around the globe on mobile growth topics, helping them develop and implement holistic mobile growth strategies.
Prior to Phiture, Andy led the user retention team at SoundCloud in Berlin. Andy published the Mobile Growth Stack in 2015, widely adopted as an essential framework for mobile marketers, which he continues to develop.
Andy Carvell’s Links
Timestamps
00:22 Introducing Andy Carvell
00:43 Andy and Phiture's background
01:30 How the subscription economy is doing
02:44 How many subscriptions does an individual user have?
04:20 Questions app publishers should be able to answer
06:33 How long it takes users to go from installation to subscription
09:38 How to interact with users
11:28 How do you pick your strategic objectives?
14:28 Escalating sequence of intent
17:40 Do you offer promo codes or discounts?
18:34 Growth tactics: paywall
22:51 Free vs premium products
24:16 Setting price for the lifetime subscription
27:23 Phiture & Purchasely event details
Transcript
Episode production by Mobdesign: https://podcasts.mobdesignapps.fr
From the publisher's feed
Welcome to the Subscription League podcast hosted by Purchasely, a world-class no-code Growth Platform for Subscription Apps. Drawing on the industry experience of Purchasely’s three award-winning…