Sub Club by RevenueCat

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...

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. 🍔...

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 strate...

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....

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 bigges...

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...

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 questionnair...

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...

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...

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...

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 cru...

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 to...

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...

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...

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 actionabl...

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 an...

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 subscripti...

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...

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 insi...

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 sh...

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...

On the podcast, I talk with Michael and Mark about the boom in hardware-enabled subscriptions, why nothing worked until they stopped optimizing and started building a better product, and how they doubled their price to $79 even though the data said they could charge more. Top Takeaways: 📱 Hardware-enabled subscriptions need daily usage to work   Devices that sit unused make subscription value har...

On the podcast we talk with Tanmay and Jack about how earned media can drive paid performance, building features that make for good tweets, and why stripping out your onboarding quiz might beat optimizing it. Top Takeaways: 📊Pricing should match how users think — not how AI works One of the biggest wins came from simplifying pricing. For ElevenReader, selling listening time instead of tokens or c...

On the podcast, I talk with Cem about the premium trap many apps fall into, why free trials work even for freemium products, and how ‘try for $0.00’ actually outperforms ‘try for free’. Top Takeaways: 💡 Protect the free moat — always  Short-term revenue tricks like paywalling free features make metrics spike — then stall. Sustainable freemium growth depends on preserving free value. It’s not just...

On the podcast, I talk with Jeff about Tinder's $50 million paywall win. Why now is such a great time to build apps, and how hard paywalls can mislead you about product-market fit. Top Takeaways: 💡 Focus on Product-Market Fit First  Before jumping into monetization, ensure your product truly resonates with users. Building a product that solves a real problem and captures genuine interest is the f...