Sub Club by RevenueCat

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 efforts

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 market

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 development

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.

👋LinkedIn

🚀David Barnard, Growth Advocate at RevenueCat.

👋LinkedIn

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 data

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 PhotoRoom