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Sub Club by RevenueCat

Podcast Sub Club by RevenueCat
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...

Available Episodes

5 of 125
  • Fueling Growth with AI and Viral Product Features — Ajay Mehta, Portola
    On the podcast, I talk with Ajay about the fresh opportunities AI is creating for app developers, how they built a cost-effective TikTok growth engine, and why being forced to monetize helped improve their product decisions.Top Takeaways:🤖 New tech, new apps – AI isn’t just making apps smarter. It’s enabling new categories entirely.Apps built around real-time interaction, emotional context, and personalized content wouldn’t have been possible just a year ago. That means product-market fit can emerge in spaces that didn’t even exist before.🎨 Design spreads – Great visuals are for distribution, not just decoration.Memorable characters, animations, or interfaces can make your app instantly recognizable in screenshots, social videos, or App Store listings. Strong creative amplifies word-of-mouth.💸 Monetization pushes clarity – Charging early forces your product to stand up on its own.When you’re paying for AI infrastructure, you can’t wait to figure out value. Monetizing quickly reveals which users are getting enough utility to stick around and where the gaps are in your experience.📈 TikTok still works – For the right product, UGC beats polish.Test fast, post often, and watch what takes off. Lo-fi creator content can outperform paid campaigns, especially if your app is visual and easy to explain. One viral post can change your growth curve overnight.🧠 Voice AI is tough to fake – Real conversation needs more than an API call.Delivering a fast, natural back-and-forth requires layered systems: memory lookup, tone control, real-time rendering, and low-latency streaming. It’s a technical challenge and a competitive moat.About Ajay Mehta:👽 Co-Founder of Portola, the creators of Tolan—an AI companion app that offers personalized, engaging, and fun experiences.📈 Ajay is passionate about AI’s potential to revolutionize consumer apps, focusing on building emotionally resonant, interactive experiences. 💡 “Something that AI really allows you to do is make a consumer experience that just feels like there is totally something on the other side that knows you, understands you.”👋  LinkedInFollow us on X: David Barnard - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @SubClubHQEpisode Highlights:[1:10] Origin story: How Ajay and the Portola team developed the AI alien buddy app, Tolan.[7:38] Cash flow: Why the Tolan team secured venture funding instead of bootstrapping.[11:36] I, Robot: How AI is changing the app landscape and why AI companion apps are especially promising.[16:36] Cost/Benefit: The costs associated with running an AI app forced Tolan to monetize early (but that wasn’t a bad thing).[21:17] Onboarding excellence: How Tolan’s onboarding experience fosters deep personalization and long-term retention.[28:08] Going viral: Why an effective TikTok marketing strategy can dramatically lower your cost per acquisition.[39:34] A league of their own: Why competition is relatively low (for now) for AI companion apps.[47:39] Race to the top: Raising venture capital and using the upfront cash infusion to iterate and beat out the competition (à la Duolingo).[51:18] Tolan 2 (The Sequel): AI engines have the potential to be spun off into multiple app businesses.
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  • The 2025 State of Subscription Apps Report
    On the podcast we discuss how AI is changing both what apps do and how they’re built, the relationship between price and retention, and why React Native apps monetize better than native.Check out RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps 2025 report here: https://revenuecat.com/reportTop Takeaways:📊 AI apps: Higher revenue per user, but differentiation is keyAI-powered apps don’t convert users at a higher rate, but they earn more per subscriber. People are willing to pay for AI-enhanced features, but success depends on offering real value - simply wrapping a chatbot isn’t enough. The best-performing AI apps focus on unique, high-value use cases.💰 Hybrid monetization is gaining momentumMore apps are mixing revenue models—offering subscriptions, consumables, and lifetime purchases to appeal to different types of buyers. AI-powered apps, in particular, are finding success with credit-based systems that let heavy users pay more without forcing everyone onto a subscription.⚡ Most subscription churn happens in the first month—act fastA huge percentage of cancellations happen right after the first charge. Users need to feel the value of your app immediately, or they’ll turn off auto-renew. Strong onboarding, personalized engagement, and proactive retention strategies make all the difference.⏳ 80% of trial starts happen on day one - don’t bury your paywallUsers decide quickly. The vast majority of free trials begin the first time someone opens the app, and if they don’t start one then, they likely never will. A clear, compelling paywall in onboarding is essential to maximizing conversions.📉 Lower prices mean higher retentionApps with lower subscription prices retain users at significantly higher rates. High-ticket subscriptions can work if the value is obvious, but in many cases, a lower price makes the renewal decision much easier. If churn is a problem, pricing strategy should be one of the first things to review.About Jacob Eiting: 👨‍💻 Founder & CEO of RevenueCat, the platform powering in-app subscriptions for thousands of apps.🎯 Jacob helps app developers navigate pricing, retention, and monetization strategies to build sustainable businesses.💡 “If your differentiation is community, if your differentiation is distribution, like you have some unique angle, you’re serving a niche, and you want to be on both platforms, React is probably a really good place to start today.”👋  LinkedInFollow us on X: David Barnard - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @SubClubHQEpisode Highlights:[1:10] The power of AI: AI apps don’t convert users at a higher rate, but they do generate more revenue per user.[12:28] Battle of the app stores: The App Store generates more money than the Play Store because there are more iOS users (not because Android users pay less).[18:20] Hybrid vs native: A wider range of development frameworks is lowering the barrier to entry for app developers.[24:12] Downward slide: Retention rates are declining year over year (but that’s to be expected).[26:51] Failure to launch?: One out of every 20 apps makes more than $9,000/month one year after launching.[34:37] Diversifying revenue: More apps are experimenting with hybrid monetization strategies, combining monthly subscriptions with consumables and lifetime subscriptions.[39:53] Press start: 80% of free trials start the day users first open the app.[42:13] End of the line: Cancellations of annual subscriptions happen most commonly in the first and last month.[45:12] The price isn’t right: Lower-priced apps retain users better than higher-priced apps.[54:20] Last touch: Active renewal rates are highest for annual subscriptions and lowest for weekly subscriptions.
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  • How to Build More Successful Paywalls — Sylvain Gauchet
    This episode is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report.On the podcast: top strategies for paywall optimization, how storytelling during onboarding impacts conversions, and why framing the user journey leading to the paywall is more critical than the paywall itself.Top Takeaways:🔐 Your paywall is only as good as the story leading up to itA well-placed paywall won’t convert if users aren’t primed to see value. Guide users with a clear onboarding flow that tells a story, setting expectations and building excitement before they reach the paywall. Strong hooks, a compelling introduction, and a high-value moment just before the paywall can significantly increase conversions.💰Use loss aversion to reinforce premium valueEncourage users to engage with premium features before showing the paywall. By having them set up key features or preferences first, you create a sense of ownership - so when they hit the paywall, rejecting the offer feels like losing access to something they’ve already invested in. This approach taps into sunk cost fallacy to boost conversions.📱Test multi-screen paywalls for better engagementInstead of cramming all your selling points into a single paywall, break them up into multiple screens. Showing benefits, pricing, and feature comparisons step by step can increase trial opt-ins - Mimo saw a 60% lift using this method. This also blurs the line between onboarding and monetization, giving users more time to absorb the value of upgrading.About Sylvain Gauchet:🌐 Director of Revenue Strategy, US at Babbel, specializing in mobile growth, app marketing, and revenue optimization for a leading language learning platform.🛠️ Sylvain brings deep expertise in crafting data-driven growth strategies, leveraging mobile marketing, app store optimization, and curated insights to drive customer acquisition and retention. He is also the creator of GrowthGems.co, a newsletter for growth practitioners.💡 "It's not just about optimizing the paywall—it's about the entire journey leading up to it. The story you tell through onboarding and the context you create before the paywall are what truly drive conversions. Without that, even the best-designed paywall won't perform as well as it could."👋 Connect with Sylvain on LinkedIn!Resources:Growth GemsApp Growth Annual ConferenceFollow us on X: David Barnard - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @SubClubHQ
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  • How to Optimize User Acquisition Across Major Ad Channels — Shane Ly, AppsFlyer
    This episode is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report.On the podcast: The state of major acquisition channels in 2025, how improved measurement is boosting confidence in ad spend, and why Reddit might be your next top-performing user acquisition channel.Top Takeaways:📡 Signal recovery is improving ad efficiencyiOS signal loss made UA harder, but advanced self-attributing networks (SRNs) on TikTok, Meta, and Snapchat are restoring key data points. Apple Search Ads now supports view-through attribution, helping capture conversions that might have been missed.🌐 Web-to-app funnels create new acquisition opportunitiesMore apps are using landing pages and web subscriptions to capture high-intent users before directing them to the app. Meta and Google Ads support these flows, allowing apps to bypass platform fees and test more flexible pricing strategies.🔍Reddit and alternative channels are gaining tractionReddit is investing in app install campaigns, making it an overlooked but promising UA channel - especially for niche communities. AppsFlyer data shows growing spend across multiple platforms, as confidence in attribution continues to improve.About Shane Ly:📱 Solutions Architect at AppsFlyer, specializing in mobile attribution and user acquisition strategies for subscription apps.📈 Shane helps companies make sense of their ad spend, optimize attribution across channels like Meta, Google, TikTok, and Reddit, and turn better data into smarter marketing decisions.💡 "Having a good pipeline for how to notify that a subscription was actually done back into this measurement partner—reason for that is we need to effectively know where did that user come from and did they actually convert or did they actually subscribe?"👋 Connect with Shane on LinkedIn!Resources: AppsFlyer websiteFollow us on X: David Barnard - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @SubClubHQ
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  • How to Maximize Web Subscriptions for Sustainable Growth — Lucas Lovell, Paddle
    This episode is shorter than usual and will be featured in RevenueCat’s State of Subscription Apps report.On the podcast: maximizing success with web subscriptions, how payment flexibility creates better user experiences, and why making cancellations difficult can do more harm than good.Top Takeaways:💳Web subscriptions aren’t just a cost-saving play - they’re a growth opportunityMany apps start exploring web payments to avoid platform fees, but the real advantage is flexibility. The web allows for custom billing models, deeper pricing experiments, and new user acquisition channels, especially for high-intent verticals like health, fitness, and education.🛠️Optimize the entire funnel - not just the paywallSuccessful web-first apps think beyond conversion. They experiment heavily with onboarding flows, checkout experiences, and post-purchase retention tactics like cancellation flows and downgrade options to reduce churn and maximize lifetime value.🏆Leverage win-backs and flexible pricing to keep users engagedWith more control over pricing and communication, web subscriptions open up retention opportunities that aren’t possible in the app stores. Offering discounted renewals, pausing options, or money-back guarantees can significantly improve customer satisfaction and long-term retention.About Lucas Lovell:📑 VP of Product at Paddle, focused on optimizing web-based billing and payment solutions for subscription apps.📈 Lucas has deep expertise in monetization strategy, retention tooling, and payment flexibility, helping mobile app companies maximize revenue and customer lifetime value beyond the app stores.💡 "The web is giving you opportunity and flexibility and tooling to do things that you are unable to do in the App Store, and that's the unlock that people are realizing when they come to the web. They're coming for the fees and staying for the flexibility."👋 Connect with Lucas on LinkedIn!Resources:Paddle websiteFollow us on X: David Barnard - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @SubClubHQ
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About Sub Club by RevenueCat

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'.
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