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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 slice of the 'trillion-dollar App Store opportunity'.
Hot Takes — The New App Store Small Business Program
In This EpisodeApple recently shocked the App Store developer community with news that small developers with revenue of less than $1M per year will pay a commission of 15% instead of 30%. Within hours of the news dropping, David and Jacob recorded this episode with the hottest of takes, exploring what this means for the future of the App Store.Here's what we cover in the episode:(1:32) Is this a good thing or a bad thing? (For once, David takes the cynical view!)(4:39) 97% of developers using RevenueCat qualify for the program.(7:13) What this means for ad spend, CAC, and LTV ratios.(9:26) Doing the math: How much of a difference can this really make?(14:16) 97% of developers are affected by this change — representing only 5% of all App Store revenue.(18:56) What happens if you cross the $1M revenue threshold?(26:00) The $1M “magic number”; the 85/15% split.(36:35) How Apple could help different types of businesses succeed in the App Store; Kindle.Follow Us:David Barnard: https://twitter.com/drbarnardJacob Eiting: https://twitter.com/jeitingQuotes:“Indie developers can hire out more things, like customer support. You can afford to do a lot more as a small developer and spend on tools and services and help and designers — there’s so much you can spend that money on that will improve your product, that will help you build a better business, that will lead to more innovation.” - David“What this does is it make small developers more competitive in the bids because we can spend more, so on the ad spend side of things, I think it’s a huge boon to smaller developers.” - David“I still think that the App Store economy generally is more limited on innovation not because of money but because of App Review. VCs are making decisions whether to fund or not fund a mobile company based on App Review, not the 30%. VCs recognize that the marginal costs of digital goods and services is zero. So you can stomach a 30% tax on zero-marginal-cost goods, if you can build a great product.” - David“From a more strictly innovation standpoint, it’s not the money that’s limiting innovation — it’s Apple’s stranglehold on what can and can’t [succeed in the App Store].” - David“I do think this is in some way, the perfect non-action for Apple.” - Jacob“We have to keep asking for the things that developers need, and making more money is always good! That's our mission at RevenueCat; I'm always a fan of that. - Jacob“This is a step, it’s something, and it's not insubstantial. And it's well targeted and well thought out.” - Jacob“Apple gave us a raise!” - David“Ultimately I think all these things that [Apple] could do — like changes to App Review, creating a program to reduce the App Store fee for businesses who can't make it work — all those things ultimately benefit Apple in the long run. As developers are more innovative, as more apps are able to be on the App Store, as the platform grows, they're going to make even more money. So it’s a win all around.” - DavidLike this episode?Subscribe to Sub Club on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to get the latest news on mobile subscription apps.
43:0018/11/2020
Taking a Fitness App to Y Combinator and Beyond — Jake Mor, FitnessAI
Starting a mobile-first subscription app business can be tough — there are a lot of decisions to make. Should you bootstrap or raise investor funding? How will you classify your business? When is the right time to monetize your app?Fortunately, you don’t have to go it alone! One of the best ways to chart your course is to learn from the experiences of developers who’ve been through the process before. And one of the best ways to do that is to go through an accelerator like Y Combinator.This week, David and Jacob caught up with Jake Mor to find out how he navigated the process of building a subscription app from the ground up. Jake is the founder of FitnessAI, an app that builds personalized weight lifting plans to help people achieve their goals without having to hire a personal trainer. The app was released in early 2019 and quickly grew to over $85k in MRR! Based in part on that growth, FitnessAI was accepted into the Y Combinator Winter 2020 batch and raised a seed round coming out of demo day.In this episode, you’ll hear about:(4:38) Jake’s first accelerator experience; co-founding Shopturn and going through Techstars.(8:44) The fitness app opportunity: market size, structured data, and machine learning.(13:20) Pricing experiments; users are willing to pay more than you think.(18:53) Scaling ad spend; what Jake learned from his first $20k.(19:02) The importance of mentorship; Bryan Welfel; JSwipe; The Beard Club.(22:15) Pro tip: Put your ad spend on a credit card to sync up with Apple’s payment schedule. (But be very careful to manage your debt!)Follow Us:David Barnard: https://twitter.com/drbarnardJacob Eiting: https://twitter.com/jeitingJake Mor: https://twitter.com/jakemorLike this episode?Subscribe to Sub Club on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to get the latest news on mobile subscription apps.
42:0213/11/2020
The Trillion-Dollar Subscription App Opportunity — Nico Wittenborn, Adjacent
We’re at an interesting point in the evolution of the subscription app ecosystem. Mass adoption of smartphones, consumers’ increasing willingness to pay for digital services, and a better business model — Personal SaaS — are all coming together to create a huge opportunity for mobile-first subscription app developers. Just how big is this opportunity?(Full disclosure: Nico is so bullish on the future of subscription apps, he recently invested in RevenueCat!)In this episode, you’ll hear about:(4:10) The formula for a breakout SaaS business: engaged users.(5:00) Stickiness, engagement, and churn: B2B SaaS vs. consumer app businesses.(6:56) Identifying nascent markets before they become mainstream; meditation apps (Headspace & Calm).(14:00) The lines between consumer and business use cases are getting blurry.(19:51) We’re in the early stages of figuring out subscription app pricing; Salesforce.(24:46) Pricing your subscription app: balancing adoption, data collection, and user price sensitivity.(39:55) Increased mobile spending and subscription fatigue.(48:26) Sophistication of today’s apps and technology; Oura ring.Follow Us:David Barnard: https://twitter.com/drbarnardJacob Eiting: https://twitter.com/jeitingNico Wittenborn: https://twitter.com/ncsh
51:4830/10/2020