Levels Podcast - presented by Trophy
GrowthJi Woong from Teuida shares how the Korean and Japanese language learning app with 500,000+ MAUs transformed their revenue model by refining their subscription strategy and monetization approach, achieving a rare 3x increase in lifetime value.
Charlie Hopkins-Brinicombe
How do you turn social media followers into paying users? Teuida's journey from building a Korean culture community on Instagram to driving user growth demonstrates the indirect path to acquisition through authentic community engagement.
Teuida's approach to language learning gamifies the traditionally uncomfortable experience of speaking a new language by turning real-world scenarios into interactive video challenges. Learn how forcing users to actively participate—rather than passively consume—creates stronger engagement loops.
While most language learning platforms lean heavily on AI, Teuida took a different approach with pre-recorded video conversations that force users to actively speak. Discover why this engagement-first design philosophy helped them reach half a million monthly active users.
PodcastInstead of promoting their language learning app directly, Teuida built a thriving Instagram community of over 100,000 followers by creating content around Korean culture. Learn their strategy for identifying what your users actually care about beyond your product.
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PodcastWhen Marcus Gners, Chief Growth Officer and co-founder of Lifesum, joined the Levels Podcast, he shared a perspective that challenges how most founders think about building health and wellness products. After 13 years and 65 million downloads, his team discovered something crucial: users don't download their app because they want to track food. "People don't use a food tracking app because they want to build a giant archive of everything they've eaten in their life," Marcus explains. "They use
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GrowthWith 65 million users and 13 years of nutrition data, Lifesum is expanding into supplements and biomarkers. Marcus Gners explains their platform strategy and why owning the audience creates cheaper customer acquisition than traditional wellness companies.
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PodcastHealth apps traditionally use guilt and shame to drive engagement. Lifesum's Marcus Gners explains why appealing to users' wants instead of shoulds creates sustainable motivation, and what health apps can learn from gaming.
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PodcastLearn how Journable achieves 30-day profitability with Google Ads while bootstrapped. From install campaigns to ROAS targeting, plus localized pricing strategy.
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PodcastJournable is adding streaks, badges, and social features to boost retention in their weight loss app. Learn how they're implementing gamification carefully.
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PodcastJournable grew to 600K users while bootstrapped by monetizing from day one. Learn how they achieved 30-day profitability and compete without VC funding.
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PodcastWhen ChatGPT launched, Programiz didn't just lose Google traffic—they faced a crisis of relevance. Punit shares how AI created a "triple whammy" that forced them to completely rethink their growth engine and why organic-only strategies are now dangerous.
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Gamification Psychology and DesignProgramiz had 6 million users, but each one felt completely isolated. This insight transformed their entire product strategy, leading them to add challenges, leaderboards, and Discord communities. Learn why aggregate metrics can blind you to individual user experience.
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PodcastPunit explains why Programiz pivoted their entire philosophy from teaching coding fundamentals to getting people building from day one. With AI writing code, the question isn't "should I learn?" but "can I build?
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Gamification Psychology and DesignProgramiz launched leaderboards and saw decent engagement—but something was wrong. Being user #2,000,004 isn't motivating. Learn why they're pivoting to friend-based and school-based leaderboards, and what this reveals about effective gamification.
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PodcastProgramiz learned the hard way that millions of website visitors don't automatically convert to paid subscribers. The mobile app taught them device switching kills momentum, but the deeper lesson was about understanding different user journeys entirely.
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PodcastWhen Nepal's youth organized a political movement, they didn't use Facebook—they used Discord. Punit shares this fascinating story and explains why dark social and gated communities are replacing the public web, and what founders should do about it.
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PodcastProgramiz had millions of users but zero brand recognition. Discover why they spent a year putting faces to their content before launching their paid product, and what this reveals about the evolution from utility to community.
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PodcastHitting $1M in annual recurring revenue is a milestone most startups dream about. Doing it in just one year? That's the kind of growth that makes founders stop and ask: what did they figure out that we haven't?
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PodcastBarak Glanz explains the multi-layered attribution system Coddy built using UTM parameters, onboarding polls, and coupon codes to solve the challenge of tracking users who Google their app name instead of clicking influencer links.
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PodcastAfter working with over 20 influencers, Coddy discovered that channel size isn't everything. This post breaks down the key metrics that actually predict influencer ROI and why channels that are too small or too large both present challenges.
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PodcastA deep dive into Coddy's freemium model, inspired by mobile games, where free users get 15 minutes of daily usage while premium subscribers fund education for everyone else. Includes insights on balancing retention with monetization.
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PodcastThrough A/B testing, Coddy discovered their "energy system" outperformed the traditional "hearts" approach used by apps like Duolingo. This post explores what they learned and how they made the switch.
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PodcastWhile short-form videos drove initial growth, Coddy is now investing in YouTube long-form content as a long-term acquisition channel. Barak explains why these videos act like SEO, delivering users for years after publication.
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PodcastAfter a year of delays, Coddy is finally launching their mobile app with a unique approach: creating mobile-friendly versions of every desktop lesson. This post covers their cross-platform strategy and the challenges of adapting coding lessons for mobile.
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PodcastFrom Duolingo's owl to Coddy's "Beats" (half-ant, half-robot), mascots give B2C brands a personality that drives engagement. Barak shares how they use their mascot in passive-aggressive retention emails that actually work.
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PodcastCoddy's CMO walks through their rigorous hiring process, from phone screening 80 candidates to conducting in-person interviews with just 5. Includes insights on home assignments, reference checks, and asking candidates about their AI usage.
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PodcastBarak's closing thoughts on what makes B2C different from B2B: you're not just building software, you're becoming part of someone's daily life. This post explores the responsibility and opportunity that comes with B2C product development.
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PodcastYou're halfway through a recipe when you realize you're out of soy sauce. Panic sets in. You frantically Google "soy sauce substitute" and get bombarded with generic listicles that don't account for what you're actually making. Should you use Worcestershire sauce? Tamari? Will it ruin the dish?
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GrowthMost startup advice tells you to move fast and scale quickly. But what happens when your growth is painfully, excruciatingly slow? When you check your dashboard every morning hoping for a miracle that doesn't come?
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PodcastStarting a two-sided marketplace is notoriously difficult. You need creators to attract users, but you need users to attract creators. It's a chicken-and-egg problem that has killed countless startups. Read how Chefadora, a recipe-sharing platform made it through.
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PodcastGuillermo Martinez shares how Buen Provecho spent months validating their concept through a WhatsApp group before building their app, managing everything manually to prove demand existed before investing in development
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PodcastGuillermo Martinez explains why having too many users is actually a problem for Buen Provecho's business and how supply constraints shape every decision they make about growth.
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PodcastGuillermo Martinez explains why Buen Provecho turned down strategic investment from major supermarket chains and how that decision protected their ability to become the dominant platform in their market.
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PodcastGuillermo Martinez explains why Buen Provecho's franchise approach to Colombia failed and why they'll never use that model again for marketplace expansion.
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PodcastHow do you keep users engaged when you don't always have products available? Guillermo reveals their approach to personalized push notifications based on the last purchase location and a 48-72 hour cooling period.
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PodcastBuen Provecho discovered that power users who favorite stores get instant notifications and snap up inventory fast, creating a two-tiered user experience. Guillermo discusses how they're addressing this imbalance.
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PodcastA small influencer's TikTok unexpectedly went viral, flooding Buen Provecho with users when they were supply-constrained. Guillermo shares what they learned about preparing for viral moments.
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PodcastOne of Buen Provecho's biggest early challenges was overcoming the stigma that surplus food equals poor quality. Guillermo explains how mission-driven branding and curation helped build trust with their first users.
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PodcastGuillermo reveals Buen Provecho's plan to tackle a different part of the food waste chain: distributors who bury or burn products with 60 days of shelf life. This requires dark stores, logistics, and new capital.
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PodcastWhile most users are young professionals or families, Buen Provecho's top user is a 67-year-old woman who orders 2-3 times daily as her walking exercise. Guillermo discusses unexpected user personas and the power of user stories.
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PodcastWhile competitors emphasize the "cheap" aspect of surplus food, Buen Provecho focuses on environmental impact with CO2 savings and waste prevented. Guillermo explains why this protects premium brand partnerships.
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PodcastWith supply constraints creating empty shelves for many users, retention becomes tricky. Guillermo discusses how they balance growth with user experience and avoid burning out their audience.
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PodcastWhile most consumer apps focus on the user experience, Buen Provecho spent 2023-2024 primarily improving their web app for stores. Guillermo explains why solving the supply side was more important than consumer features.
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PodcastBuen Provecho" means "have a good meal," which works perfectly for food—but what happens when you expand to cosmetics and other categories? Guillermo discusses the challenge of evolving beyond your original brand.
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CommunityBefore CKBK even existed as a platform, founder Matthew Cockerill faced a fundamental question: In a world drowning in free recipes online, do cookbooks still matter?
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EngineeringBuilding a content platform is one thing. Building one that can handle Victorian-era cookbooks is an entirely different technical challenge. Matthew Cockerill, founder of CKBK, learned this firsthand when he set out to digitize the world's best cookbooks into a unified, searchable database.
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GrowthWhen building a subscription platform that serves both home cooks and professional chefs, the obvious move seems to be creating different pricing tiers. But CKBK founder Matthew Cockerill deliberately chose a different path.
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PodcastMost food platforms focus on helping users find what they're already looking for. But CKBK founder Matthew Cockerill is building something more ambitious: a system that helps users discover what they should cook next, even when they don't know what that is.
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CommunityMost subscription platforms treat content creators as distant figures whose work gets consumed but who remain largely inaccessible to users. CKBK founder Matthew Cockerill took a radically different approach: he made cookbook authors directly accessible to users through the platform itself.
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CommunityOn The Levels Podcast, Matthew shared how his 2018 Kickstarter campaign doubled its funding target and provided the validation needed to build what's now a thriving subscription platform with over 20,000 users.
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PodcastMost recipe apps stop at displaying instructions on a screen. But CKBK founder Matthew Cockerill saw an opportunity to extend the platform's value directly into users' kitchens through smart appliance integration.
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GrowthMost subscription platforms focus exclusively on consumers or business customers, but rarely both. CKBK founder Matthew Cockerill discovered that his "Spotify for cookbooks" had unexpected appeal in educational markets, leading to a thriving B2B revenue stream alongside consumer subscriptions.
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GrowthMost content creators struggle with digital monetization, especially in industries where traditional models have been disrupted. CKBK founder Matthew Cockerill solved this challenge by adapting Spotify's royalty pool system to cookbook publishing
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GrowthWhen CKBK launched, many publishers worried that digital cookbook access would cannibalize print sales. But founder Matthew Cockerill discovered the opposite: his subscription platform actually drives physical cookbook purchases while serving different user needs
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GrowthGetting users to download a recipe app is one challenge. Getting them to actually cook regularly is another entirely. CKBK founder Matthew Cockerill is tackling this engagement problem by building gamification features that encourage users to develop consistent cooking habits
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GrowthRunning a small startup while managing relationships with publishers, smart appliance makers, culinary schools, and complementary apps sounds overwhelming. But CKBK founder Matthew Cockerill has built a thriving partnership ecosystem that drives growth across multiple channels
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PodcastWhen Matthew Cockerill left the world of science publishing, he brought with him a crucial insight: traditional industries often miss the transformative potential of the internet. His latest venture, CKBK, proves this by applying the subscription model that to an industry dominated by print books.
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CommunityHow do you build an initial user base when you have no existing community? João Neves and his team at Bloop solved this challenge by turning their fundraising process and press strategy into community building tools, creating 300 engaged beta users before they even launched.
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CommunityIn a recent conversation on the Levels Podcast, João explained how Bloop's "for everyone" philosophy challenges traditional influencer marketing assumptions and creates a more authentic, accessible system for earning through recommendations.
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GrowthMost founders struggle with the chicken-and-egg problem: buyers won't come without good selection, but sellers won't join without existing buyers. João Neves and his team at Bloop solved this challenge by focusing on three key strategies that helped them reach nearly 100 sellers before launch.
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PodcastMost career advice tells ambitious professionals to always move forward and up. João Neves, co-founder and CTO of Bloop, took a radically different approach that challenges conventional wisdom about career progression.
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DesignGetting meaningful feedback from users is one of the biggest challenges facing early-stage product teams. Most startups struggle with low response rates to surveys, generic feedback that's hard to act on, or users who simply don't bother sharing their thoughts at all.
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EngineeringBuilding a social network is hard. Building an e-commerce marketplace is hard. Combining both into a single platform? Even harder. That's what João Neves and his team at Bloop discovered as they set out to create the world's first social shopping platform that rewards users for their influence.
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CommunityWhen most startups think about crowdfunding, they picture polished campaigns on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, complete with professional videos and stretch goals. João Neves, co-founder and CTO of Bloop, took a completely different approach: the power of word-of-mouth.
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PodcastSpeaking on the Levels Podcast, Amy revealed specific strategies for paywall testing that helped Sylvi achieve strong conversion rates from their freemium model to an $80 annual subscription.
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PodcastSpeaking on the Levels Podcast, Amy shared specific examples of how viral moments failed to drive app installs while unexpected content generated their highest conversion days—offering crucial insights for startups chasing the wrong metrics.
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PodcastSpeaking on the Levels Podcast, Amy shared how embracing their startup reality rather than hiding it transformed customer relationships and accelerated their growth trajectory.
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PodcastSpeaking on the Levels Podcast, Amy shared practical approaches to attribution that any startup can implement, even without sophisticated tracking infrastructure.
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Gamification GuidesSpeaking on the Levels Podcast, Amy shared how understanding streak psychology helped Sylvi capitalize on market disruption and create a retention system that actually serves user goals rather than just app engagement.
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GrowthSpeaking on the Levels Podcast, Amy shared her methodical approach to TikTok testing that helped Sylvi discover the crucial difference between viral content and valuable content for their business.
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GrowthSpeaking on the Levels Podcast, Amy shared how one breakthrough creator collaboration transformed their growth trajectory and the systematic approach they've since developed to scale creator partnerships effectively.
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GrowthSylvi AI, a language learning app that helps users practice conversations with AI pen pals, launched in April 2024 and has already reached over 1,000 paying customers. But their path to building a loyal user base started with a simple question: "How did you find us?"
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PodcastAmy Cameron, Head of Marketing at Sylvi AI, discovered a fundamentally different approach that transformed their product development process and accelerated their path to product-market fit.
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DesignSylvi AI's approach offers valuable lessons for any B2C startup looking to implement gamification that enhances rather than detracts from their core value proposition.
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Gamification GuidesAmy Cameron, Head of Marketing at Sylvi AI, discovered a surprisingly powerful retention strategy that any B2C app can implement immediately: adding new users to a WhatsApp group during onboarding.
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PodcastMost B2C startups approach creator partnerships with a simple playbook: offer affiliate commissions and hope for the best. But according to Tim Johnson, who's managed creator communities at three major consumer apps including Wattpad (acquired for $600M), this approach is fundamentally flawed.
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PodcastTim recently joined the Levels Podcast to share insights from his unique journey across multiple B2C platforms, and his perspective on creator partnerships challenges conventional wisdom.
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PodcastOn the latest episode of the Levels Podcast, Tim shared his contrarian approach to B2B sales that prioritizes human connection over automation, quality over quantity, and genuine relationship building over transactional interactions.
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PodcastIn the world of B2C startups, data is often viewed through the lens of user engagement, retention metrics, and conversion rates. But what if your app's data could predict the next cultural phenomenon before it breaks into the mainstream?
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PodcastNot every startup needs to become a unicorn to be successful. Sometimes the most valuable lesson an entrepreneur can learn is when to pivot from venture-scale ambitions to building a sustainable, profitable business.
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PodcastOne of the most fundamental challenges facing B2C startups is understanding whether users are actively searching for your solution or if they need to discover it organically. This distinction shapes everything, and getting it wrong can waste months of precious runway.
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PodcastIn a recent episode of the Levels Podcast, Tim shared insights from his unique journey across three very different B2C platforms: Wattpad, Couply, and Blossom. His perspective on app culture offers a compelling framework for founders looking to build sticky, memorable products.
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PodcastIn a recent episode of the Levels Podcast, Tim shared how he generated $2 million in revenue for seed-stage Blossom, where an impressive 70% of revenue comes from brand partnerships rather than subscriptions. His methodology completely reframes how consumer apps should approach B2B sales.
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PodcastWhen Wattpad was acquired by Naver for $600 million, Tim Johnson faced a crossroads that many startup veterans know all too well. Stay with the acquired company and transition into a larger organization, or venture back into the chaotic world of early-stage startups?
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PodcastBuilding a consumer app that users genuinely love should be the golden ticket to sustainable growth, right? Unfortunately, the reality is far more complex. Even when your product delivers real value and users actively enjoy the experience, they can still churn at alarming rates.
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PodcastMost consumer app founders assume subscriptions are the holy grail of monetization. After all, recurring revenue is predictable, scalable, and the foundation of many successful SaaS businesses. But what if there's a better way?
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PodcastBuilding a creator community that actually drives growth is one of the most challenging aspects of scaling a B2C app. While most founders understand the potential power of creator partnerships, few know how to execute them effectively at scale.
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PodcastMost B2C app founders assume subscriptions are their golden ticket to revenue. But what if we told you that 70% of a successful social investing app's revenue comes from brand partnerships, not subscriptions?
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PodcastBuilding a consumer app that scales isn't just about great UX or smart marketing—it's about creating network effects that make your product more valuable as more people use it. But how do you actually design and execute a network effects strategy that works?
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PodcastWhen you’re building a two-sided marketplace, you face a chicken-and-egg problem: you need supply to get demand, but you need demand to convince supply to join. Read how one founder solved this problem with a lot of cold outreach and lowballing commissions.
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PodcastMost B2C startups think of themselves as platforms, marketplaces, or products. But the best ones evolve into something much deeper: a community.
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PodcastIn the B2C startup world, there’s still a lingering myth: if you’re not technical, you can’t build a tech company. Max, the founder of Adventuro, didn’t buy that. Learn how Max built his startup in 11 weeks and landed his first 50 customers a couple of months later.
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PodcastWhen you’re building a B2C startup, the hardest problems aren’t always product, pricing, or even growth. Sometimes, the biggest threat is… the weather. Read how one founder used gift cards to solve this problem.
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PodcastIf you're building a B2C startup and thinking, “Maybe I’ll just run some Google Ads to get early traction” — read this first.
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PodcastIf you’re launching a B2C startup, there’s a moment that lives in your head before it ever happens: the first real customer. In your imagination, it's a perfect stranger. Someone discovering your product, loving it and pulling out their credit card In reality? It might just be your brother…
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