How BlueThrone grows

When buying an app, pay 50% at closing and guarantee the remaining 50% after 12 months regardless of KPIs or app performance. Unlike an earnout (payment tied to e.g. keeping downloads at current levels), payout isn't tied to performance, which sellers see as fair, and the lower upfront risk lets the buyer offer a higher valuation. Alternatives discussed: all-cash, earnout, equity plus cash (e.g. 70/30), revenue share.

In Sensor Tower, stack downloads (and revenue) by app over time for a category. If each new entrant grows the total rather than taking share from the leader, there are untapped users, so a non-leader can still be worth buying.

Thesis: going 0-to-1 ($1-2M ARR) needs work ethic, a decent idea and one strong channel, but 1-to-10 needs expertise across many channels. BlueThrone buys apps that found product-market fit, pays a premium for that, and scales them with a 70-person shared team (infrastructure, R&D, QA, distribution, growth, monetization, ad monetization, CFO, HR). Targets apps doing ~$400K to ~$15M a year, and only buys when it believes it can take the app to the next level. Founders can stay on or leave.

BlueThrone targets apps with a working distribution engine (e.g. tens of thousands of organic downloads a month) whose users don't stick, and applies its product and monetization specialty to improve retention. Favorite deals: founder brings distribution, BlueThrone brings product resources, often with the founder staying on.

Portfolio had 50+ shallow apps (QR code scanners, PDF scanners) where there were few levers to double revenue in 30 days. Sold them all and restarted with 3-5 'deep' apps that have multiple use cases and levers (e.g. dating apps: matching algorithm, UI/UX, soft currencies, pricing, packages).

With VC money, bought almost 100 small apps (QR code scanners, flashlights, radio apps) ranking on ASO keywords in their titles. Screened mainly on EBITDA and revenue, treating apps as financial assets, and paid little attention to retention, churn or conversion.

Screen for apps with product-market fit, a lot of organic traffic (word of mouth, K-factor, App Store search), a significant brand, strong retention and resubscriber rates, and a strong founding team. Minimum ~$500K annual revenue; budgets $2M-$50M. Deal structure flexes: founders can stay (some for 3 years) or take cash and leave after a short handover. Then invest in team to keep the app a category leader as a standalone company.

Bought a solo founder's music entertainment app at ~200K MAU (seven-figure deal, closed in two months). Hired a GM from Spotify to run it and grew the team from 5 to 15 people.

Use the 'ROI of a dollar' framework: know what $1 of marketing returns on your current app (e.g. $50 by month 3, $200 by month 12). For a candidate acquisition, estimate the return on its price from its revenue, resubscriber rate, retention, churn and LTV, and compare like-for-like with spending the same amount on marketing your current app. Especially useful for apps in your own niche.

Multiple people across disciplines research and produce UGC videos showing the app with a CTA at the end. Individual UGC videos can cost as little as ~$5, but the team time is significant.