How Elevate grows

Elevate is an app whose growth tactics come from its cohost's years on the team. It started with an email to users of the team's earlier app, MindSnacks, then leaned on a thin free version that pushed people into trials, later adding sales and promotions. For new apps, it soft launched rough versions on Android to learn from real users.

• Elevate launched by emailing the list from the team's previous app, MindSnacks; the cohost said this gave a small but meaningful early boost, with no numbers.Elevate
• Elevate made its free version thin so nearly everyone had to start a trial, partly to cut support tickets from non-payers; the cohost said trials jumped but user affinity dropped.Elevate
• Once a growth team had room to run them, Elevate added sales and discount promotions to sell at more than one price; the cohost called it a big win, without figures.Elevate
• Elevate soft launched rough new apps on Android, where organic traffic brought about 500 downloads a day, and watched session replays of every user; the team said it learned a lot without paying for scale.Elevate
• Around 2015 Elevate sent reminders as local notifications, which iOS users could not switch off, until Apple later merged the notification controls; no result was reported.Elevate

Summary written 2026-10-08 from the tactics below. Figures are as founders stated them.