How Lose It! grows

Held $39.99/year from 2012 while testing constantly up and down the demand curve ($5 to $120/year); no price beat $40 consistently. In late 2024, with phones and competitors getting pricier, retested a higher price: net revenue broke even for the first time. Re-ran on iOS and Android and on new, existing and reactivated user cohorts with similar results, then rolled out ~$80/year (competitors' level) to new users in 2026. Rationale: rising CACs (incl. Meta restricting health and wellness ads) and AI feature costs; at $40 it is much harder to hit the ROAS needed to ramp paid acquisition.

Homegrown lifecycle sale system built into the app and refined over years: how much discount a user gets depends on where they are in their journey. The $80 base leaves room for steep 25%, 50%, 75% discounts that $40 couldn't support; bigger percentage off usually converts better even when the dollar price ends up higher.

Free product has always been a full freemium experience (free-only 2008-2012); users can do everything needed to lose weight for free, and the team keeps investing in it. Premium is 'just that much better' for more motivated users.

Did not raise prices on existing subscriptions: Apple's existing-subscriber price increase flow (notification, then opt in via the App Store) felt confusing, was impossible to A/B test, and the attrition rate was unknown (could be 25% or 75%). Also a long habit of grandfathering loyal users on policy changes, e.g. when the barcode scanner moved from behind the paywall, only new users got the change.

Implemented ad-based monetization in the free product, one-off in-app purchases, and in-app partnerships earning affiliate revenue. A higher subscription tier is still under consideration.