How Opal grows

Paid ads (with a paywall and RevenueCat) from the first week on the App Store to get a steady ~100 downloads a day. Dropped other goals and focused on one metric: Day 8 ROAS, chosen because the 7-day free trial converts by day 8, so a change shipped Monday is readable 8 days later. Tested with small spend until there was a path to 100%, then scaled. Every week review last week's D8 ROAS: above 100% expand budgets, below 100% cut back until back at 100%. No growth target or marketing budget: revenue reinvested on the 8-day cycle. Started with simple spend this week vs revenue 8 days later; moved to install-week cohorts (D8 and D30) once late conversions skewed numbers.

Tested many placements. Paywall goes early but not on the first screen: a few onboarding questions (e.g. current screen time), then a mini report projecting lifetime phone use (US average 22 years, based on smartphone at 12, life expectancy 77, 5h08m a day over waking hours), then 'the good news is we can save up to 3, 4, 5 years of your life', then the free-trial paywall. Moving the paywall two screens earlier alone can be worth +10% trial starts.

Existing program: invite 5 people and get a free year. Redesigned the referral screen to look better and added tiers: 5 invites = free year, 20 = lifetime subscription, 50 = special prize, shown as goals in a clear UI.

Core feature is 'blocks' (scheduled app blocking, e.g. social media 9-10am Mon-Fri, or open limits like Instagram 10 opens/day). Tested free allowances from 1 block (too restrictive) up to several; measured two things together: LTV of installs (conversion and payment) and overall retention of free plus paid users, looking for the point where both rise. Landed on 3 free blocks; power users who want more pay.

A friend sent the founder an organic video (by a filmmaker, which had gone slightly viral) that looked like an Opal ad but wasn't. A team member (Marjorie) DM'd the creator asking to license it; he turned out to be an Opal user inspired by the app and agreed. The ad is literally the organic video with the Opal logo attached. Since then Opal repurposes more organic creator videos and commissions new ones, helped by many filmmakers/designers already being users.

Found a TikTok creator (Olivia) who mentioned Opal in a video and hired her onto the team. She runs 'Olivia Unplugged', a creator account (not the Opal brand account) making educational content on screen time and focus, from making friends offline to bedtime routines. Opal is mentioned in videos and linked in bio.

An onboarding question asks where the user heard about Opal (e.g. Facebook, word of mouth). Cohorts are segmented by the answer and unblended ROAS is calculated per cohort. Attribution software is also in place, but the survey answer is trusted most.

Since the first week on the App Store, one app version released every Monday. Work is organized around the release cycle; changes range from tiny to large. Pairs with the 8-day ROAS read so each weekly change gets a result about 8 days later.

Main onboarding paywall is the Blinkist-style transparent paywall: start the free trial now, get a reminder in 6 days, pay the full subscription on day 7, which reduces anxiety about starting a trial. Dozens of alternative paywall designs tested against it, and testing continues.

During onboarding users pick their most distracting apps (e.g. Instagram, TikTok); Opal automatically creates a Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00 work-hours schedule that blocks them. Next day blocking starts without the user remembering to do anything. Editing or cancelling the schedule is made very easy.

RevenueCat tracks subscription status; when a trial is cancelled, OneSignal sends a push notification with an offer (currently 50% off, with the offer itself being A/B tested). An in-app modal repeats the offer when the user comes back. No email: onboarding uses phone number sign-in.

Firebase assigns A/B variants; a user property in Amplitude marks baseline vs variant, and uplifts and statistical significance are computed from Amplitude cohorts. Mostly binary baseline-vs-variant tests because of limited volume (sometimes a few variants, e.g. paywall at screen 3 vs 5); adopt the winner and repeat. Focus on early-funnel changes because they reach significance fastest; with a 7-day trial most answers arrive within 8 days. In hindsight, should have prioritized bigger swings by estimating likely uplift first.

After reaching $10M ARR on a hard paywall, Opal made the core product free ('truly freemium') so free users become the marketing. Success measured by install LTV plus overall free+paid retention. Freemium unlocked a new segment (high school and college students, now ~2/3 of DAUs) who spread it among classmates and family, and later pulled Opal into schools. Guiding test for where to draw the free line: would a non-payer recommend the app? If not, give away more; avoid a free tier that feels like a capped trial.

Harvard-Westlake emailed after its students, asked how to handle a state phone ban, recommended Opal. Built Opal for Schools: students install Opal; on campus banned apps are blocked while approved apps (texting parents, ChatGPT, calculators, educational apps) stay open; after school students keep using it for sleep schedules and focus timers ('bell to bed'). Charges schools a per-student fee priced below alternatives, since the brand and family reach is worth more than the fee. A dedicated head of Opal for Schools (Andy Bennett) partners with schools, presents at events like SXSW EDU and talks to press.

Opal counts its own kind of streak: the more you focus, the more the streak grows. Shown as a custom animated flame (not an emoji), with Opal gemstones unlocked at streak milestones.

The whole experience revolves around gemstones (the name Opal is a calming gemstone). When users pass a milestone (e.g. a number of days using the app) they are granted a new gemstone and tap to crack it open to reveal its color and shape. Took a few weeks of investment despite not being measurable and competing with more urgent features and bug fixes.

Bought a large billboard in New York with the message 'Scrolling Kills', intentionally without clear attribution (no opalapp.com or 'get Opal'). Intended as a brand statement; the phrase is now tied to Opal in search (scrollingkills.us).

Target knowledge workers and argue that cutting screen time by 50% a week makes them more money in their job than the $120/year the app costs.

Annual subscription with a 7-day free trial. Launched at $69/year and later raised to about $99-100/year. High price is part of why paid ads paid back within 8 days.

Found a creator's organic video about the screen time problem that was not about Opal. Reached out because it matched Opal's mission; the creator turned out to use Opal. Made a deal to use it as an ad and tweaked it slightly. The ad talks about the mission and does not show the product. Second time doing this; now doing more mission-focused ads.

Tried fully outsourced creative agencies that make and run ads for a percentage of spend, and concept-only creative agencies. Moved to in-house: a single creative partnerships manager plus some contractors, finding creators in the space who care about the mission and ideally use and love the app, and producing ads with them. About 80% of paid marketing work is creative. Planning to hire a separate technical UA/campaign person.

Part of the move to freemium. Made the original onboarding paywall easier to dismiss so more people start using the free version. Judged on two metrics together: retention (usage, paid or not) and first-year ARPU, which may fall but should stay above $2.

Made PSA-style stickers reading 'Scrolling Kills' that deliberately do not mention Opal, and distributed thousands to customers and users to spark the conversation.

Tested how easy the onboarding paywall is to dismiss; hiding the dismiss button or making it as discreet as possible won, during the phase optimized for Day 8 ROAS.

Tried several ways of giving people a choice of how to disconnect during onboarding instead of the default work-hours block.

Onboarding asks the user's age and differentiates the onboarding, or even the paywall, based on the answer (e.g. professionals toward the paid plan, younger users toward referrals, as the cohost suggested and the guest confirmed).

Replaced email collection with phone number sign-in, which supports a social feature where users see friends' screen time, as positive peer pressure and a support group. The feature was A/B tested.

Stayed iOS-only to figure out product and onboarding on one platform with limited resources, timed to Apple's new Screen Time API (iOS 16), which Opal was first to build on. Android, Mac and other devices deferred to a later expansion phase.

Ran many tests to re-engage people after the initial onboarding on the first day. No specifics given.