B2B · in-app subscription software

How RevenueCat grows

3 tactics and 3 figures from 4 interviews.

RevenueCat serves app developers with a dashboard of their numbers, free for small developers who don't pay. Its clearest growth moment in these interviews came from a mobile app whose home screen customers liked to screenshot and post on X, with the free tier and the cost of AI features as the other threads.

RevenueCat's in-app chart sharing features were almost never used, but a mobile app with an easy-to-screenshot home screen got customers posting their numbers on X; Jacob said he saw the product there about 100x more often overnight.RevenueCat
RevenueCat was built so its costs scale with paying end users, letting non-paying small developers use it free; the company said this is what lets it keep a free tier, without giving numbers.RevenueCat
Jacob stopped work on cost limits for RevenueCat's AI features and let usage run, betting inference prices will fall and using venture money to cover costs meanwhile; no result was reported.RevenueCat

Summary written 2026-09-26 from the tactics below. Figures are as founders stated them.

About RevenueCat

What it is: Subscription infrastructure for apps; the podcast's parent company
Who it's for: App developers
Business model: freemium SaaS
Funding: vc

As described in the interviews, not independently verified.

RevenueCat's 3 tactics

RevenueCat · B2B · in-app subscription software

Launch a mobile app with a home screen people want to screenshot

About 100x more sightings on X overnight; mobile usage near dashboard usage

RevenueCat's in-app share-a-chart features were almost never used. Building a mobile app with an aesthetic, easy-to-screenshot home screen made customers post their numbers on X. Not designed as a sharing feature.

Workedproduct-virality

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-02-04

RevenueCat · B2B · in-app subscription software

Build the product so free users cost almost nothing to support

Lets the company keep a generous free tier; no numbers

Architected from the start so costs scale with paying end users; non-paying small developers use the product free.

Workedpricingcost-structure

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-04-01

RevenueCat · B2B · in-app subscription infrastructure

Drop cost limits on AI features and let venture money cover inference

RevenueCat was starting to build cost-control measures for its AI features (running on Anthropic's Opus); Jacob killed that work and chose to let usage run, betting inference prices will fall and using venture capital to absorb the cost meanwhile. Reference cost: one LLM call per app per day would be tens of thousands of dollars a month.

Unknownfinancingfeature-development

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-07-08

RevenueCat by the numbers

Metric	Value	Context	Said in
cost	tens of thousands of dollars a month estimate	Estimated cost of one LLM call per app per day across RevenueCat's customer apps, for a speculative AI feature	Sub Club by RevenueCat 2026-07-08
new customers	+7 x/month approximate	RevenueCat new users per month grew ~7X with no increase in support tickets (new devs set up via AI agents)	Sub Club by RevenueCat 2026-03-06
growth rate	+100 x illustrative	How often Jacob saw RevenueCat on X after launching the mobile app, vs before	Sub Club by RevenueCat 2026-02-04

Topics

Bootstrapping vs raising money1 Hard paywall vs freemium1 App virality and word of mouth1 Pricing a subscription app1

Interviews

The Bootstrapper's Path to $10M ARR – Andrew Maguire, Volo Ventures · Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-07-08
How the World's #1 VPN App Reached 1 Billion Downloads – Tanuj Chatterjee, Super Unlimited · Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-04-01
The 2026 State of Subscription Apps Report · Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-03-06
How ElevenLabs Builds, Prices, and Grows AI Consumer Apps · Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-02-04