The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Koby Conrad - I speedran an ai app from 0 to $1m/yr in 10 months

Koby Conrad (ex-head of growth at Rupa Health) explains how Sunflower, an AI-powered addiction recovery app, reached ~$1M ARR and 10,000 paying subscribers in ~10 months. Growth came mainly from hiring the top sobriety influencer (Mr. Impulsive) as 'VP of Sobriety' on salary and equity, driving 50-100K link clicks a month. Monetization moved from free to monthly, then default annual, a trial toggle, lower prices, and a trial-reminder screen that lifted revenue ~48%. Also covers being the biggest sponsor, the AI sponsor 'Sam', and fundraising decks.

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13 tactics

Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app

Hire the biggest creator in your niche as a salaried team member with equity

50-100K link clicks a month from one creator; founder calls it the core of go-to-market

“when our app was basically we didn't even have any revenue, we went and we got him to come and be our VP of Sobriety”

Workedinfluencerpartnerships

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Function Health · B2C · health testing membership

Get the best-known expert in your field to be the face of the company

Given as an example of the approach working; no numbers

“They went to the guy who literally invented the industry, is like go to Mark Hyman, who's like the godfather of like functional medicine, and they got him to like be the face of Function Health.”

Unknowninfluencerpartnerships

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Rupa Health · B2B · functional medicine lab testing

Ask conferences what they'd give you for double their top sponsor package

Founder says it beats small test buys: better treatment and brand effect; no numbers

“you never want to be the smallest sponsor. Like you want to be the biggest sponsor this person has.”

Workedeventsinfluencer

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app

Launch a bare-bones first version with three features, then keep improving it

Ugly v1 grew into the current product; no early numbers given

“There was three features. There was a timer, there was some sunflower graphics I got off of Fiverr, there was this like journal, which is just like a CRUD app”

Workedvalidationpr-launch

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app

Start free like Duolingo, then add a monthly paywall once AI costs pile up

Free model failed: investors wanted revenue and AI costs hit hundreds of thousands

“So, we started off as a free product. Um like I take a ton of inspiration from like Duolingo”

Mixedpaywallpricing

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app

Add a yearly plan and pre-select it on the paywall

Adding annual brought some annual revenue; defaulting to it brought 'a lot more'

“So we went from having a subscription for monthly to we added in the annual and like, "Oh, cool, there's some annual revenue." Then we made the annual the default select and was like, "Oh, wow, there's a lot more annual revenue."”

Workedpaywallpricing

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app

Default to paying now, with a toggle to switch on the free trial

Made more money than the default-annual paywall; no numbers

“And then we went into the like Tolan's like toggle of like, "Cool, pay us first, but you can like toggle it off," and like that made more money.”

Workedpaywall

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app

Lower your prices when your users have little money

Lower prices made more money; no numbers given

“we we've made a lot of gains by actually lowering our price than like increasing our price”

Workedpricing

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app

Before the paywall, promise to remind people before their free trial ends

+48% revenue, +70% annual revenue, +46% trial conversions, +30% trial starts

“So we were like A/B testing like a couple different versions of it, and then this was like the priming, so we're like, "We want you to try Sunflower for free. We'll remind you before your trial ends," and then, boom, we hit you with the paywall.”

Workedpaywallonboarding

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app

Build everything around the one simple thing users do every day

Timer is the most important feature; AI chat alone had poor retention

“The most important feature isn't the AI sponsor, but it's the timer.”

Workedproduct-activationretention

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app

Let the in-app AI coach follow up on its own and reply in the community

4M+ messages handled in a year; users say it saved their lives

“So, first it was just a ChatGPT wrapper, and then we did some like fancy prompt optimizations, and then eventually like we turned it into an AI agent.”

Workedfeature-developmentretention

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app

Pitch investors with revenue growth and a future vision, not user counts

First user-focused deck failed; the revenue-and-future deck raised post-YC

“we figured out how to talk about the future rather than the past”

Workedfinancing

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app

Put in your own money, then ask people you made rich to invest

$100K of own money plus ~$350K from his network after years of no funding

“So I took $100,000 of my own money, and I basically went to all these people that I just made really, really rich”

Workedfinancing

The Superwall Podcast · 2026-04-03

Numbers mentioned

Subject	Metric	Value	Quote
Sunflower	arr annualized run rate, reached in ~10 months	USD 1M/year approximate	“we went from about zero to $1 million of annualized run rate in about 10 months”
Sunflower	time to milestone zero to $1M annualized run rate	10 months approximate	“we went from about zero to $1 million of annualized run rate in about 10 months”
Sunflower	paying users	10K subscribers approximate	“We just passed 10,000, um, paying subscribers”
personEric (Mr. Impulsive), sobriety influencer and Sunflower's VP of Sobriety	views	50M–100M views/month approximate	“He does, by himself, anywhere between 50 to 100 million views a month.”
personEric (Mr. Impulsive), sobriety influencer and Sunflower's VP of Sobriety	followers	3.5M followers approximate	“we we're working with Eric, he has 3 and 1/2 million followers”
Sunflower	count link clicks to Sunflower from Eric's content alone	50K–100K clicks/month approximate	“we get like, I think somewhere between like 50 to 100K link clicks, um, every single month, just from Eric”
Sunflower	cpm host's read of Sunflower's influencer-driven CPM; guest responds about sponsorship arbitrage without confirming the figure	USD 0.1 approximate	“Like you you have $0.10 CPM, which is kind of insane.”
personKoby Conrad's career influencer marketing spend across companies	marketing spend influencer marketing over the last 10 years	USD 10M–20M estimate	“I've I've spent probably anywhere between like $10 to $20 million in the last 10 years on influencer marketing”
Rupa Health	marketing spend conference sponsorships	USD 500K/year approximate	“when I was at Rupa, we would spend like half a million a year like going to conferences”
Rupa Health	revenue grew from ~$5M to ~$75M over 3.5 years while the guest led growth (revenue basis not stated explicitly)	USD 75M approximate	“So when I was at Rupa, we we went from like 5 million to 75 million in three and a half years.”
Rupa Health	growth rate user acquisition scale-up at Rupa, per the guest's first pitch deck	+4,000% approximate	“I took Rupa from 5 to 75, um I scaled user acquisition by 4,000%”
Rupa Health	exit price	nine figures approximate	“we had like a really nice nine-figure exit like 3 months after I left”
Sunflower	funding raised YC, a16z Speedrun, Flybridge-led seed, angels	USD 6.5M approximate	“total, we've raised about six and a half uh million dollars”
Sunflower	funding raised first small round from people the founder had made rich at Rupa	USD 350K/one-time approximate	“I was able to put together like a small uh like 350K at the start”
Sunflower	funding raised founder's own money put in before the first outside round	USD 100K/one-time approximate	“So I took $100,000 of my own money”
Sunflower	users monthly active users at the time of the first pitch deck (free product)	23K users approximate	“At this time, um I think that our monthly actives was at like 23,000.”
Sunflower	count app store reviews at the time of the first pitch deck	762 reviews	“We had 762 reviews at this time”
Sunflower	cost AI token costs while the product was free	hundreds of thousands of dollars approximate	“Also turns out AI token costs for us were just like scaling just like hundreds of thousands of dollars”
Sunflower	price monthly plan (host-stated)	USD 9/month approximate	“You have a $9 a month subscription, or like a $35 a year.”
Sunflower	price annual plan (host-stated)	USD 35/year approximate	“You have a $9 a month subscription, or like a $35 a year.”
Sunflower	revenue revenue lift from adding trial reminders (first statement; revised to 48% when showing the data)	+56% approximate	“We had like a plus 56% like revenue bump by adding in trial reminders.”
Sunflower	revenue revenue lift from adding a trial-reminder screen before the paywall (A/B test data shown on screen)	+48%	“we had a 48% increase in our revenue by adding in trial reminders”
Sunflower	revenue annual-plan revenue lift from the trial-reminder test	+70%	“So we had a plus 70% increase in the annual revenue”
Sunflower	conversion rate trial -> paid conversions lift from the trial-reminder test, read off screen by host	+46%	“46% increase in trial conversions, and 30% increase in trials”
Sunflower	trial starts trial starts lift from the trial-reminder test, read off screen by host	+30%	“46% increase in trial conversions, and 30% increase in trials”
Sunflower	count messages handled by the AI sponsor Sam in the last year	4M messages/year approximate	“We've handled over 4 million messages uh dealing with the worst problems of people's lives in the last year.”
Sunflower	count years' worth of sobriety tracked in the app every day	109 years/day approximate	“Every day, we track over 109 years' worth of sobriety on Sunflower.”
Sunflower	team size senior software engineers	5 engineers approximate	“we we have like like five truly S-tier software engineers”
marketpeople worldwide trying to stay sober from something (guest's framing of the job to be done)	market size	1,200M people estimate	“It is the core job to be done that 1.2 billion humans on this planet have”
marketpeople struggling with addiction who never access any care	share	90% approximate	“And 90% of people struggling with addiction never get access to any type of care.”
Sunflower	funding raised hoped-for Series A to build owned media and follower base	USD 40M–50M/one-time goal	“let's go raise the venture capital and take in $40, $50 million at the Series A”