Make everyone start a free trial first; free version only after they cancel

HostWhat's the biggest macro change you made that you feel like big difference?

PeterMoving to a hard paywall. We were freemium for ages, and it worked quite well. I think the main challenge that we had there was if you can give people an excuse to not pay, they won't. We accidentally turned the app into a hard paywall one time. We forgot to change a toggle or something like that. My brother runs the paywall designs. And, um, all of a sudden, our phones were just like pinging. It was on New Year's Eve. I remember we were playing a game of Monopoly at the time, and we were like, "Are we going viral somewhere? Like, what's happening?" Turned out we just had a bug and everyone opening the app was getting hit by a hard paywall and couldn't go to another workout unless they paid. But it was only for a couple of hours.

PeterAnd at that point, we were like, "If putting a hard paywall actually leads to so many more people converting, we didn't have that many complaints, either, should we just go for a hard paywall from the start?" So now, we do still have free functionality, but in order to access that, you have to have started a like a free trial. And if you cancel it, then you can see the free version after your trial expires. That's still a freemium model there, but we make people opt in and actually try out Pro first. And overnight, that was just our biggest boost, probably like 25% for us. It seems quite obvious, but it was a tough decision, because it does reduce your K-factor, like the number of people who actually share the app with their friends. And to be honest with you, we don't even measure that. We probably should have that better instrumented, but I think it has been a winner for us overall.

HostInteresting. Is is that viral share loop and K-factor actually a a part of your strategy at all? I feel like subscription apps, it's always like pretty hard to K-factor there.