Weather Up · B2C · weather app
Ship a big update that gets featured by Apple and the press
~$100K in the update year with almost no ads; halved the next year without updates
Mixedpr-launchaso
What they did
A big 2024 update of the weather app got it featured by Apple and covered by the press. Almost no paid ads. The next year there were no updates and no advertising.
What happened
~$100K revenue in 2024 from free attention despite weak conversion; 2025 fell to ~$50K without updates or ads.
- Stage
- Scale (established indie app)
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Weather Up
All 11 Weather Up tactics- Pre-select the yearly plan on the paywall, not the monthly oneMonthly default got ~10% more subscribers but 60% lower revenue per user in month one
- Hold new features back for one big launch to get attentionDownloads fell to ~15 a day during the 4-year wait; guest calls it a big regret
- Pitch journalists with a short demo video in a Twitter DMCovered by TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, MacRumors and BGR, even by writers who rarely cover apps
- Launch a weather app at $40 a year with no launch saleClose to 2,000 subscribers, but press readers balked at $40 next to a $30 competitor
- Launch just before Vision Pro ships to avoid 'where's your Vision Pro app?'Landed an hour before Apple's DMA news; fewer articles, no social buzz, no Apple feature
- Put a feature demo video on the paywall, with hosted price buttons belowWent better than expected; built in under a day; guest gives no numbers
More from this episode
- Remove the X from the paywall so people must start a trialInstall-to-trial 13% vs 6% with the X; trial-to-paid barely changed
- For a use-it-a-few-times AI app, sell weekly with a 3-day trial3x revenue from the same number of downloads
- Label the paywall button 'Continue' instead of 'Start free trial''Continue' did better on iOS; 'Start free trial' did well on Android. One data point
- When people close the 7-day trial paywall, offer 14 free days instead of a discountClients say 14 days worked much better than 7; no numbers
- Coconote: When someone cancels a free trial on the web, offer more free time16% of would-be cancellers took the longer trial
- Mojo: Keep a generous free tier, then show free users a paywall at launch once a weekAbout half of conversions come after day 0 vs ~15-20% industry-wide
- Duolingo: Cut the free trial from 14 to 7 days to get test results twice as fastDoubled the experiment rate and raised conversions overall
- Duolingo: Write 'Try for $0.00' on the trial button instead of 'Try for free'Worked well for Duolingo; not guaranteed for other apps
- Rise Science: On your web funnel, spend time selling the problem before the fixWeb became where the app-first sleep app finally found success; no numbers
- If few people search the App Store for your app, send everyone to a web funnelOver $10K MRR, all from web traffic
- Fabulous: Set up AI agents that watch competitors' apps and ads and write reportsReplaces what would be a full-time analyst job; no numbers
- Weather Up: When someone leaves a hard paywall, send a push offering 7 free daysFew took it and few of those paid; being replaced
- Weather Up: Let people close the paywall, give them 7 free days, then lock the app
- On Google Play, turn on the grace period and keep retrying failed paymentsBilling-error cancellations drop about a third (31% of cancellations are billing errors)
- Require payment or a trial up front instead of offering a free tierMedian 10% of downloads pay by day 35 vs 2% freemium; retention no worse