Coconote · B2C · AI lecture note-taker
Raise the annual price from $99 to $129
More users and more revenue at the same time
What they did
What happened
- Stage
- early
In their words
Bootstrapped to $6.7M ARR and an Exit to Quizlet in 2 Years – Brett Bauman & Zack Hargett, Coconote
Jacob EitingBasically a hard paywall, not quite, but essentially a hard paywall.
Brett BaumanYeah. I mean, one of our early experiments, we launched at 19.99, but one of our earlier tests was raising it to 129, and we saw the magical more users and more revenues at the same time. And so that's where we've been for most of it. But I do think we are one of the more expensive options on the market. And to some of the reliability stuff, you can go into the cheaper options and start recording audio and get a phone call and lose your recording. Apple does not make it super easy to do this in a reliable way. It's really not like a meeting note taker on Zoom where you probably have perfect Wi-Fi and your computer is taking care of it.
Jacob EitingWell, it's session-based. You're actively engaged in it. It's like PC mostly. I mean, Zoom on the phone doesn't work very well. It does suffer from those things. If you get a phone call or something, it'll kick you out and cancel your video and things like that.
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More from this episode
- Launch a basic version fast and charge from day one$100K ARR in 45 days, $1M in 4 months
- Hire creators with 5-10K followers, found via the Gmail in their bio3 of ~30 made a huge difference; main engine to $1M ARR
- Have one hired creator run the brand's main video accountHundreds of millions of views
- Tell creators to show the app as a fix or identity, not a noveltyConverted best, per the founders; no numbers
- Launch a viral 'PDF to brain rot video' side site to funnel users~41M views on one video, but no paying users; shut down
- Aim videos at the parent who pays, not just the studentMany viral Instagram videos used this angle; later scaled back
- Ask customers to describe the app; put their words in the first screenshotFounders call it one of their best moves; no numbers
- Charge students $99/year and push the annual plan~80% chose annual
- Give one free note, then require a free trialCredited with early cash flow; no numbers
- Run paid ads cut by an agency from creators' raw footageBeat boosting viral posts, but never profitable; stopped
- Double onboarding to ~15 screens with more questions and social proof+16% trial starts
- Ask people to log in after the paywall, not on the first screenBiggest onboarding win; removed ~10% drop-off
- When people cancel, offer 7 more free days instead of a discountSaved 25% of cancellers; beat a 30% discount and a 3-month pause
- Put in ~$10K each and reinvest revenue into creatorsCash-flow positive throughout; no outside funding
- Hire a banker to run a buyout so the founders keep buildingSold to Quizlet; revenue roughly doubled during the process
Tags: price-increase, price-test, annual-plan