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
What they did
What happened
In their words
Koby Conrad - I speedran an ai app from 0 to $1m/yr in 10 months
KobyAnd then I couldn't get it funded for like another like three or four years. So I was like at Rupa working and like um doing that. And so I I I led growth at Rupa. I I took us from 5 million to 75 million. Um I still couldn't get this funded afterwards.
KobyRupa then got sold like after I'd left, like I didn't think we were going to sell for like 10 years, but we had like a really nice nine-figure exit like 3 months after I left. And then I still couldn't get funded. So I took $100,000 of my own money, and I basically went to all these people that I just made really, really rich, and I was like, "Hey, please uh invest in my company. I I swear to God, it's going to be great. I realize that I'm like, hey, I'm going to make this like silly consumer app to like help people stay sober, but just like close your eyes and believe in me."
KobyUm and like I was able to put together like a small uh like 350K at the start.
JosephI'm curious like a really random like specific question on on pitch decks. Like in your initial pitch, were like half your slides like, "Hey, look at my background as a marketer. I know I'm not technical, but look how good I am at bringing things to market." Like was that like a significant part of your pitch?
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More from this episode
- Hire the biggest creator in your niche as a salaried team member with equity50-100K link clicks a month from one creator; founder calls it the core of go-to-market
- Get the best-known expert in your field to be the face of the companyGiven as an example of the approach working; no numbers
- Ask conferences what they'd give you for double their top sponsor packageFounder says it beats small test buys: better treatment and brand effect; no numbers
- Launch a bare-bones first version with three features, then keep improving itUgly v1 grew into the current product; no early numbers given
- Start free like Duolingo, then add a monthly paywall once AI costs pile upFree model failed: investors wanted revenue and AI costs hit hundreds of thousands
- Add a yearly plan and pre-select it on the paywallAdding annual brought some annual revenue; defaulting to it brought 'a lot more'
- Default to paying now, with a toggle to switch on the free trialMade more money than the default-annual paywall; no numbers
- Lower your prices when your users have little moneyLower prices made more money; no numbers given
- Before the paywall, promise to remind people before their free trial ends+48% revenue, +70% annual revenue, +46% trial conversions, +30% trial starts
- Build everything around the one simple thing users do every dayTimer is the most important feature; AI chat alone had poor retention
- Let the in-app AI coach follow up on its own and reply in the community4M+ messages handled in a year; users say it saved their lives
- Pitch investors with revenue growth and a future vision, not user countsFirst user-focused deck failed; the revenue-and-future deck raised post-YC
Tags: self-funding, angels, network