MonAI · B2C · AI expense tracking app
Pay one big creator a monthly fee plus a share of the app's profits
MRR from $300 to $35K+ in just over a year; 10x in the first week
Workedinfluencerpartnershipscreator-ops
What they did
Partnered long-term with a single, fairly big Colombian tech/lifestyle creator under a contract. Started with a percentage of revenue, which didn't scale well, then switched to a percentage of profits plus a fixed monthly retainer, so his payout is mostly profit-based. This makes him act like a partner rather than a contractor: he owns the video ideas and keeps thinking about how to grow the app. Percentages and retainer amount not disclosed.
What happened
MRR 10x within a week of the first video, ~$8K within a month, over $35K in just over a year (+10,000%)
- Stage
- Scale (growth (after 1.5 years stuck at $300 MRR))
- Effort
- One creator, ongoing for just over a year
“So, now we have a percentage of the profits and a fixed monthly retainer. Before, we had percentage of revenue, and we noticed that doesn't really scale well.”
“What's good about this is since it's profit-based, his payout is mostly profit-based, he's incentivized to actually do what's best for the app.”
“So you can see from the beginning to now, we grew by over 10,000%.”
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More from this episode
- MonAI: Post just 3 story-driven creator videos a month instead of many quick onesEarly videos took MRR from $300 to $13K; WWDC story video: 1.7M views, +$5K MRR
- MonAI: Put your social handles in your app so creators can find and contact youThe creator behind all the growth reached out after finding them
- MonAI: Work with a creator in Colombia instead of chasing US influencersThe Colombian creator drove all growth to $35K+ MRR
- MonAI: Drop the free version and require a 7-day trial to use the appA/B test showed the hard paywall with trial worked best; no numbers
- MonAI: Run your creator's best videos as Meta adsFounder says early results are really great; no numbers yet
- MonAI: Log expenses by voice or automatically from Apple Pay, with a minimal design