Coconote · B2C · AI note-taker for students
Let users record a whole lecture before asking them to pay
Called a big win; no number given
What they did
What happened
In their words
Brett Bauman & Zack Hargett - COPY this ai app's $6.7m/yr marketing strategy
Joseph ChoiYeah, that's pretty huge. A lot of people, I mean, for me personally, I always use the Apple one for login, and it's like one click and then Face ID. So like, I wouldn't think that would be a churn moment. Um that's a good insight. Yeah, putting the putting the paywall before the login. Yeah, like yeah, are there moments um for any of the paywalls where you show the product value first, and then that leads to the paywall?
Brett BaumanSimilar to to onboarding, but even outside of onboarding, you want people to be as invested in what they're doing as they can be before you ask them to pay. And so, um a big win we found there was we can let people record their entire recording, their entire lecture, so they're an hour-plus in to using it uh before making them pay or start a trial. And so showing the paywall after audio recording instead of before was a big win for us as well.
Joseph ChoiAnother insight that you guys have talked about is some of the anti-churn tactics. Um you know, retention is like a a big problem in consumer software. Um How do you How do you prevent cancellations?
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Build a novelty free tool (text to brainrot video) and push it on TikTok100-200M views and 3,000 trials in days, but only ~$25K revenue
- Post short videos that show the app solving a real student problemSeveral ~20M-view videos, ~99% organic, converting far better than viral novelty content
- Mix a known game (2048) with studying and promote a catchy URL in videosOne video reached ~2M views; no conversion numbers
- Build hidden app screens only creators use, made to look good on cameraUsed in the 18M-view video; no separate numbers
- Keep a small team of 10-12 part-time creators, led by a proven oneLead creator drove hundreds of millions of views; founders say it worked
- Recruit creators who aren't influencers via Handshake, DMs, email and referralsA Spanish tutor with no content experience became a top creator in 9 months
- Double onboarding from 5 to about 13 screens in one big changeTrial conversion up 16%; one-or-two-screen tests had only given small wins
- Let people pay before creating an account; move login after the paywallFounder calls it significant; no separate number
- Put a little ad money behind organic videos that already went viralNot much success; ~99% of views stayed organic
- Pitch the app as great for ADHD in videos and the first App Store screenshotUsers say it helps their ADHD; no numbers
- When trial users cancel, offer them 7 more free daysKeeps 27% of cancellers in their trial; a smaller share later pay
- Hire an investment bank to run the sale so you keep buildingSold to Quizlet ~18 months after launch; bank ran it end to end
- Hire engineers who can also do backend or a second platformSmall engineering team ships a lot; with 50%+ EBITDA margins
- Post creator-style TikToks and Reels to drive app signupsHundreds of thousands of signups for an earlier app
- Track each creator's results with a dedicated tool (viral.app)Only one of 5-6 tools tried that worked for them
Tags: ios, paywall-placement, aha-moment, invested-before-paying