Natal · B2C · pregnancy and postpartum fitness app
Raise subscription prices
ARR still grew 20% that quarter
What they did
What happened
- Stage
- Q1 2026
In their words
How Removing the Free Trial Grew Monthly Subs 2000% – Nancy Anderson, Natal
David BarnardWell, and I think the 500,000 you're leaving on the table is really an investment in that audience, an investment interest, an investment. Really, the trajectory you're on with the business, I mean, you shared with me you all grew 20% in the first quarter of this year, that kind of growth happens-
Nancy AndersonAnd we raised prices during that time, which is kind of crazy to think about.
David BarnardAnd that happens as a snowball, and so you're snowballing that trust into a much bigger thing. Whereas if you did dilute the message, dilute the brand, dilute your messaging, dilute your audience, you could cash in on the short term, but it's probably going to be worth way more to you in the long run building that trust and leaving that money on the table. And again, that's where I think there's just...
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More from this episode
- Sell a program as a monthly 30-day group challenge with before/after photos100 signups in month one, 125 in month two; kept growing
- Run paid social ads before Apple's tracking changeWorked well for a couple of years, then Apple's tracking change hurt it
- Post funny, relatable personal content, not just product postsStories get ~50K views; organic beats competitors' by 90%
- Reply to every DM, comment and email with a real expert within 24 hoursTrial-to-paid ~68% vs 38% typical; not isolated
- End posts with a soft 'learn more' instead of a sales pitch
- Turn down brand deals and affiliate links to keep audience trustGives up an estimated $0.5-1M/year; benefit not measurable
- Turn the questions people keep asking in DMs into your main programOver 1M users; still the top traffic driver
- Merge several niche apps into one app users keep across life stagesLess confusion and a lower price; ARR +20% in Q1 2026
- Narrow to pre- and postnatal fitness and rename the brand away from the founder
- Have your in-house expert coaches film the brand's videosFounder says it's working well; no numbers
- Ask 10-15 onboarding questions and show only content for the user's stage
- Build a new program for every client requestBiggest fail of the year: too many choices, users didn't start
- Offer a free posture check by a real expert that picks the first workout68-70% who finish it complete their first workout
- DM every new user personally and invite them to a coach-run community31% of community joiners return on day 2; no baseline
- Never give away free workouts or freebies
- Let people pay with their health savings account (HSA) at checkoutTens of thousands of dollars in two weeks, unpromoted
- Push 'spend your HSA dollars before they expire' at year end
- Drop the free trial on the monthly planMonthly subs up ~2,000%, annual +21% (founder's rough recall)
- Pay influencers to post about the brand
Tags: price-increase