Practitioner pattern · Josh Peleg (Buys apps for BlueThrone; pitches BlueThrone to founders looking to exit)
Add in-app coins that people earn from ads or buy in packs
Apps that crack consumables reach deeper LTVs, per talks with hundreds of founders
Workedpricingupsell-expansion
What they did
Introduce a soft currency (gems, flowers, coins). Then offer a rewarded ad worth e.g. 10 coins, and coin packs (5, 10, 15 coins) at different price points, on top of the weekly/monthly/yearly/lifetime subscription steps. Deconstruct economies of top mobile games (RAID: Shadow Legends, Candy Crush, Supercell games) or hire a game-economy consultant.
What happened
Guest says apps that crack consumables generally create deeper LTVs, giving more room on CPIs and marketing budget.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Buying vs. Building: Scaling Beyond a Single App — Josh Peleg, BlueThrone“But the real unlock we've seen from Blue Throne's level, talking to hundreds of app founders a month, is the ones that can crack this generally can create deeper LTVs, which gives you way more breathing room on your CPIs and your marketing budget.”
“Once you have the economy, you can then say, "Hey, here's a rewarded ad, which if you watch, you'll earn 10 coins," or, "Here's an option to buy 5 coins, 10 coins, 15 coins at different price points."”
Related topics
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
- BlueThrone: Buy about 100 small utility apps valued mostly on profitMany had been pumped before sale and died; shallow products didn't last
- BlueThrone: Buy only a few apps with strong organic traffic and invest in their teamsPortfolio cut to 5 apps, each a category leader or on its way; guest says it works
- BlueThrone: After buying a music app, hire a GM from Spotify and triple the teamMAU grew from 200K to almost 6M; still near the top of its category
- BlueThrone: Build an in-house team making cheap UGC TikTok videos for the appsFirst viral video took 6 months and several people; gets faster with practice
- Plarium: Sell mugs, t-shirts and hoodies to a game's biggest spenders
- Soundmap: Sell power-ups on top of the subscription, like 2x more songs nearbyGuest says it captures what each user is willing to spend; no numbers
- Build solo without VC money, then sell the app within 18 monthsSold for over $4M; deal closed in 3 months with no investors involved
- Opal: Charge $120 a year and pitch it as paying for itself in work timeGuest says it unlocked very high LTV; no figures beyond price
- Cal AI: Launch a rough app, prove people pay, then build the real techHost says it's now a genuinely great app; no numbers
- Push the lifetime plan on the paywall right before selling the appKnocks down negotiations; the buyer can't monetize those users again
- Cut ad spend from $50K to $10K a month to look profitable before sellingDownloads eventually follow the drop; guest calls it riskier than pushing revenue
- BlueThrone: Before buying an app, compare its return per dollar with more ad spend
- BlueThrone: Stack category downloads over time to see if new apps grow the marketScreen time market grew with each new entrant; buying a non-leader looked OK
- Strava: Keep a bought app separate and sell one subscription for both apps