BlueThrone · B2C · app acquirer
Buy about 100 small utility apps valued mostly on profit
Many had been pumped before sale and died; shallow products didn't last
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What they did
With VC money, bought almost 100 small apps (QR code scanners, flashlights, radio apps) ranking on ASO keywords in their titles. Screened mainly on EBITDA and revenue, treating apps as financial assets, and paid little attention to retention, churn or conversion.
What happened
Many apps had been pumped full of revenue at the time of sale and started to die after purchase; shallow products had limited longevity. Led to the BlueThrone 2.0 strategy.
- Stage
- Scale (portfolio of ~100 apps)
- Effort
- almost 100 apps bought over the first phase
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Buying vs. Building: Scaling Beyond a Single App — Josh Peleg, BlueThrone“And what we learned at that point was that so many of them have been pumped full of revenue at the time of sale. So after you buy them, they start to die. But also, because they're quite shallow products, their longevity is very limited.”
“So we were looking for strong EBITDA and strong revenue, and we were less concerned with the core app metrics, things like the retention, the churn, conversion to paying, et cetera.”
Related topics
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More from BlueThrone
All 8 BlueThrone tacticsMore from this episode
- 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
- Add in-app coins that people earn from ads or buy in packsApps that crack consumables reach deeper LTVs, per talks with hundreds of founders
- 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