Coconote · B2C · AI lecture note-taker
Charge students $99/year and push the annual plan
~80% chose annual
Workedpricing
What they did
Launched at $99/year and $19.99/month, pushing the annual plan hard; positioned as premium partly to signal reliability, since users trust the app with exam-critical recordings. Ignored the conventional wisdom that students won't pay.
What happened
~80% chose annual; one of the most expensive apps in the category.
- Stage
- launch
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Bootstrapped to $6.7M ARR and an Exit to Quizlet in 2 Years – Brett Bauman & Zack Hargett, Coconote“So we put the app out charging $99 per year and $19.99 per month. I think around 80% of people subscribe to the annual tier, so we push that pretty hard.”
“part of the price too is we want to be seen as premium so that we also are seen as reliable”
Related topics
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More from Coconote
All 31 Coconote tactics- 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
- When trial users cancel, offer them 7 more free daysKeeps 27% of cancellers in their trial; a smaller share later pay
- 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
- 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
- Let people pay before creating an account; move login after the paywallFounder calls it significant; no separate number
More from this episode
- Coconote: Launch a basic version fast and charge from day one$100K ARR in 45 days, $1M in 4 months
- Coconote: Hire creators with 5-10K followers, found via the Gmail in their bio3 of ~30 made a huge difference; main engine to $1M ARR
- Coconote: Have one hired creator run the brand's main video accountHundreds of millions of views
- Coconote: Tell creators to show the app as a fix or identity, not a noveltyConverted best, per the founders; no numbers
- pdftobrainrot.com: Launch a viral 'PDF to brain rot video' side site to funnel users~41M views on one video, but no paying users; shut down
- Coconote: Aim videos at the parent who pays, not just the studentMany viral Instagram videos used this angle; later scaled back
- Coconote: Ask customers to describe the app; put their words in the first screenshotFounders call it one of their best moves; no numbers
- Coconote: Raise the annual price from $99 to $129More users and more revenue at the same time
- Coconote: Give one free note, then require a free trialCredited with early cash flow; no numbers
- Coconote: Run paid ads cut by an agency from creators' raw footageBeat boosting viral posts, but never profitable; stopped
- Coconote: Double onboarding to ~15 screens with more questions and social proof+16% trial starts
- Coconote: Ask people to log in after the paywall, not on the first screenBiggest onboarding win; removed ~10% drop-off
- Coconote: When people cancel, offer 7 more free days instead of a discountSaved 25% of cancellers; beat a 30% discount and a 3-month pause
- Coconote: Put in ~$10K each and reinvest revenue into creatorsCash-flow positive throughout; no outside funding
- Coconote: Hire a banker to run a buyout so the founders keep buildingSold to Quizlet; revenue roughly doubled during the process