Flamme · B2C · couples app
Make the daily question for couples the main thing on the home screen
Day-30 retention went from 4.2% to ~30%, then 50%, with streak reminders
Workedretentionfeature-development
What they did
Noticed users came back not for the AI coach but for a side feature: a daily prompt couples answer together. Extracted it and made it the mainstay, shown big on the home page ('daily discovery question'), designed as a daily habit trigger based on BJ Fogg's habit research. Took ~8 months of iteration.
What happened
Together with carrot/stick notifications and locked answers, D30 retention went from 4.2% to ~30% and then ~50%, above the guest's recollection of TikTok's ~40%.
- Effort
- ~8 months of iteration
This shipped together with other changes, so the result can't be credited to this alone.
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Flamme: Relaunch the date planner as an AI relationship coach right after ChatGPT came outDay-30 retention rose from 0.8% to 4.2%, still too low; press but no traction
- Flamme: Send a friendly morning reminder, then an evening 'your partner will be sad' nudgeDay-30 retention went from 4.2% to ~50% alongside the daily-question redesign
- Flamme: Hide your partner's answer until you answer the question yourselfCreated a back-and-forth loop credited with lifting retention; no separate number
- Flamme: Add a home-screen widget showing distance to your partner and days togetherWorked well, per the founder; copied from a competitor; no numbers
- Flamme: Launch alongside a TechCrunch Startup Battlefield feature800% organic growth in one month; stopped by a trademark letter
- Flamme: Start charging in a free app when the money runs outBarely survived; the early '15% conversion' counted renewals, so it was inflated
- Flamme: Pitch big investors on great retention before you have a way to get usersFailed; top firms asked about distribution and no term sheets came
- Flamme: Scroll TikTok 4 hours a day for 2 months to learn what worksGot the first account getting views, then copied the approach across accounts
- Flamme: Run 20-30 TikTok accounts on numbered iPhones, 3-4 accounts per phone~50M organic views; host cites ~150K users
- Flamme: Use one Apple ID on every farm phone to skip repaying for the proxy appFailed: TikTok linked the accounts, one flag hit all; lost 120 work hours
- Flamme: Under 300 views means a broken account; 300-1,000 means fix the contentTheir working rule for which accounts and formats to fix; no numbers on impact
- Flamme: Judge app videos by likes and question slideshows by shares and savesLow-like videos rarely drove downloads, even at 1M+ views
- Flamme: Post slideshows of '5 uncomfortable but healthy questions to ask your partner'Shared a lot, but only 0.05-0.2% of viewers downloaded
- Flamme: Post videos that show the app in use, not memesApp demos convert 0.5-1% of views vs 0.05-0.2% for memes and slideshows
- Flamme: Give AI a 10-page brief with product details, winning scripts and a master promptTeam posts ~200 pieces a day from it; winners are fed back in
- Flamme: Log every post by hand in a spreadsheet and review it every morningForces the team to study why posts fail; no numbers given
- Flamme: Copy only formats that went viral on small accounts and get 'what app?' commentsAdopted after 50M views brought few conversions; C part learned late
- Run real 'what do I text back?' Reddit screenshots through the app on videoJust started; guest expects 0.5-1% of viewers to download
- Design the app's screens and loading animation to look good on TikTok