Flamme · B2C · couples app
Pitch big investors on great retention before you have a way to get users
Failed; top firms asked about distribution and no term sheets came
Failedfinancing
What they did
With ~50% D30 retention but small absolute numbers, pitched General Catalyst, a16z, Sequoia and a16z Speedrun. Investors liked retention, then asked how the product would be distributed; vague answers about influencers ended talks after one or two rounds of calls. Guest now advises unlocking distribution before raising.
What happened
No term sheets; forced to monetize and then focus entirely on distribution.
- Effort
- Meetings with several tier-1 firms through 2023-2024
“The way the pitch deck worked is they would look at the retention numbers, they would get on the call with us, and then they would ask us, "How are you distributing the product?" And we wouldn't have an answer.”
“So to any consumer founder who's going to go out there to raise, I would recommend you to invest a good amount of time into distribution before you try and go and talk with investors.”
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: Make the daily question for couples the main thing on the home screenDay-30 retention went from 4.2% to ~30%, then 50%, with streak reminders
- 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: 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