Ladder · B2C · strength training app
Borrow up to 80% of ad spend, repaid from each month's new users
Used by Ladder; 10% yearly interest, no equity given up; only for big proven apps
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What they did
General Catalyst's growth fund finances up to 80% of a month's user acquisition spend (e.g. $8M of $10M in January), tracks that cohort, and is repaid from that cohort's earnings at ~10% annualized interest, however long it takes (e.g. 3 years). Non-dilutive and not a recourse loan. Available only to much larger, proven apps. Ladder used it.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · The Bootstrapper's Path to $10M ARR – Andrew Maguire, Volo Ventures“There is an interesting financing product that I became aware of just in the last year when Ladder used it is General Catalyst Growth Fund.”
“if in January you spend $10 million, they'll finance eight million of that and then they track that January cohort and they get repaid”
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 Ladder
All 12 Ladder tactics- Run a big yearly user survey and use AI to read the answers7,500+ responses in a year; led directly to the nutrition feature
- Let users log reps and weights, then suggest next weights and show their progress70-75% of users now log every workout; guest sees it correlate with retention
- Have coaches tell users to log their weights mid-workout, not in a help pageJournal use climbed to 70-75% of workouts; guest calls it 10x more effective than FAQs
- Target serious runners with training plans that adapt after every runWon the race-training niche; later bought by Strava
- Read your five-star reviews to find the result users want, then target 3 workouts a weekBecame the goal the whole product is built around; no retention numbers given
- Add a home-screen calendar widget that lights up workout days, and show how to install itAbout a third of users have it; guest sees it correlate with retention
More from this episode
- The Mind Company: Report a copycat's bought ratings to Apple with collected evidenceApple did nothing
- RevenueCat: Drop cost limits on AI features and let venture money cover inference
- Slopes: Skip venture money and put each year's profits back into the appFounder says it built an amazing business with ~12 people; no numbers
- Put $1,000 into UGC videos for a new vibe-coded app
- Ask for a star rating during onboarding, before people really use the appLow-quality apps reach 4.9 stars vs 4.5 for a carefully built app; ratings become a poor signal
- Build an in-house analytics tool that anyone can query in plain EnglishInvestor calls it ridiculously powerful; no numbers