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 47 Ladder tactics- Offer non-converted trial users their first month for $5, then $29.99About half stay into month two at full price; consistent across cohorts
- Ask new visitors 15 fitness questions, then recommend three matching programsA million people have taken it in 18 months; fixed confused cold-traffic users
- Survey 500 users on price and talk to 100 non-payers, then cut $60 to $29.99Clearing price was ~$29 across cohorts; January 2022 became the best month yet
- Run a new coach's TikTok for them, using only videos already on their phone250K followers in 45 days, with million-view videos every week
- End TikToks with on-screen text like 'We start Monday, link in my profile'Founder says viewers follow explicit instructions; no numbers
- Send every TikTok ad click to a web quiz and track answers that mark ideal usersTargeting tightened within a week; payback in low single-digit months
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