Nomorobo · B2C · robocall blocking app
Ask your biggest supplier for 90-day payment terms while waiting for Apple payouts
Got down to $944 in the bank but survived without predatory investor terms
Workedfinancing
What they did
After the mobile launch, the 14-day trial plus Apple's payout lag (roughly 30 + 30 days) left a cash gap, and investors offered only very poor terms. Asked Twilio for Net 90 instead of Net 30 for 3 months (they agreed), secured a bank line of credit as backup (not drawn), and paid some bills late, rather than accept a deal that would have left the founder with nothing.
What happened
Apple payments arrived just in time; terms went back to normal and growth took off.
- Stage
- monetization
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · From Idea to 8-Figure Exit in 10 Years Flat — Aaron Foss, Nomorobo“"Instead of Net 30, can I get Net 90 for 3 months? I need a bit of a loan here cuz of this whole thing." And they were like, "Yeah, absolutely," right? I went to the bank. I was able to get a line of credit.”
“Basically, if I took that, I basically would have had nothing.”
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More from this episode
- Nomorobo: Enter a government prize contest with a working prototype, demo video and catchy nameWon and split the $50K prize out of ~800 entries; launched the company
- Nomorobo: Talk to every reporter after a public win and send them to an email waitlist3,000 signups in a few months, 30,000+ emails by launch day
- Nomorobo: Request 5 years of government complaint data to seed your blocklist on day oneMany false positives, but enough to launch and start collecting real data
- Nomorobo: Give landline blocking away free forever to gather data and users for the paid appCost up to $120K a month in phone bills; replaced any ad budget
- Nomorobo: Email your free landline users asking them to try the paid mobile appFounder calls it huge; no numbers
- Nomorobo: Charge $1.99 a month through Apple's in-app subscriptions instead of building billingBecame the business's turning point; Apple's cut was cheaper than self-run billing
- Nomorobo: Give a 2-week free trial so users see it block a robocall firstFounder credits it for the app's success; no numbers
- Nomorobo: Soft launch quietly, fix the bugs, then tell reporters who covered you beforeFounder says the press flywheel kept going; no numbers
- Nomorobo: Publish a page for every robocaller phone number, with the call recording and a block buttonFounder calls it a moat that worked really well; no traffic numbers
- Nomorobo: Pitch local reporters this week's top scams in their city, with call audio2-3 unpaid press mentions a week for 10 years, including NBC Nightly News
- Nomorobo: Let phone carriers turn on your free service in one click from their control panelsAnother huge free channel with no biz dev team; no numbers
- Nomorobo: Build it Apple's privacy-first way, then ask Apple to feature it as App of the DayFeatured by Apple early; founder calls it a competitive advantage
- Nomorobo: Hand off customer support first, using contractors you meet through your networkBuilt the whole team without job posts; the support contractor's brother became product manager
- Nomorobo: Track just one number early on: robocalls blockedFounder recommends it; no measured result
- Nomorobo: Raise small amounts on a rolling note only when you need the next stepAbout $2.25M raised in total; reached profitability and kept a big stake
- Nomorobo: When one buyer makes an offer, tell every past suitor to get competing bidsHad a choice of buyers; sold for over eight figures (per host)
- Nomorobo: Add a $5 a month premium tier with call screening and a family plan