RevenueCat · B2B · subscription tools for app developers
Email batchmates, then install your SDK in their app yourself at a coffee shop
Landed early customers like Podcast App; no numbers
Workedin-personoutbound-sales
What they did
During YC, Jacob emailed fellow YC founders asking to put the RevenueCat SDK into their apps himself, met at a Blue Bottle for a few hours, sent pull requests that integrated the SDK and also fixed some of their UI bugs as an appreciation gift. Goal: make the first couple of customers truly happy.
What happened
Podcast App became an early customer; Jacob frames it as how RevenueCat got its first toeholds.
- Stage
- Early (first customers)
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · VC Funding vs. Bootstrapping for Subscription Apps — Martín Siniawski, Podcast App“I emailed you cuz you were in YC. I was like, "Can I just come put my stupid SDK in your app, please?" And you were gracious enough to be like, "Sure." And we hung out at a Blue Bottle for a few hours.”
“You sent some pull requests for us, like not only including the SDK, but I think you also fixed a couple of bugs.”
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 RevenueCat
All 9 RevenueCat tactics- Launch a mobile app with a home screen people want to screenshotAbout 100x more sightings on X overnight; mobile usage near dashboard usage
- Ask users how they heard about you, with a free-text boxRevealed ChatGPT and Claude were sending people; read daily
- Start on Amplitude; add a data pipeline once product changes break your definitionsCo-host says it smoothed definition changes for data users; no numbers
- Build the product so free users cost almost nothing to supportLets the company keep a generous free tier; no numbers
- Check 5-10 key numbers every morning, with 30- and 90-day averages30-day above 90-day means healthy; no outcome reported
- Publish a yearly benchmark report built from your customers' anonymized data
More from this episode
- Streema: Use Facebook app notifications to spread a radio app virallyPeaked at 130K new users a day but earned $100; Facebook shut it down
- Streema: Grow a website from long-tail Google searches when you have no budgetBecame the channel that worked; took years to kick in
- Podcast App: Switch from ads to a subscription you actually promoteCompany grew 3-4x; subscriptions now most revenue, ~130K paid subscribers
- Podcast App: Name your app after what people search for: 'The Podcast App'Cohost calls it the perfect search name; no numbers given
- Rest: Promote your new sleep app to your podcast users at night
- Rest: Notice people use your app to fall asleep, then build a sleep appRest launched; no results yet
- Podcast App: Try your own shows, curated playlists and a WhatsApp listening clubDidn't pan out as a growth leap
- Podcast App: After a YC rejection, raise from insiders, get traction, and reapplyGot into YC a year later; raised only ~$1.5M in total
- Podcast App: Size your market from the old medium's ad spend and subscribers neededMath showed a $100M/year business needed only millions of subscribers
- Luminary: Raise $100M and launch a paid app with 50 exclusive podcastsNever managed to scale
- Elevate: Email your previous app's users when you launch a new oneA small but meaningful early boost, per the cohost