Sprout · B2C · swipe-to-apply job app
Make people pay before they can swipe right to apply for a job
Founder says it works well; app reached $250K MRR by month 8
Workedpaywall
What they did
Sprout launched with a hard paywall on the core action: users must pay to swipe right (apply). They tested whether users could see jobs before paying; currently users can browse jobs but not apply. Her newest app is fully hard-paywalled. She prefers hard paywalls for single-player apps to maximize revenue per download; freemium for social/two-player apps.
What happened
Works well; Sprout reached $250K MRR by month 8
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 Sprout
All 20 Sprout tactics- Show the paywall right after onboarding, before users can open the app+50% conversion vs letting users try features first
- Let users skip paying by inviting 3 friends with a code1.6M share/code requests; codes flooded TikTok comments; conversion barely dropped
- Vet each creator on a call, then train them with a course and quizzesOver 50% of trained creators go viral within their first 2 weeks
- Put every new creator through a video course with a quiz after each moduleOver half go viral within 2 weeks; 100M monthly views at 200+ active creators
- Give creators line-by-line scripts with the emotion and camera shot for each lineTrained creators averaged hundreds of thousands to millions of views per video
- Train 2-10 creators until one goes viral, then scale to hundreds200+ active creators; 100M views a month, peaking at 400M in one week
More from this episode
- GlamUp: Swap text makeup tips for a face scan showing your before and afterWent viral on TikTok; app hit 1M users in 6 months
- GlamUp: Push a text-only feature through influencers, faceless accounts, own videos, Reddit and DiscordDidn't work over 3-4 months; the feature itself was the problem
- Mock up a new feature in Figma, have creators post it, build it only if it goes viralFounder's default way to test features now; no numbers
- Pay creators $10-30 a post once it hits 500 views, plus bonuses at 10K-50K+ viewsThe standard deal across consumer apps; no results given
- Recruit creators from Discord groups, friends' referrals, and small influencers averaging ~10K views
- Have creators open new accounts and warm them up for 3 days by following small niche accounts
- GlamUp: Interview every creator yourself and accept about half or fewer
- Give every creator a 30-60 minute video course and a bank of ready scripts
- GlamUp: Make the videos yourself until one goes viral, then hire creators to copy itFounder says it's how every app started; no numbers
- Copy formats from tiny accounts that got one 1M-view video, not from influencers
- Test the same video idea at 10, 25 and 30 seconds with different hooks
- GlamUp: Ask 10+ onboarding questions about the user's goals so the app feels made for themFounder says it primes users to pay; no numbers
- GlamUp: After each answer, show a stat like '80% of our users have acne too'
- GlamUp: Raise prices by 20-40% and check whether more people payOften converts better, founder says; no exact numbers
- Re-test the paywall and prices every couple of months
- Delete features and improve the few that matter
- GlamUp: Start with $10-20K, skip paid ads, and put all revenue back into apps99% of growth came from organic; funded later apps
- Pick a niche with lots of TikTok content but few apps, some making $50-100K a month
- Spend day one researching the niche and day two sketching the screen meant to go viral
- Focus on making the product good so people tell friends and familyFriend-and-family users convert about 2x better
- Test $9.99 against $6.99 a week, with a $50 yearly plan$9.99 slightly ahead on small numbers; more people pick yearly
- Lower the price after no one subscribesStill zero subscribers; hosts blame the weak paywall, not the price