Sunflower · B2C · addiction recovery app
Default to paying now, with a toggle to switch on the free trial
Made more money than the default-annual paywall; no numbers
Workedpaywall
What they did
Copied Tolan's paywall pattern: pay-first default with a toggle that lets users switch to a free trial.
What happened
Guest says it made more money than the previous version; no numbers.
In their words
The Superwall Podcast · Koby Conrad - I speedran an ai app from 0 to $1m/yr in 10 months“And then we went into the like Tolan's like toggle of like, "Cool, pay us first, but you can like toggle it off," and like that made more money.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Sunflower: Hire the biggest creator in your niche as a salaried team member with equity50-100K link clicks a month from one creator; founder calls it the core of go-to-market
- Function Health: Get the best-known expert in your field to be the face of the companyGiven as an example of the approach working; no numbers
- Rupa Health: Ask conferences what they'd give you for double their top sponsor packageFounder says it beats small test buys: better treatment and brand effect; no numbers
- Sunflower: Launch a bare-bones first version with three features, then keep improving itUgly v1 grew into the current product; no early numbers given
- Sunflower: Start free like Duolingo, then add a monthly paywall once AI costs pile upFree model failed: investors wanted revenue and AI costs hit hundreds of thousands
- Sunflower: Add a yearly plan and pre-select it on the paywallAdding annual brought some annual revenue; defaulting to it brought 'a lot more'
- Sunflower: Lower your prices when your users have little moneyLower prices made more money; no numbers given
- Sunflower: Before the paywall, promise to remind people before their free trial ends+48% revenue, +70% annual revenue, +46% trial conversions, +30% trial starts
- Sunflower: Build everything around the one simple thing users do every dayTimer is the most important feature; AI chat alone had poor retention
- Sunflower: Let the in-app AI coach follow up on its own and reply in the community4M+ messages handled in a year; users say it saved their lives
- Sunflower: Pitch investors with revenue growth and a future vision, not user countsFirst user-focused deck failed; the revenue-and-future deck raised post-YC
- Sunflower: Put in your own money, then ask people you made rich to invest$100K of own money plus ~$350K from his network after years of no funding