Sway AI · B2C · dating profile feedback app
Open onboarding with short videos explaining the app before asking any questions
Added after emails asking what the app does; no numbers given
Workedonboardingpaywall
What they did
Onboarding is one linear path to the paywall: clarify why the user is there, show explainer videos of the problem and how the app solves it (added after users emailed 'what does this app even do?'), label the problem, show other members' dream results, then easy multiple-choice personalization questions. The paywall shows 'your action plan' and an 8-slide carousel of everything included in the subscription.
What happened
Explainer screens fixed confusion reported by email; guest says LTV was higher than any app he has seen
- Stage
- monetization
In their words
The Superwall Podcast · Daniel Heintzma - I speedran a new app from 0 to $2m/year in 6 months (here's how)“I feel like it's very similar to like a sales funnel where like you clarify like why they're there, explain and label their problem, and then sell the dream result.”
“So you see it's like a carousel of like eight slides of all the things you get as part of your subscription.”
“We didn't have this initially. So, initially we would just go straight into the questions.”
“what we would get a lot of questions about is like, "What does this app even do? Like what am I even subscribing for?"”
“So I think that's why a lot of these um companies like will offer a uh like multiple choice, just being that it's so easy to for the user to like quickly tap one and give an answer”
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 this episode
- Sway AI: Grow an Instagram account on Hinge prompt tips before building, with a preorder linkSome videos took off within weeks; audience existed before launch
- Sway AI: Charge followers $15 by DM for a manual profile review before buildingPeople paid before any app existed; proved willingness to pay
- Sway AI: Copy the text of a men's self-improvement account's most viral slideshows into your own designsSlideshows averaged 10-50K views; one hit 600K
- Sway AI: Make a month of TikTok slideshows in 1-2 hours from a spreadsheet and templateSeconds per slideshow; a month of posts in an hour or two
- Sway AI: Post unbranded slideshows until views come, then brand every slide with the appOne branded Christmas Day post got ~4M views and $5-6K revenue in a day
- Sway AI: Have one dating influencer make promo videos, then run them as ads from his pageTook revenue from $30-40K/month to about $2M a year; creative supply became the limit
- Sway AI: Ask for profile screenshots after the paywall, not before itSimple onboarding before the paywall performed a lot better; no numbers
- Sway AI: Sell extra analysis credits to people who rerun the profile checkAbout 11% of revenue
- Sway AI: Sell AI photo packs at $14.99 for one and $49.99 for tenBiggest upsell in the app; no spending cap lets big spenders pay more
- Sway AI: Preselect the yearly plan on the paywall to collect cash upfrontWeekly plan also tried; grew a lot slower
- Cal AI: Redesign the meal logging screens so people keep paying after the 3-day trial
- Cal AI: Let users join friend groups and topic groups with streak leaderboards
- Cal AI: Add daily logging streaks, copied from Duolingo
- Cal AI: Let users post progress photos, meals and streak badges to Instagram storiesA lot of users share progress and meals; no numbers
- Cal AI: Make the 3 screens creators film (camera, loading, food detail) instantly clear
- Cal AI: Grow through fitness creators who sell coaching, so the app doesn't compete with themMain growth driver; guaranteed views vs hoping to go viral
- Cal AI: Ramp up paid ads once influencer growth is workingMarked Cal AI's big growth inflection point; no numbers
- Robinhood: Launch in a month with game-like branding unlike bank-style crypto appsWent really viral; idea to launch in about a month