Wavve Boating · B2C · boat navigation app
Be extra fast and reliable to win a big partner, and don't be greedy
Became Sea-Doo's navigation app; partner paid integration costs and it enabled the angel round
Workedpartnershipsintegrations-marketplaces
What they did
After BRP's chief engineer found Wavve through a Quebec press hit, BRP asked Wavve to be the navigation app on its own phone-projection display on new Sea-Doo models (driven by a four-way controller, iOS and Android). Adam treated Wavve as a risk the partner had to take and set out to protect the internal champion: extremely responsive, over-delivered, on time, committed only to what he could execute, not greedy. A school friend handled legal review. Structure: riders still subscribe to Wavve; later a discounted offer for Sea-Doo buyers ('$20,000 Sea-Doo, $45 app'); BRP helped pay upfront integration costs.
What happened
Signed and delivered; upfront integration money was effectively the first outside capital; big credibility boost; partnerships now ~25% of acquisition.
- Stage
- growth
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Navigating App Growth Through Strategic Partnerships and Media Wins — Adam Allore, Wavve Boating“So, my goal throughout that entire process was just to mitigate that risk as much as possible.”
“And so it really was just some basic like 101 stuff like being extremely responsive, over-delivering whatever was asked of us, making sure everything was timely”
“and then they also helped a bit with some of the integration costs upfront. So, that helped actually bring in a little bit of essentially first investment into the company.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
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- Wavve Boating: Pay a local contractor to wrap your core feature in a bare-bones iOS appApp was 'very bad' but drew early adopters and proved people would pay
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- Wavve Boating: Take drone photos of marinas and ask them to hang an app posterDidn't work; too many steps for too little activation
- Wavve Boating: Write the whole article for niche trade journalists, images included, and send itGot steady coverage and credibility; modest downloads but led to big partnerships
- Wavve Boating: Raise a small local angel round after proving people pay and signing a partnerRaised under $0.5M; enough to hire, build Android and deliver the partner integration
- Wavve Boating: Sell app licenses to a boat club so members get it free, paid per activationLanded the deal; club saves vs multi-thousand-dollar chartplotters; no revenue numbers
- Wavve Boating: Send partner members a link that skips the paywall; police abuse laterFounder says activation, not tech, was the real hurdle; no numbers
- Wavve Boating: Build a custom web tool for one boat rental partnerPartner happy, but a distraction from the core consumer app
- Wavve Boating: Announce every new partner in a press release to land the next onePartners bring ~25% of new users and open doors to other deals
- Greg: Put a QR code for your app in every plant sold at partner nurseriesHost says it became a huge user acquisition driver; no numbers