Subversive

Paul Warren, founder and CEO of the Margins reading app, dives into the journey of transforming readers' experiences. As an 'extreme reader,' he emphasizes the importance of a robust book database and user-friendly features like searching by 'vibes.' Warren shares how viral TikTok content catapulted Margins into success, highlighting the role of UGC and influencers in their growth strategy. With delightful design elements and a soft paywall approach, he stresses early retention over monetization while discussing the future of reading in an AI-driven world.

Weber Wong, founder and CEO of FLORA, shares his journey from investment banking to revolutionizing creative tools with AI. He discusses how FLORA offers an infinite workspace for creatives, transcending outdated tools. With clients like Netflix and Nike, Weber emphasizes the shift towards top-down creation in design. He provides insights on product evolution, user feedback, and the importance of community in scaling creative innovations. Additionally, he predicts a future where AI transforms creative processes by 2030, making them more accessible and efficient for professionals.

Allen Chen, Cofounder and CEO of Fitbod, discusses his journey from high-frequency trading to creating a powerful strength-training app. He shares insights on building habit loops inspired by Nir Eyal's framework, enhancing subscriber retention through personalized workouts. Allen highlights Fitbod's growth through word-of-mouth and strategic paid ads, as well as its transition from simple algorithms to advanced AI for tailoring fitness plans. He also explores future AI applications in fitness like audio coaching and injury guidance, revealing the innovative spirit driving Fitbod's success.

Kenneth Schlenker, founder and CEO of Opal, previously worked at Google and has a history of successful startups. He discusses how Opal evolved from a wellbeing app to the world's top screen-time tracker, achieving $10M ARR with just 11 employees. Kenneth reveals the impact of Apple's Screen Time API, which allowed Opal to track data more accurately. He highlights the importance of gamification for user retention and shares insights on their organic growth strategies. Lastly, Kenneth envisions a future where Opal scales to a billion users using AI.

Simon Mizzi, VP of Product Growth at Preply and former Agoda product leader, dives into the world of language learning and how Preply became a major player in the market. He highlights the unique advantages of a human-powered marketplace over digital apps, emphasizing motivation and personalization. Simon outlines the complexities of matching learners with tutors and the importance of long-term subscriptions over vanity metrics. He also discusses the role of AI in enhancing learner experiences while maintaining the human touch in tutoring.

Nick Candler, the former Director of Growth Marketing at Calm, talks about his exciting journey from derivatives trading to leading a marketing team that added 1.2 million subscribers. He highlights how Calm leveraged social listening to create viral ads, particularly using catchy trends for their Sleep Stories, which addressed insomnia. Candler discusses the importance of creative iterations and data analysis in crafting effective campaigns. Now the founder of 10 Scale, he emphasizes the role of AI in shaping the future of performance marketing.

Coco Mao, the cofounder and CEO of OpenArt, shares her journey from Google to launching an AI-driven platform for creative content. She discusses the power of community in sharing prompts for image creation and how programmatic SEO fueled OpenArt's growth. Coco explains the strategic shift from generating images to storytelling through videos, detailing the challenges of restructuring their product and subscription model. She highlights the importance of empowering creators and reflects on a heartwarming story of a 70-year-old YouTuber who found her voice using OpenArt.

Dmitry Gurski, cofounder and CEO of Flo, has led the women's health platform to a $1B+ valuation through innovative strategies. He discusses how offering free period tracking propelled user acquisition, driving organic growth through remarkable retention rates. Dmitry highlights Flo's approach of integrating life-stage features into a single app and the rigorous experimentation culture that enhances monetization. He also shares insights on balancing free value with monetization, the viral success of their Partner Mode, and the transformative role of AI in health apps.

Brent Zajaczkowski is the VP of Product Growth at Noom, one of the world’s largest preventive health platforms that is widely credited with pioneering a novel psychology-based approach to weight loss. Brent joined Noom in 2020 as a Senior PM, and has since been promoted multiple times. Prior to Noom, Brent spent 8+ years in product management and software engineering at TripAdvisor and Wyzant. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Brown University.Key Takeaways:After being founded in 2008, Noom has become one of the largest online weight loss platforms in the world, and is widely credited with pioneering a novel, psychology-based approach to weight loss built on cognitive behavioral therapy.Noom is famous for its “longboarding flow,” which asks users to answer dozens of questions to help personalize their weight loss plan and product experience. While this approach is unconventional, it works because Noom’s users have often tried many other ways to lose weight unsuccessfully, which means they need to be convinced that Noom will work where other solutions have failed.Many of Noom’s most successful A/B tests have tapped into underlying user psychology to boost motivation. These include asking users to pay for a trial so they really commit to their weight loss program, and building a “re-onboarding” flow to encourage users who have fallen off the wagon to try again.The proliferation of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy threatened Noom’s core business, but the company has adapted by investing in several PMF expansion bets, including offering GLP-1s through its own platform.Recently, Noom built an AI companion called “Welli” that helps users navigate its increasingly complex service offering and receive a personalized experience, which has helped to increase user engagement and retention rates.Brent Zajaczkowski:Website: https://www.noom.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-zajaczkowski/Phil Carter:Website: https://www.philgcarter.comSubstack: https://philgcarter.substack.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philgcarterX: https://x.com/philgcarterPodcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io

Andrew Grauer is the CEO of Learneo, a holding company valued at $3.6 billion that owns multiple learning and productivity businesses including Course Hero, QuillBot, CliffsNotes, Scribbr, LitCharts, LanguageTool, and Symbolab. After cofounding Course Hero in 2006 when he was a sophomore at Cornell, Andrew spent 15 years growing it into one of the world’s largest EdTech businesses before folding it into Learneo. Over the last few years since Learneo acquired QuillBot, Andrew has been focused on transforming that product into a multimodal generative AI platform for students and professionals.Key Takeaways:Andrew started Course Hero in 2006 when he was a sophomore at Cornell because he wanted a platform that could help student like him find and study academic materials that were highly course-specific.Course Hero developed an elegant model where students could access content either by uploading their own course materials, which made the entire platform more valuable, or by paying for a subscription, which generated revenue.As more students contributed content to Course Hero, the platform became more valuable for other students, leading to more sign ups and even more content. The company accelerated this core growth loop by investing in on-campus marketing, search engine optimization, and other user acquisition channels.From 2020 and 2023, Course Hero formed a parent company called Learneo and expanded into math, literature, and writing through its acquisitions of Symbolab, LitCharts, CliffNotes, QuillBot, Scribbr, and Language Tool. This strategy allowed Learneo to expand horizontally while keeping each of its portfolio companies narrowly focused on building great products within their respective verticals.Now, as generative AI unlocks new opportunities for learning and productivity, Learneo is focused on leveraging its existing assets and capabilities to build new multimodal creation tools, starting in the writing space with QuillBot.Andrew Grauer:Website: https://www.learneo.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewtategrauer/X: https://x.com/atgrauerPhil Carter:Website: https://www.philgcarter.com/Substack: https://philgcarter.substack.comLinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/philgcarterX: https://x.com/philgcarterPodcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io