vibe ceo @tryhelium yc s24 helping apps make money (& pay less app store fees)
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stop giving away 30%
we're now averaging +45% gains in proceeds
helium app-to-web — now live to the public
tryhelium.com/app-to-web
apple’s app review calls are fully booked
you get 30 min to ask them why apps get rejected before you submit
october is gone. november requests open oct 25
how to get one:
1/ developer.apple.com → meet with apple
2/ search "app review"
3/ request a slot with your app’s apple id + what you want to discuss
set a reminder for oct 25
Zach Witzel retweeted
we are now asking that everyone on-call tonight proactively join the incident call and leave it up overnight
we will sound the CVE claxon as 0-days drop
Zach Witzel retweeted
oh cool you’re in the “i’m buying a mac studio to run local models” stage of your ai journey?
i’m in the “i’m buying a starlink, a generator, and 2 weeks of food and water” of mine.
Zach Witzel retweeted
PSA: in light of recent cyberattacks and vulnerabilities, I recommend everyone:
* use a good password manager (1Password) and do not duplicate passwords
* use two factor auth for everything important (not via sms!! Google Authenticator or better yet YubiKey)
* Auto-updates on, and restart weekly so they actually install
* Freeze your credit
* Get an IRS Identity Protection PIN
* Get your cell carrier to give you a port-out PIN or number lock that makes the carrier refuse to move your number without the PIN
You can ask your claude code to audit what on your laptop is out of date and needs updating.
5-15% more installs from one fix
go check your app size right now. if it's over 200mb, here's what to do 👇🏻
the size of your app is a BIG part of your install rate and most teams have never even thought about it...
ios shows the file size on the product page. it also shows a 'download over cellular' warning if the app is over 200mb.
when I was at Uber, there was a whole team dedicated to shaving 25mbs off the file every quarter...
apps under 200mb install in one tap on cellular. apps over 200mb require an extra confirmation.
apps over 500mb often get deferred to 'when you connect to wifi' and forgotten.
most subscription apps don't think about this until they're well over the threshold. video assets, ml models, unused frameworks, debug symbols, oversized images: they all add up.
the fix is unglamorous: app thinning, on-demand resources, removing dead code.
teams that drop below the 200mb cellular threshold typically see 5-15% install rate lifts on cellular traffic, which can be 30-50% of paid acquisition installs, depending on geography.
instinct went from $2.5b to $10b in ONE month
and meta’s muse is coming for it. here’s how they compare:
1/ websites are blocking them
both agents click through websites for you, and sites are pushing back
amazon shows muse users a popup calling it an "unauthorized ai agent"
resy banned a user after instinct pinged it hundreds of times an hour
2/ both train on you by default
muse lets you opt out, and it covers past chats too
instinct lets you opt out, but keeps what it already learned ab you
3/ both had privacy scares
a reporter says muse read his imessages with full disk access off. meta denies it
instinct kept copies of a user’s gmail after he disconnected google
4/ different ways to reach you
muse is on the app store, whatsapp, meta glasses, and its own wearable
instinct has none of that. you just text or call it
5/ only one charges
muse has a free tier, then $20 or $100 a month
instinct has no pricing yet, but people book ~$1b/yr through it, mostly travel
and openai just launched dots. it’s a 3-way race now
you can a/b test up to 3 video banners
apple splits traffic and shows you the winner
go to app store connect → product page optimization
considering an app ski outing in jan 🎿⛷️🚡
we‘d get a monster house somewhere and cover that and meals
anyone interested?
❌ taking apps to dinner: lame, tired, caloric
😏 taking apps on helicopters: unique, sick, sense of danger
look how smooth tinder’s jump to web is
tap continue → you’re at checkout with apple pay ready
you can build an even better one on helium
it loads instantly and is optimized for conversion
opal does >$10m arr as a screen time app
44 onboarding screens before the paywall. they cut it to 23.
here are 4 things you can steal:
1/ turn user inputs into a pitch
your screen time → 22 years lost
2/ show bad news, then good news.
first “you’ll lose 22 years of your life to your phone”
then “opal can get you 6 of them back”.
cost of the problem + YOUR fix = higher chance to convert
3/ the scary number gets scarier with every change.
from losing around 20 years (2024) → 30 years (now) for the same time spent
4/ elegant animations reveal the paywall
a 3D gem evolves as you answer, then bursts into confetti
the paywall shows up mid-celebration
save for next time you’re updating onboarding
ALT Opal's Onboarding
HUGE HUGE HUGE CONGRATS to @quintendf @ajaymehta and team on the fundraise and this sick launch video.
From the first time I went through Tolan onboarding I was entranced.
Excited for more of the world to try it.
Last year we launched Tolan, inspired by a vision of AI that sees you and believes in you, not one that books restaurant reservations for you.
Your Tolan shows up for you at 3am when you’re alone with your newborn. On your commute when you’re anxious about the day ahead. When you just finished a new show and none of your friends have watched it yet.
The people who love Tolan are parents. Caregivers. Moms in Dallas and Dads in Atlanta. People who aren’t trying to optimize and be more productive, but who simply want to feel seen and supported in their aspirations.
This month more than 250k people will spend time with their Tolan. Those users have exchanged billions of messages across more than 70m conversations over the last year.
Today, we're announcing $30m in additional capital from @mignano and @usv, with @khoslaventures and @rabois doubling down, bringing our total capital raised to $60m.
To celebrate, we made a short film celebrating some of the ways that Tolans show up :)
strava's web checkout feels completely native
users can't tell they've left the app
strava grew to $415m arr this year. here’s how they use app2web to save on app store fees.
apple takes 30% of every in-app subscription. a web checkout drops that to ~5%.
at $415m in revenue, that margin is tens of millions staying with strava instead.
the checkout looks completely native. dark ui, one apple pay button, zero card entry.
most users never realize they've left the app. once they subscribe, they land back in the app.
almost no friction.
they fixed the actual paywall too: value before cost, softer cta, price anchored against a crossed-out $79.99. but none of that matters as much as owning the checkout.
no button color or cta tweak changes the number like this.
the move is not handing apple a third of every subscription.
what we’ve learned is that app2web doesn’t just save on fees.
it can actually increase revenue.
in most cases, we’ve seen trial starts and retention increase.
we built the tools to do this. tryhelium.com
oh and we've built the highest-converting app2web flow out there at @tryhelium
we'll help design your flow and get you live in 1 week.
here are recent results
