We listened to the podcasts so you don't have to

What founders and operators said about paywalls, pricing, onboarding and growth, and what A/B tests from real apps found. Ask it anything or take the free course. Every claim links to the moment it was said.

664podcast episodes
633hours listened
10,492tips, each with its source
Check out the library
David SenraCompetition, Intensity & Building a $115 Billion Global BankSuperwall$172M of App Building Advice in 50 MinutesSubversiveThe Anti-Addictive Playbook Behind Pok Pok's 9X Subscriber GrowthSuperwall#1 UGC EXPERT Reveals How To Market Consumer AppsSubversiveHow StudyFetch Used Creator-Led Growth to Hit $10M+ ARR in 3 YearsPaywall & free trial testPayramp, not Paywall: Slopes's A/B testPaywall & free trial testDriving motivation: Opal's A/B testUser engagement & retention testDecoupling streaks from daily goals: Duolingo's A/B testFoundersHow Sam Walton WorkedApp MastersBefore You Spend $1 on Meta Ads, Watch ThisAcquiredTSMCSuperwallBeginners Guide to Buying & Selling Apps 2026Sub ClubWhy 90% of their paid traffic goes to a quiz, not the App StoreSub ClubMake Ugly Ads to Grow Your AppMonetization awareness testPro badge: Mobbin's A/B testSub ClubHow WeWard hit 20M users without paid adsSubversiveHow Elon's Tweet Made Fasting App Zero $1M in a DayFoundersHow SpaceX WorksReferral testReal-time referral tracking: SoFi's A/B testSub ClubHow the World’s #1 VPN App Reached 1 Billion DownloadsSub ClubProtecting Freemium at 100M Users AND Driving $500M RevenueAcquiredThe Walt Disney Company: The most successful enterprise for monetizing human nostalgiaSub ClubHe left Google to build the Google Maps for boatsApp MastersAre You Ignoring These RevenueCat Features? (Stop Losing Money)SubversiveHow Cal AI Hit $50M ARR in 2 Years by Nailing Product/Channel Fit on TikTokAcquiredMicrosoft Volume I: The Complete History and Strategy of founding through Windows 95Referral test30-Day Guest Pass: Headspace's A/B testDavid SenraHow to Dominate for DecadesSub ClubHow Simply Finally Cracked Facebook Ads with Web FunnelsPaywall & free trial testHow your free trial works: Blinkist's A/B testSuperwallHow to Build a $2M/Month App (Copy Me)App Masters7 Ad Monetization Hacks Top Apps Use Right NowSubversiveHow Tolan 3X'd Subscriber Conversion after Shifting to FreemiumSuperwallThe NEW Short Form Strategy Dominating For App GrowthDavid SenraEvan Spiegel, Snapchat: Building a Multi-Billion Dollar CompanySuperwall$16M AI CEOs: How to Make $1.3M/Month With AI AppsLenny's PodcastChatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s nextPaywall & free trial testShowing pricing options upfront: VEED's A/B testAcquiredIKEASuperwallMeet The Marketing Genius Behind Cal AIApp MastersHow to Create App Store Screenshots That Get More DownloadsDavid SenraInside Bending Spoons: Finding Talent, Leveraging AI & Driving Operational ExcellenceAcquiredTrader Joe’s: Hawaiian shirts and counter positioningAcquiredFerrari: What happens when you staple a luxury brand to a sports team?David SenraFounder of CAA Michael Ovitz: I Just Knew I Was Going to Outwork Every One of ThemLenny's PodcastThe rise of taste, human authenticity and judgment in an AI worldAcquiredDisney: The Renaissance and the EmpireApp MastersProfitable Apps Going Broke? Here's Why
FoundersThe Founder of IKEA: Ingvar KampradApp MastersHow to Increase Organic Downloads Without Changing KeywordsLenny's PodcastWhy AI is going vertical (again)App MastersThe Web2App Playbook: Scale Your App Without App Store LimitsApp MastersThis Breathing App Sold to Peloton for MillionsFoundersAmancio Ortega: The Genius Behind The Inditex GroupSubversiveDoorDash's Playbook for Scaling DashPass to 35M+ MembersDavid SenraTony Xu of DoorDash: Surviving 1,000 Days of Startup HellLenny's PodcastWhy OpenAI is merging Codex and ChatGPT and the future of knowledge workLenny's PodcastWhy companies are becoming a series of loopsApp MastersApp Ideas That People Are Already Searching For (Steal This Strategy)Sub Club$10M ARR without ever testing a paywallAcquiredStarbucks (with Howard Schultz)App MastersThe Paywall Strategy That Increased Conversions by 56%AcquiredCoca-Cola: The Complete History & StrategySub ClubWhy Opal Stopped Chasing Revenue to Build a Billion-User AppLenny's PodcastWhy every company now needs to think and operate like a lab teamFoundersThe Practical Genius of HondaSubversiveBuilding the AI Career Mentor With a Freemium BetSuperwallI Studied 1,000,000 UGC Ads, This Is What Will Grow Your AppUser engagement & retention testSocial validation: Headspace's A/B testLenny's PodcastEveryone’s shipping more. Does any of it matter?AcquiredMicrosoft Volume II: The Complete History and Strategy of the Ballmer YearsFoundersHow Rockefeller WorkedApp MastersWe’ve Tested 100s of Paywalls. Here’s What Actually Converts.Lenny's PodcastMarty Cagan: Strong Opinions, loosely heldApp MastersCopy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads StrategyDavid SenraExcellence Is the Capacity To Take PainDavid SenraBuilding Pixar, Working With Steve Jobs, and Cultivating CreativityAcquiredGoogle Part II: AlphabetAcquiredMetaCheckout & sales testClearer pricing estimate: Uber's A/B testSubversiveHow Discord Completely Redesigned its Mobile AppsFoundersHow Elon WorksLenny's PodcastThis CPO regrets that product management existsSub ClubThe AI Growth Playbook for Subscription AppsApp MastersThe AIGC Ad Creatives Crushing It vs. The Ones FloppingSuperwallI speedran an ai app to $100k in 70 days.Sub ClubHow Removing the Free Trial Grew Monthly Subs 2000%Lenny's PodcastStop planning for 2027: how OpenAI builds product 90 days at a timeLenny's PodcastWhy Claude can’t be your PM (yet)David SenraDana White: The Man Behind the UFCSubversiveHow Purpose Hit $1M ARR in 14 DaysFoundersHow Bill Gates WorksApp MastersDo This Before Running ANY Paid Social Media MarketingSubversiveHow ElevenLabs is Building Consumer Apps on its $11B Voice AI PlatformFoundersHow Henry Singleton WorkedDavid SenraThe Company Apple Couldn't Kill
SuperwallThe EXACT System to Go From 0-$10M+ With Your AppPaywall & free trial testYearly plan as the default: Mojo's A/B testFoundersHow Jensen WorksLenny's Podcast90 minutes of unfiltered product advice from Snap and Discord’s product chiefFoundersThe Tycoons: Carnegie, Rockefeller, Gould & MorganCheckout & sales testStreamlining checkout process: HotelTonight's A/B testDavid SenraBrian Armstrong: When Washington Tried to Kill CoinbaseLenny's PodcastAI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkersPaywall & free trial testFree trial only for annual subscription: Moonly's A/B testAcquiredGoogle Part I: Origins of Search. How the Best Business in Human History HappenedDavid SenraSam Altman on Building OpenAI & Betting on the ImpossibleSuperwallThe 14-Year-Old Who Built a $14k/Month AI AppDavid SenraDHH: How to Build a Profitable Company Without Losing ControlDavid SenraThe $44 Billion Company Automating Your Company's FinancesSuperwallHow to Build an $18M/Year Apple Watch App (FREE MASTERCLASS)Onboarding testOnboarding with multi-intent queries: Headspace's A/B testSub ClubHow Praktika built a profitable $50M ARR AI businessFoundersPhil Knight: Founder of NikeDavid SenraBootstrapping a Business to $5 Billion in Free Cash FlowSub ClubWhy BoldVoice charged from day 1 and ignored the Duolingo freemium playbookAcquiredThe Home Depot: How America's aging houses built the best stock of the last 45 yearsLenny's PodcastOpenAI’s Head of ChatGPT: We’re entering a new era of AI (again)Sub ClubHow Cal AI turned creators into a growth machineAcquiredTSMC founder Morris ChangSubversiveHow Rise Turned Sleep Debt Into a 10M+ User Sleep AppSuperwallMeet the ex-wrestler making $41k/mo with AI appsSuperwallHow To Grow Your App 23x Faster Than The CompetitionSuperwallThe 1 Billion Views Content Strategy Every App Should Steal in 2026Paywall & free trial testOptimizing paywall placement: Instasize's A/B testSubversiveEdward Tian on Building GPTZero, Scaling to $30M+ ARR, and the Superhuman AcquisitionSubversiveHow Wabi is Building YouTube for Software with a Platform for Creating Mini AppsLenny's PodcastAn 86-minute guide to finding PMFSuperwallThe NEW App Content Strategy Dominating in 2026FoundersThe Life Story of Akio Morita: Founder of SonyApp MastersThe Influencer Marketing Math That Made Cal AI ProfitableFoundersLessons from Jeff Bezos's Shareholder LettersSubversiveTyler Denk on Beating Substack, Shipping Weekly, and the 0% Take Rate BetPaywall & free trial test7-day trial for monthly & 14-day trial for annual subscription: Headspace's A/B testDavid SenraBuilding an Empire with Risk, Rage & 200 Phone Calls A DaySub Club$6.7M ARR, No Paid Ads, and an Exit to Quizlet in 2 YearsSubversiveHow ClassDojo Built Network Effects to Reach 95% of US K-8 SchoolsFoundersSteve Jobs in ExileFoundersHow Larry Ellison ThinksApp MastersThe UGC Marketing Playbook Behind 300M+ Monthly ViewsAcquiredGoogle Part III: The AI Company. Google is amazingly well-positioned... will they win in AI?Lenny's PodcastHow we built Grok Bot in a monthSubversiveHow Suno Grew to $300M in ARR by Democratizing Music CreationSub ClubThe Bootstrapper's Path to $10M ARR Without Venture Capital

Use the library with your agent

Copy this into any agent. It reads the library and tells you what to change in your app, with the source for each change.

Help me grow my app using Caddie's growth library (usecaddie.app/growth): what founders said on product and growth podcasts, and what real A/B tests found, every claim linked to the moment it was said.

How to read it:
- If you can use MCP, connect https://usecaddie.app/growth/mcp (no sign-in) and use search_library and read_library_page.
- Otherwise, if you can browse, start from https://usecaddie.app/growth/llms.txt (a map of every lesson, app and episode) and open the pages it links to.
- If you can do neither, tell me to ask in the box at https://usecaddie.app/growth (it reads the library, no account needed), or to download the Caddie Mac app at https://usecaddie.app/download/Caddie.dmg, whose agent can search the library too.
- Search with a few focused keywords (e.g. "annual plan trial", "paywall review"), and for tested results add show "abtest". Read the lesson for the topic too (list_lessons, or the lessons in llms.txt).

First ask me for my app's website or a screenshot of the screen I want to improve (paywall, onboarding, pricing). Read it, then give me the 3 changes most likely to move its number, each with what another app did, the result, and the link. Only use what the library says, and say so when it has nothing on a question.
Or open it inClaudeChatGPTCursor
Connect it to your agent for good

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http caddie-growth https://usecaddie.app/growth/mcp

Codex

codex mcp add caddie-growth --url https://usecaddie.app/growth/mcp

Cursor, Windsurf and other MCP clients (mcp.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "caddie-growth": {
      "url": "https://usecaddie.app/growth/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude.ai and ChatGPT

Add a custom connector with the address https://usecaddie.app/growth/mcp. It's free and needs no account.

  • search_library searches the tips, with links to the moment each one was said
  • read_library_page reads an episode's notes, an A/B test or a lesson in full
  • list_lessons lists the course
Audit your app

Show it a screen.Get what to change first.

A paywall, an onboarding step, a pricing page: Caddie reads it, searches the library and tells you the changes most likely to move its number, each backed by an operator's result or an A/B test, with the link.

Download CaddieOpen in Caddie

Your paywall

What to change first

  1. Show the trial as a timelineBlinkist: +23% trial sign-ups
  2. Trial on the annual plan onlyMoonly: +39% conversion
  3. "Try for $0.00" on the buttonDuolingo: more trial starts
Notes from any video

Paste a link.Get notes you can skim.

A podcast, a talk, a lecture: Caddie writes the bottom line, the takeaways and every chapter, draws a picture where one explains it faster, and links each point to the second it was said. Every episode in this library was made this way.

Try it yourself: opens in Caddie for Mac, free while in beta. Download it first if you don't have it.

The video

Sub Club · 1:05:34

Why Your Free Users Are Your Real Growth Engine – Cem Kansu (Duolingo CPO)

youtube.com/watch?v=pqbbyRMssbQ

The notes Caddie made

The bottom line

Duolingo grows by keeping its free product strong, because free users bring in new users by word of mouth. Taking value away from free users lifts revenue for a year or two, then stalls growth.

A picture from the notes: Duolingo built the three things it promised never to, in order: in-app purchases (streak repair), ads in 2016 and a subscription in 2017.
  • 31:14Write the trial button as 'Try for $0.00'
  • 27:50Offer free trials even if your product already has a free tier
Read the full notes →
Answers link to the moment it was said