Massimiliano Picchi
Creator of Waterspeed (the coachee)
Where to hear and read about Massimiliano Picchi1 episode or test
Massimiliano Picchi is an Italian former developer in Dubai who built Waterspeed, an Apple Watch speed tracker for water sports that stalled at about 50 downloads a day. The lesson from his case is to fix price, keywords and free channels yourself before paying for marketing help.
I can keep drawing 50 download per day and two three new subscription per day
Growth Channels for a Niche App
Massimiliano Picchi: the story and the lessons
1How Massimiliano Picchi built Waterspeed
Picchi built Waterspeed because no sailing app fit him. A former developer, he took up sailing last year and found nothing made for the water. Waterspeed tracks speed from the Apple Watch alone, so no iPhone is needed on the boat.
The watch syncs to the phone on land for review. He calls it somehow a runtastic for water sports, and it also works on an iPhone alone.
He launched in June and covers four water sports. The app serves sailing, windsurfing, kitesurfing and paddling. It has some thousands of users, and they love it.
He had already tuned keywords, the video and the screenshots on his own. The coach found the app well-designed, with little he would change.
Picchi won big press alone, without US contacts. Italian and living in Dubai, he got Waterspeed onto the home page of Gazzetta dello Sport, which has about 10 million daily readers.
The coach said he needs confidence, not a US address, to approach US sailing and surfing outlets the same way.
2Why Waterspeed stalled at 50 downloads a day
Good feedback did not turn into more downloads. Waterspeed gets about 50 downloads a day and two or three new subscriptions a day, roughly $500 a month. Picchi guessed next year could bring $1,000 a month.
He wondered whether he needed Apple or Facebook ads. Knowing this download-to-subscriber rate is what lets him judge whether paid spend makes sense.
His low prices capped the business. Waterspeed charged about $1 monthly and about $6 yearly, roughly 50 cents a month. The coach said to test much higher prices.
Buyers of an expensive sport already spend on gear, and higher revenue per subscriber is what pays for ads. In the coach's words: "you're not gonna have a really successful huge business just charge you six dollars a year".
Picchi wanted all four sports, which dilutes his keywords. The coach wanted one lead sport chosen by search volume. Picchi wanted to keep all four, and his own research agreed that sailing is overcrowded.
Windsurfing is bigger in Europe, while sailing and paddling are bigger in the US, so the lead sport can change by country. The advice was to lead with one sport and still cover the others in keywords.
3The growth plan Picchi was given, in order
First step: rename the app around surf and surfing. Surf and surfing show more US search volume than sailing. Put the strongest terms in the name and repeat them in the subtitle, for example Waterspeed, surf, sailing and kayak.
Kayak shows high volume probably only because an app called Kayak exists, so it is not a real signal. Surfing also catches unrelated searches like couch surfing.
Next: a 14-day trial campaign pitched to App Advice. Announce a longer trial, such as 14 days instead of 7, as a limited-time offer and email a press contact at App Advice. The coach calls it his favorite growth hack for subscription apps.
For a couple of his clients it brought a tremendous increase in downloads, and subscription revenue rose too. The connection with the outlet is the key part.
Then ask Reddit and Facebook communities for feedback, not downloads. Post in the sailing, surfing and kayaking subreddits, say who he is, tell his story and ask for feedback on the app.
The coach called Reddit an untapped network with a vibrant community, reaching people ASO cannot.
Test Apple Search Ads only after working out what he can afford. Apple gives about $100 free to test, aimed at competitor terms such as Surfline. Counting how many downloads bring one subscriber lets him back out the most he can spend per download.
The coach's example was 450 downloads per subscriber. Search ads only work if the higher price lets him pay for the traffic.
Judge each keyword change by impressions before downloads. For one client after iOS 11, impressions tripled from a few hundred to thousands, while downloads rose only about 6%. The next step there was changing screenshots.
Asked how long a keyword should run, the coach gave no fixed time and pointed to this data instead.
4Paid help, timing and doing the work himself
Picchi can run the outreach himself before paying anyone. The coach's packages start at $3,000, yet he advised easy tweaks first. He does not know the sailing or kayaking worlds, so he cannot supply contacts.
His edge is marketing and storytelling, and Picchi can tell his own story as well. Hiring makes sense only if Picchi wants this as a full-time career and wants to learn from the work.
Fix the product before buying marketing help. The coach told a game developer planning to spend $5,000 to $10,000 to improve the game first, since the earlier failure was probably the game.
Picchi's app is well-designed, so his gap is channels and pricing, not product.
Picchi should time the push for spring. Winter is the low season for water sports, so the coach suggested engaging in spring with a message like surfing is coming up, get ready for summer.
They agreed to a follow-up call after Picchi starts tweaking the app.
Growth Channels for a Niche App
A coaching call for a niche Apple Watch app for water sports stuck at 50 downloads a day. It covers raising subscription prices, focusing ASO on higher-volume terms, running a longer-trial press campaign, testing search ads and community channels, and why many app makers need less marketing help than they think.
Picchi built Waterspeed because no sailing app fit him. A former developer, he took up sailing last year and found nothing made for the water. Waterspeed tracks speed from the Apple Watch alone, so no iPhone is needed on the boat.
The watch syncs to the phone on land for review. He calls it somehow a runtastic for water sports, and it also works on an iPhone alone.
He launched in June and covers four water sports. The app serves sailing, windsurfing, kitesurfing and paddling. It has some thousands of users, and they love it.
He had already tuned keywords, the video and the screenshots on his own. The coach found the app well-designed, with little he would change.
Picchi won big press alone, without US contacts. Italian and living in Dubai, he got Waterspeed onto the home page of Gazzetta dello Sport, which has about 10 million daily readers.
The coach said he needs confidence, not a US address, to approach US sailing and surfing outlets the same way.
Good feedback did not turn into more downloads. Waterspeed gets about 50 downloads a day and two or three new subscriptions a day, roughly $500 a month. Picchi guessed next year could bring $1,000 a month.
He wondered whether he needed Apple or Facebook ads. Knowing this download-to-subscriber rate is what lets him judge whether paid spend makes sense.
His low prices capped the business. Waterspeed charged about $1 monthly and about $6 yearly, roughly 50 cents a month. The coach said to test much higher prices.
Buyers of an expensive sport already spend on gear, and higher revenue per subscriber is what pays for ads. In the coach's words: "you're not gonna have a really successful huge business just charge you six dollars a year".
Picchi wanted all four sports, which dilutes his keywords. The coach wanted one lead sport chosen by search volume. Picchi wanted to keep all four, and his own research agreed that sailing is overcrowded.
Windsurfing is bigger in Europe, while sailing and paddling are bigger in the US, so the lead sport can change by country. The advice was to lead with one sport and still cover the others in keywords.
First step: rename the app around surf and surfing. Surf and surfing show more US search volume than sailing. Put the strongest terms in the name and repeat them in the subtitle, for example Waterspeed, surf, sailing and kayak.
Kayak shows high volume probably only because an app called Kayak exists, so it is not a real signal. Surfing also catches unrelated searches like couch surfing.
Next: a 14-day trial campaign pitched to App Advice. Announce a longer trial, such as 14 days instead of 7, as a limited-time offer and email a press contact at App Advice. The coach calls it his favorite growth hack for subscription apps.
For a couple of his clients it brought a tremendous increase in downloads, and subscription revenue rose too. The connection with the outlet is the key part.
Then ask Reddit and Facebook communities for feedback, not downloads. Post in the sailing, surfing and kayaking subreddits, say who he is, tell his story and ask for feedback on the app.
The coach called Reddit an untapped network with a vibrant community, reaching people ASO cannot.
Test Apple Search Ads only after working out what he can afford. Apple gives about $100 free to test, aimed at competitor terms such as Surfline. Counting how many downloads bring one subscriber lets him back out the most he can spend per download.
The coach's example was 450 downloads per subscriber. Search ads only work if the higher price lets him pay for the traffic.
Judge each keyword change by impressions before downloads. For one client after iOS 11, impressions tripled from a few hundred to thousands, while downloads rose only about 6%. The next step there was changing screenshots.
Asked how long a keyword should run, the coach gave no fixed time and pointed to this data instead.
Picchi can run the outreach himself before paying anyone. The coach's packages start at $3,000, yet he advised easy tweaks first. He does not know the sailing or kayaking worlds, so he cannot supply contacts.
His edge is marketing and storytelling, and Picchi can tell his own story as well. Hiring makes sense only if Picchi wants this as a full-time career and wants to learn from the work.
Fix the product before buying marketing help. The coach told a game developer planning to spend $5,000 to $10,000 to improve the game first, since the earlier failure was probably the game.
Picchi's app is well-designed, so his gap is channels and pricing, not product.
Picchi should time the push for spring. Winter is the low season for water sports, so the coach suggested engaging in spring with a message like surfing is coming up, get ready for summer.
They agreed to a follow-up call after Picchi starts tweaking the app.