Chris shares the first week’s results of his new calorie tracking app, Amy, highlighting a strong $400 MRR driven by pre-launch efforts like building a large waitlist and social media buzz. He also discusses key improvements made to increase user signup and trial conversion rates, such as adding Google and Apple login options, integrating Apple Health, and optimizing the onboarding and paywall experience.
In this video, Chris shares a detailed overview of the first week after launching his newest productivity app, Amy, a calorie tracking app designed with a simple, note-like interface. He proudly reveals that the app generated around $400 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR) within just one week—a significant achievement compared to his first app, which took nearly two years to reach the same milestone. This success is attributed to the extensive pre-launch efforts, including building a waitlist of over 2,000 people and generating hundreds of thousands of social media views, which helped create strong initial interest and subscriptions despite the app’s relatively high $10 monthly price.
However, Chris quickly dives into other important metrics that reveal areas for improvement. He was surprised to find that only 40% of people who downloaded the app actually signed up by entering their email and starting the onboarding process. This was much lower than his expectation of 80-90%. After receiving user feedback requesting Google and Apple login options, he implemented these sign-in methods, which dramatically improved the signup rate to nearly 100% among new downloads. This change highlighted the importance of reducing friction in the signup process and led Chris to commit to always including these login options in future consumer apps.
Next, Chris examined the conversion rate from signups to trial starts, which was only 5%, far below the ideal 20-30%. To address this, he focused on enhancing the app’s value proposition by adding an Apple Health integration. This feature, which took him just about an hour to build using advanced developer tools, allows users to sync workout, steps, and calorie burn data from Apple Health and also share calorie consumption data back to Apple Health. By integrating this feature into the onboarding flow, Chris aimed to signal the app’s premium quality and encourage more users to start the trial, while also planning to add more integrations like Apple Watch in the future.
Chris also made significant changes to the onboarding and paywall experience based on user feedback and data analysis. He reversed the onboarding flow so users complete the onboarding before creating an account, hoping this would increase trial conversions. Additionally, he addressed the issue of 60% of users dismissing the paywall by offering a 24-hour free trial with no credit card required when users click the dismiss button. Although initially hesitant due to cost concerns, Chris concluded that offering this free trial could help retain more users and potentially increase conversions, making it a worthwhile experiment.
Overall, Chris’s first week with Amy was a mix of exciting successes and valuable lessons. The $400 MRR milestone was encouraging, but the detailed data analysis revealed critical areas for improvement in user signup and trial conversion rates. By implementing Google and Apple login, adding Apple Health integration, and tweaking the onboarding and paywall flows, he is actively working to boost these numbers. Chris emphasizes the importance of these optimizations, especially as he plans to invest in user-generated content marketing, where maximizing conversion rates is crucial. He concludes by inviting viewers to follow his journey on social media and subscribe for more insights into building productivity apps.