David Barnard

Author’s posts

• How real demand turned a hobby app into a business

  • Growth

  Why saying no to a buyout gave one indie developer his breakthrough

  

• Freemium at scale: How Life360 built trust and hit $1.8B

  • Growth

  Chris Hulls shares hard-won lessons from growing a multi-billion-dollar app — without sacrificing user trust.

  

• Your sprints must pay for themselves: Dan Layfield’s product advice

  • Growth

  What’s worth building? Dan Layfield shares a 3-bucket framework to help app teams prioritize features, fix churn, and ship faster.

  

• Building a lovable alien and a $1M ARR AI app

  • Growth

  Ajay Mehta explains how smart monetization and standout characters helped Tolan cut through the AI hype.

  

• Jacob and David break down the subscription app playbook for 2025

  • Growth

  AI apps are earning more per subscriber, hybrid monetization is on the rise, and trial timing is more critical than ever.

  

• Building sustainable growth loops and lasting habits — Anton Derlyatka, Sweatcoin

  • Growth

  Sweatcoin turned walking into a currency - but its real success comes from engineered virality and habit-forming design.

  

• Daily Sub Club minisodes leading up to the State of Subscription Apps 2025

  • Growth

  Bite-sized insights from top app operators - dropping every day until the full report launch

  

• Why Google App Campaigns is high reward, high maintenance — Ashley Black, Candid Consulting

  • Growth

  Google’s ad platform offers huge growth potential... but only if you keep a close eye on where your budget is going

  

• Freemium mistakes, brand wins, and trusting your gut – lessons from Deezer’s Sherina Khalidi

  • Growth

  How Deezer balanced performance and brand marketing, fixed its freemium strategy, and learned when to ignore A/B test results.

  

• What you need to know about Apple’s Advanced Commerce API

  • Growth

  Apple’s latest API aims to simplify complex in-app purchases - ideal for apps with large catalogs and bundled subscriptions.

  

• How a dorm room project became a 5M MAU scanning app

  • Growth

  From a student side project to a thriving business - how Genius Scan stayed focused on users and kept growing.

  

• Benchmarks are a jumping-off point, not the end-all, be-all — Phil Carter, Elemental Growth

  • Growth

  Learn how Phil Carter's Subscription Value Loop framework helps subscription apps scale sustainably—plus, why balancing data with intuition is the key to growth.