“After a few days I put it as a paid app and immediately we went from like I don't know thousands of downloads a day to one two downloads a day. I think it was 99 cents to be... so basically we panicked and we put it back as a free app.”

Panicked free relaunch after 99¢ collapsed downloads from thousands to two/day

They launched free as a promo, switched to 99¢, and collapsed from thousands to ~2 downloads a day. Reverting to free was triage, but the free user base became the asset that fueled iAd revenue, then in-app purchases, then subscriptions. The accidental funnel beat their intentional paid-upfront plan.