“If you have an aha moment can you work that into the ad in some way that kind of brings people into the app already excited already motivated already kind of understanding that aha moment... With the competition there is now it's never been easier to make an app... you can't wait until they're in the app to get them to that moment.”

Pull the aha moment into the ad — never wait for onboarding to deliver it

Ladder failed Daphne's host because he only discovered the killer feature (custom-swappable exercises) deep inside onboarding — he never even saw their ads. With cheap app production making competition fierce, the aha needs to land in the ad surface itself, otherwise interested users churn before activation. Cal AI's TikToks of someone snapping a meal mid-routine is the canonical example.