Founder Playbook · Sub Club by RevenueCat
10 tactics from Adam Allore
App Growth Through Strategic Partnerships: Adam Allore, Wavve Boating App
Watch the full episode“I took this map I hosted it on a web page and added it to the home screen on a couple iPads so it looks like it was an app but it was just totally a dynamic map on a web page and went to this show and was like oh right you got to have a company name right.”
Validate With a Fake App Before Writing a Line of Code
Adam spent under $1,000 on a boat-show booth and showed a web-hosted map on iPads dressed up to look like an app. People tried to find it in the App Store, asked for their emails to be added to a beta list, and visibly lit up — giving him the confidence to quit his engineering job. The lesson: $1,000 to validate beats months of building and five-figure contractor bills before you get a single signal.
“if you can get people excited about a crappy app it's not going to be scalable right because it's crappy... but if you can get people actually using it despite all and that's the hidden secret of launching an MVP.”
A Crappy App That Gets Used Proves Market Pull — A Pretty App Might Just Attract Looks
Adam shipped an embarrassingly bare-bones iOS wrapper — just the map, nothing else. But people kept opening it. That signal matters more than polish: if users tolerate bugs to access your core value, you have product-market pull worth investing in. Build a beautiful app and you risk attracting curiosity rather than genuine demand. The MVP's job is to expose that one rare insight, not to impress.
“that's great that's one thing would people open up their wallets and give a credit card number was sort of the next thing that I ultimately wanted to validate.”
Sequential Validation: Excitement First, Then Prove People Will Actually Pay
Seeing people light up at a boat show was step one. Adam's step two was proving willingness to pay — not raising investment, not hiring a team. Each stage of validation is its own gate. Too many founders treat excitement as a proxy for business viability. Excitement is cheap; a credit card number is not.
“what I did was first get a huge list of journalists who were writing in the Marine space and then basically wrote the article for them had all the image ready to go so like this if they wanted it was like drag and drop ready to go here's your piece of content that you needed to execute today done.”
Write the Article for the Journalist — Make Their Job Drag-and-Drop Easy
Journalists face constant pressure to produce content. Adam got press coverage in marine trade publications by writing the draft article himself and attaching all ready-to-use images. Some still wanted an interview — that's fine — but the baseline was zero friction. In niche trade press, where your target customers actually read, this is a high-ROI move that most app founders never attempt.
“the story there was sort of this here's his application that can allow anyone to boat like a local wherever they go.”
Lead Your Press Pitch With the Community Story, Not the Technical Features
The technical differentiator for Wavve was its map rendering. But the press angle that got picked up was 'boat like a local' — the community knowledge-sharing aspect. Technical specs bore trade journalists; human narratives travel. When pitching niche press, translate your product's mechanics into the human outcome it enables.
“for BRP looking at us like we are a risk I think for any big company to say hey I want to partner with you... my goal throughout the entire process was just to mitigate that risk as much as possible.”
You Are a Risk to Any Large Partner — Your Job Is to De-Risk Their Decision
When Bombardier Recreational Products reached out about an integration, Adam reframed the whole negotiation: BRP wasn't doing them a favor — BRP was taking on risk by working with an unproven startup. His playbook: find the internal champion, be hyper-responsive, over-deliver on every small commitment, and never ask for more than you can execute on. The goal is making your champion look like a genius for backing you.
“I just kind of took approach not trying to be particularly greedy with anything making sure we could commit to something that I feel could be executed on.”
Don't Be Greedy in Early Partnership Negotiations — Commit Only to What You Can Deliver
Adam's partnership philosophy: don't optimize for the biggest upfront deal; optimize for delivering on whatever you sign. Early partnership credibility compounds — landing BRP let him raise angel funding, which let him close Freedom Boat Club, which opened more doors. Being non-greedy and reliable in the first deal creates the track record that makes the second deal possible.
“the biggest thing was it's most important just to make it super easy for that person to actually use this application... there's a behavior change that we have to create for these members.”
B2B Partner Activation Is Harder Than the Deal — Make It Effortless for End Users
After closing Freedom Boat Club, the real challenge wasn't the contract — it was getting club members to actually open and activate the app. Adam used deep links to bypass the paywall for partner users and focused on minimizing friction over preventing abuse. Accept some spillage, make activation frictionless. An unactivated partnership generates zero value for anyone.
“straight user acquisition probably we're looking at 25% of our total user acquisition is coming through like our partnering facilitation... we also know that a lot of people who are coming from our organic channels I.E like untracked... I've also heard about us from these other things as well.”
Partnerships Drove 25% of Direct UA — Plus an Untraceable Halo Effect on Top
About a quarter of Wavve's user acquisition traces directly to their partnerships. On top of that, the credibility from BRP and Freedom Boat Club influenced organic installs that could not be attributed. In niche markets with dense hobbyist communities, partnerships carry a word-of-mouth multiplier that broad consumer apps rarely see. Track the direct numbers but don't discount the brand halo.
“there becomes another press release... and so then there's this other harder untangle benefit of that partnership spinning your PR again to then hopefully facilitate another opportunity.”
Press Leads to Partnerships, Partnerships Generate More Press — Build the Flywheel
Adam's growth flywheel: get press in niche trade publications, industry players notice, inbound partnership inquiry arrives, the partnership creates a joint press release (partner's team promotes it too), more recognition follows, next partnership opens. Each step converts small leverage into bigger leverage. It's not one PR hit creating a hockey-stick; it's a compounding chain that builds durable visibility.