Founder Playbook · Sub Club by RevenueCat
9 tactics from Michael Ribero
How Conde Nast Experiments, Bundles, and Wins
Watch the full episode“that point of purchase is probably the most engaged your customer is ever going to be... we get pretty decent conversion rates in that 5-ish% and all of a sudden you know I have zero incremental customer acquisition costs and now I'm driving something like a hundred to $200 in lifetime value from just one pop-up”
Strike while the card is out: post-purchase upsells convert at 5%
Michael runs a simple upsell immediately after a user subscribes, when the credit card is already out and intent is at its peak. At Conde Nast, a single post-purchase pop-up for a business membership tier converts at around 5% with zero additional CAC, generating $100-200 in incremental LTV per subscriber. The moment of purchase is the single highest-leverage upsell window; most apps never use it.
“every single test that we ran it lost when you said get over 100 channels I mean it was just it was unbelievable to see... the idea of like when you have that moment of truth really making sure you put your best foot forward even if it doesn't agree with any of the research”
More for less always wins at the moment of purchase
When Michael ran TV bundle tests, messaging around 100+ channels crushed messaging around 6-8 channels even though most people only watch 6-8. At the moment of purchase, perceived abundance beats rational minimalism every single time. This counterintuitive result holds for app subscription paywalls too: lead with breadth of value, not the targeted subset users say they want.
“if we could determine you were going to be really low propensity this would be an offering and it would kind of be hidden kind of behind the scenes just trying to lower the hurdle to get you into our payment ecosystem and then we could go from there”
Use data to hide a cheap tier from high-propensity buyers
The Washington Post offered a micro-subscription (3-4 stories per month for roughly $2) only to users that data signals identified as low-propensity, not to everyone. Advertising the cheap tier broadly would cannibalize full-price conversions from users who would have paid more. Surfacing a discounted entry product selectively to likely non-converters is a smarter alternative to blanket discounting or a hard paywall for all.
“community is really important to people especially now... you can bring people together in real life help support that community and then ultimately feedback into how do you connect event to event and it's really like being in the app doing those sorts of things spending time with us so you're ready for that next event”
IRL events create the retention loop digital content cannot
When every digital experience is one swipe away from a competitor, Conde Nast's sharpest retention lever has been real-life events that create memories no algorithm can replicate. The digital app becomes the connective tissue between events, giving users a reason to stay active between them. Physical touchpoints build emotional lock-in that subscription price increases cannot easily unwind.
“we put up a registration wall... the backlash that we got of you're going to put up this registration wall when it was completely free before... we just took it all down... I think we earn goodwill by being willing to say we're going to walk back on what we ultimately did”
Walk back a bad monetization decision before resentment compounds
When Pitchfork added a registration wall the day of an unrelated editorial controversy, the backlash was immediate. Michael pulled it the same day rather than defending the decision. Walking back a monetization test quickly signals respect for the community and recovers goodwill faster than any apology campaign. Stubbornly defending a bad experiment costs far more than reversing it.
“going in eyes wide open is like are you going to be the big fish or the little fish... when you have two companies that are kind of equal size all of a sudden it's like I want it on my stack and I want control of the building relationship and all those things you know we've run into issues before”
Know who is the big fish before signing a bundle partnership
External bundle partnerships create great press and real business results, but they break down when both parties have equal leverage and competing tech stacks. Michael's rule: before signing, decide which partner owns the billing relationship, the data, and the customer experience. If both sides think they are the primary, the deal will stall or blow up. Going in with clear eyes about power asymmetry is the prerequisite.
“a lot of people want to launch a premium product and I'm like no... prove to me there's going to be enough value and like there is another cohort here that isn't just like 1 or 2% that we're going to do a lot of work for maybe not a lot of return”
Prove the premium cohort exists before building a premium tier
Adoption rates for premium tiers run in the low single digits unless the product already has a clear superfan segment. Michael's test: before building a high-touch tier, identify whether the cohort is large enough to justify the operational lift, or whether the same LTV can be captured more cheaply through IRL events, merch, or post-purchase upsells. Most teams launch premium tiers too early and should optimize the base product first.
“one thing that we were doing but maybe not necessarily charging for was AMAs with editors and now all of a sudden we said hey this is now part of the subscription we're only going to make it subscription only”
Harvest existing free features into the subscription before building new ones
When relaunching the Wired subscription, Conde Nast audited what they were already doing for free, like AMA sessions with editors, and moved those into the subscription as exclusive features. This feature-harvest approach adds perceived bundle value with near-zero incremental cost. Before building new premium features, audit existing unlocked content and events that subscribers would value having exclusive access to.
“if you're talking to a product team and they really want to advocate for one part of this should absolutely be free because we want the most people using it... I would love a show of hands of whose company's KPIs are completely aligned... it's zero”
Align KPIs across teams before running free-vs-paid experiments
The hardest part of optimizing a freemium paywall is not deciding what to gate but getting product, revenue, and marketing teams to agree on which metric to optimize. When product wants MAU and revenue wants conversions, every paywall test surfaces as a political conflict rather than a data question. Aligning the team on a single north-star KPI before launching experiments is the prerequisite most companies skip.