vibe ceo @tryhelium yc s24 helping apps make money
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Joined September 2012
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stop giving away 30%
we're now averaging +45% gains in proceeds
helium app-to-web — now live to the public
tryhelium.com/app-to-web
From the previous Head of Apple App Store Review
If you run an app you need to read this
If you have an Apple developer account or an app in the App Store, read this now and share it.
Apple rejects your app. The notice is vague, so you fix what you reasonably think is wrong and resubmit.
Apple approves it.
Months later, with nothing in review, Apple terminates your account under 3.2(f) for “a pattern of manipulative or misleading behavior.” Every app gone. No explanation of what you did.
Your crime? Trusting the approval.
Apple’s own reviewer looked at your fix, with your rejection history in front of them, and said yes. Then Apple turned that yes into evidence against you.
So who’s misleading whom?
I ran App Review for seven years and wrote the guidelines. 3.2(f) used to mean real fraud. Now it’s being used against developers who did exactly what Apple approved.
I’ve made this Substack post free for everyone. Every developer needs to see it before this happens to them.
Share it before someone you know gets that email.
phillipshoemaker.substack.co…
we flew app founders over nyc last week 🚁
@tryhelium + @PaddleHQ take app founders higher
time to earn 40% more with web billing
apps like splitwise use multi-step paywalls
first sell, then price, then checkout on web
you can prompt the whole flow in helium
just talked to an app founder automating half his job with muse
here’s what he’s doing:
1/ mine competitor reviews: scrape 1-star reviews consistently on your top 5 competitors every week and turn the complaints into prd suggestions
2/ reddit replies: find threads asking questions your app answers and draft replies for each
3/ automating support: go through your support inbox and tally every cancel reason
4/ catch bugs: read your crash reports and reviews side by side and flag bugs users are complaining about
5/ aso gaps: track keywords competitor apps add to their app store listings and highlight the ones you don’t rank for yet
6/ reels research: pull the top reels in your niche and break down the hooks
7/ influencer outreach: check who followed you this week and flag any influencers so you can reach out
takes an afternoon to set up but saves 10+ hrs/week
strava cut their onboarding almost in half
30 screens → 17
Strava’s onboarding went from 30 screens in 2024 to 17 today
they’ve been cutting for a reason
here’s WHAT they did and WHY:
1/ removed the feature tour
everybody already knows what strava does
now you learn the features by using the app
2/ cut friend-finding entirely
asking for contact permission at the wrong time broke the flow
they now ask after you post, or at other key moments
3/ moved their paywall to the last screen
in 2024 it was mid-flow. now it’s the last thing you see
let people set everything up, then ask (more and more apps doing this)
save this before you redesign your onboarding
it’s fun rn because
you get to be existential about your own life
AND existential about the whole world
Zach Witzel retweeted
Unless you have a cfo, controller, or chief of staff - do not register for sales tax. Use an MOR (merchant of record) instead like Stripe or Paddle.
Paying and remitting sales tax is a major and tedious burden, even with a saas partner. I highly recommend avoiding.
bringing this back because q5 is ~2 months out
whatever paywall you want live then, start testing it NOW
Zach Witzel retweeted
In the end, AI cyber defense will probably win out against AI hacking.
But for AI bioterror, the calculus is reversed. Human bodies can't be patched like code. And even a short period of catastrophic chaos in bio could mean we all die.
noahpinion.blog/p/the-intern…
people ALWAYS think app2web kills conversions
and a bad flow CAN lose 25-30%
we’ve spent a year optimizing helium’s flow to get close to parity w/ iap
a health app that switched saw trial starts drop 5.2%
but proceeds per user went up 39%
why? slightly fewer trials, but trial conversion and retention go up → so arpu goes up
AND you stop paying the 30% app store fee
dm to learn more
