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PODCAST

Subversive

Subversive is a podcast dedicated to sharing stories from the best consumer subscription apps in the world. We"ll bring you lessons for how to grow your consumer subscription business, including insights and inflection points that led to exponential growth from leaders at category-defining companies and innovative startups.

business

All Episodes

60:43

How Fitbod Uses AI to Hyperpersonalize Strength Workouts

Subversive ·

2025/12/26

Allen Chen is the cofounder and CEO of Fitbod, a strength training app launched in 2015 that has since scaled to $38M in ARR. Prior to Fitbod, Allen started his career as a software engineer building high frequency commodities trading platforms. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from UCLA and a partially completed master's degree in mathematics and finance from Columbia University. Key Takeaways: Fitbod was first founded in 2015, after Allen Chen left his lucrative finance care...

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52:13

How Opal Reached $10M ARR with 11 Employees

Subversive ·

2025/12/11

Kenneth Schlenker is founder and CEO of Opal, which has rapidly grown into the world's #1 screen time app since launching in 2020, reaching $10M in ARR with a team of just 11 employees. After starting his career in Product Marketing at Google, Kenneth has spent more than a decade founding multiple companies, including a private marketplace for private art sales called ArtList, as well as a venture studio called Stellar Base that incubated multiple successful startups. Key Takeaways:&nbs...

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60:00

How Preply Built the World’s Largest Language...

Subversive ·

2025/11/27

Simon Mizzi is currently the VP of Product Growth at Preply, the world’s largest online marketplace for connecting language learners with human tutors. Since joining Preply as a Director of Product in 2021, Simon has been promoted twice from Director to Senior Director to VP. Prior to Preply, Simon spent eight years as a PM and then Director of Product at Agoda, which is an online travel agency that specializes in booking accommodations, flights, and activities, with a strong focus on the Asi...

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53:25

How Calm Added 1.2M Subscribers with Creative...

Subversive ·

2025/11/13

After starting his career in derivatives trading, Nick Candler pivoted into user acquisition before joining Calm to serve as Director of Growth Marketing during their hypergrowth period from 2019 - 2022. After leaving Calm, Nick started his own performance marketing agency called 10 Scale, and is now a consultant, coach, and advisor supporting products that make a positive social impact. Nick has supported hundreds of millions of dollars in media spend on tech products and political campaigns...

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54:50

How OpenArt is Using AI to Reinvent Content Creation

Subversive ·

2025/10/30

Coco Mao is the cofounder and CEO of OpenArt, an AI-powered creative platform that enables anyone to generate images and videos from simple text prompts. Since launching OpenArt in 2022, Coco has led the company through rapid growth, expanding from generative art tools to its new “One-Click Story” video feature and scaling revenue to over $30M in ARR. Prior to OpenArt, Coco spent several years at Google, where she worked on search as well as experimental products like Tangi, which focused on ...

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64:25

How Best-In-Class Retention Propelled Flo to a $1B...

Subversive ·

2025/10/16

Dmitry Gurski is the cofounder and CEO of Flo, a leading women’s health platform widely known for its period tracking and broader reproductive health insights. Dmitry cofounded Flo in 2015 and has led the company through major milestones including 100M+ downloads, a $200M Series C funding round, and a $1B+ valuation. Prior to Flo, he founded several ventures in publishing and health tech, drawing on a background in pharmaceutical chemistry and executive education from Stanford. Key Takeaways:...

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57:23

How Noom Avoided PMF Collapse in the Wake of GLP-1s

Subversive ·

2025/10/02

Brent Zajaczkowski is the VP of Product Growth at Noom, one of the world’s largest preventive health platforms that is widely credited with pioneering a novel psychology-based approach to weight loss. Brent joined Noom in 2020 as a Senior PM, and has since been promoted multiple times. Prior to Noom, Brent spent 8+ years in product management and software engineering at TripAdvisor and Wyzant. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Brown University. Key Takeaways: After bei...

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55:39

How Learneo Leveraged M&A to Build a $3.6B EdTech Empire

Subversive ·

2025/09/18

Andrew Grauer is the CEO of Learneo, a holding company valued at $3.6 billion that owns multiple learning and productivity businesses including Course Hero, QuillBot, CliffsNotes, Scribbr, LitCharts, LanguageTool, and Symbolab. After cofounding Course Hero in 2006 when he was a sophomore at Cornell, Andrew spent 15 years growing it into one of the world’s largest EdTech businesses before folding it into Learneo. Over the last few years since Learneo acquired QuillBot, Andrew has been focused ...

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49:53

How Honeydew is Reinventing Telehealth for Skincare

Subversive ·

2025/09/04

David Futoran is cofounder and CEO of Honeydew, a skin health platform called Honeydew that helps people struggling with acne and other skin conditions get effective treatments and expert guidance from licensed dermatologists. Prior to founding Honeydew in 2022, David was the Head of Product and Growth at Somatix, an AI-powered remote monitoring service that uses a wearable device to help senior citizens live longer and more independent lives. He holds degrees in Biology and Healthcare Manage...

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58:30

How onX Built a Portfolio of Apps to Grow ARR by 10x

Subversive ·

2025/08/21

Brandon Gador is the Product Growth Lead at onX, where he has spent the last 2+ years helping to scale and evolve the company’s growth team to support vertical-specific apps across hunting, fishing, offroading, and backcountry. Prior to onX, Brandon spent 10+ years in product roles at multiple FinTech businesses including Gusto, Lending Club, and Intuit. He is an avid hunter and outdoor enthusiast and a proud (though misguided) Green Bay Packers fan. Key Takeaways: Since raising its $20M Se...

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50:59

How Wispr Flow Uses AI to Save Professionals Hours...

Subversive ·

2025/08/07

Tanay Kothari is the cofounder and CEO of Wispr, the company behind an AI-powered voice dictation app called Flow. Prior to starting Wispr in 2021, Tanay has been a serial entrepreneur for 16 years since he taught himself how to code as a child. He has founded multiple companies, many of them focused on the next generation of personal computing after Tanay was inspired by the character J.A.R.V.I.S. in the movie Iron Man. He has also held product and engineering roles at Cerebra Technologies a...

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54:16

How Chess.com Became the World’s Top Chess App

Subversive ·

2025/07/24

Albert Cheng is the Chief Growth Officer of Chess.com. Prior to joining Chess.com a year ago, Albert served as the Head of Product Growth and Monetization at both Duolingo and Grammarly, two of the world’s most successful consumer subscription businesses. Earlier in his career, Albert also held product and engineering roles at YouTube and SoFi, as well as a couple smaller startups. Outside of work, he is an avid chess player and diehard San Francisco 49ers fan. Key Takeaways: Chess.com was f...

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48:05

How Superpower is Reinventing Healthcare

Subversive ·

2025/07/10

Max Marchione is the cofounder and President of Superpower, a startup that is reinventing digital health by offering patients a comprehensive panel of 100+ labs, an online panel that centralizes all of their health data in one place, and access to world-class longevity clinicians to help them lead longer and better lives. Prior to Superpower, Max has spent the last five years as an investor and serial entrepreneur as the founder of Next Chapter, Ultraviolet Ventures, and Fractal Capital. Key ...

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56:48

How One AI Feature Supercharged Photoroom’s Growth

Subversive ·

2025/06/26

Olivier Lemarié is the VP of Growth at Photoroom, one of the world’s largest and most popular photo editing apps. Olivier joined Photoroom in 2020 as the company’s second employee and helped it scale to >$50M in ARR in less than 3 years. Prior to Photoroom, Olivier held sales and marketing roles at Google, Wooga, and Molotov TV. He is also an experienced growth advisor who helps mobile app startups with user acquisition, product-led growth, monetization, hiring, and culture. Key Takeaways:...

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50:39

How Runna’s Laser Focus Led to Its Successful...

Subversive ·

2025/06/12

Miranda Paine is the Head of Growth at Runna, where she has contributed to its rapid expansion and recent acquisition by Strava. Prior to Runna, Miranda held growth and marketing roles at two other London-based fitness startups, including another fitness app called Fiit and a boutique kickboxing-inspired group fitness studio called Flykick. She holds a degree in Marine Biology, and credits her background in science and data analytics for helping her succeed as a growth leader. Key Takeaways: ...

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51:28

How Gamma Grew to $50M in ARR in 2 Years

Subversive ·

2025/05/29

Jon Noronha is the cofounder and Head of Product at Gamma, where he's creating a new medium for presenting ideas. Gamma allows anyone to generate a presentation, document, or webpage in minutes using AI, just by writing a topic or pasting an outline. Before starting Gamma, Jon was the VP of Product at Optimizely, where he helped companies integrate rapid experimentation into their product development process. Key Takeaways: After launching in 2020, Gamma struggled to find product/market fit u...

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55:31

How Tolan Built a Viral AI Companion

Subversive ·

2025/05/15

Ajay Mehta is an accomplished entrepreneur who is currently cofounder and President of Portola, the company behind a viral AI companion app called Tolan. Prior to launching Tolan, Ajay founded other successful consumer startups including Birthdate Co., Therapy Notebooks, and FamilyLeaf, and he has held product and growth leadership roles at Wealthsimple (Canada’s largest FinTech company) and Tilt. Key Takeaways: After finding product-market fit with an AI companion in the form of a Pixar-lik...

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51:11

How Headspace Expanded from Meditation App to...

Subversive ·

2025/05/08

Cori Shearer is currently a Lead Product Manager at Headspace, where she has spent the last four years leading teams focused on growth as well as engagement with their full suite of human-delivered care offerings like coaching, clinical, and AI-based services. Prior to Headspace, Cori worked at Quizlet as a Senior PM focused on acquisition, activation, and international growth. She is also an entrepreneur, startup advisor, and instructor for Product School. Key Takeaways: Headspace was fou...

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49:49

How Duolingo Built Duolingo Max

Subversive ·

2025/04/16

Natalia Castillejo is a Director of Product at Duolingo, where she has spent the last decade since graduating from Yale University in 2016. Natalia started her PM career at Duolingo working on the company’s English Language Test and other core product features. More recently, she helped lead the development and monetization of AI-powered features like “Video Call,” “Roleplay,” and “Explain My Answer” that form the core of Duolingo Max, and then transitioned from core product to monetization t...

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58:05

Insights from RevenueCat’s 2025 State of Subscription...

Subversive ·

2025/04/03

Jacob Eiting is the founder and CEO of RevenueCat, the world’s largest SaaS platform for subscription apps that need help powering in-app purchases, managing customer data, and growing revenue across iOS, Android, and the web. Prior to founding RevenueCat in 2017, Jacob was the CTO of Elevate Labs, a consumer subscription business offering both brain training and meditation apps, and a software developer at multiple other companies, including Apple. Key Takeaways: The cost of building apps is...

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26 results

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