On the podcast: separating paywall wins from business wins, the A/B test that lost twice before delivering a 23% lift, and why you should borrow ideas, not steal solutions.
Top Takeaways:
🕰️ A subscription doesn't have to start in week one
40% of subscriptions arriving more than six months after install is a healthy number when you track how each user’s needs change and sell only when something new is worth paying for.
🧭 Paywall conversion is not your monetization strategy
A subscription is a lifecycle (trial start, activation, retention), and a conversion win at one step of the funnel can still be a business loss.
🧮 Check whether your A/B wins actually compounded
Add up a year of 5–10% reported uplifts, then ask whether the business grew by that much; the gap is the share of wins that weren't real.
🔎 When a test fails, iterate on evidence, not on an explanation
An onboarding step lost 10% twice while the team guessed at design fixes; the postmortem found 75% of users hit an "oops, sorry" screen, and the rewrite won 23%.
📣 Marketing finds the unmet need before product does
An ad narrative that over-performed in the existing funnel became its own onboarding branch, and a strong revenue driver, once product built for it.
🧩 Borrow the idea, not the solution
A paywall pattern that other teams reported as a 10% win was copied pixel for pixel and did nothing, and the Blinkist-style reminder paywall and the trial toggle both failed at two different companies.
About Mike Charniatsou:
🗣️Senior Growth Product Manager at Flo Health, the world’s leading period and ovulation tracker, empowering over 400 million women globally to take control of their health. With 77 million monthly active users, including 25% of US women, Flo has become a trusted partner in women's health.
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🖥️Learn more about Flo Health
💼 Flo Health Careers
Follow us on X: David Barnard - @drbarnardJacob Eiting - @jeitingRevenueCat - @RevenueCatSubClub - @SubClubHQ
Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Introducing Mike Charniatsou of Flo
[01:48] Scaling Luna to Nearly $6M ARR
[02:52] Why Mike Left a CPO Role to Build Again at Flo
[04:25] Building Web Onboarding Without a Playbook
[06:27] The Hidden Cost of Web-to-App Funnels
[07:00] How Growth Changes From Early Stage to Flo’s Scale
[08:28] What Ad Budget Scale Unlocks for Experimentation
[09:54] Turning a Meta Ad Insight Into a New Onboarding Goal
[12:35] Easing the Tension Between Marketing and Product Teams
[13:52] How Flo Shares Insights Through Weekly Syncs
[14:36] Why Paywall Conversion Is Not Your Monetization Strategy
[16:31] When a Hard Paywall Win Led to a Spike in Refunds
[17:45] How to Tell a Short-Term Win From a Business Win
[19:19] Balancing Freemium Users and Monetization
[20:12] Why 40% of Flo’s Subscriptions Come After Six Months
[23:02] Building Monetization Around a Woman’s Life Stages
[24:59] Cherishing the Customer Relationship
[26:29] Measuring Free Trial Experiments With Proxy Events
[28:22] Learning From Failed Experiments With Evidence
[29:41] The Perimenopause Step That Went From a 10% Loss to a 23% Win
[33:25] Why Flo Runs Blackout Tests
[34:14] Borrowing Ideas Instead of Copying Solutions
[36:51] Why the Blinkist Paywall Failed at Flo and Luna
[37:27] The Problem With Adding Streaks to Everything
[39:21] Mike’s Biggest Win of the Year
[39:54] Why Partner Mode Failed in Onboarding
[40:43] Growth Would Be Easier If....
More content from the RevenueCat family:
👉 Launched – Our sister show that features indie app developers and solo creators about what it really takes to ship something new into the world: https://www.youtube.com/@LaunchedFM
👉StartApp School – Practical courses on monetization, growth, acquisition, and everything else that turns an app into a business. Completely free: https://www.startapp.school/
👉RevenueCat blog: Monthly plans might be your best option: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/monthly-subscriptions-when-to-offer/
👉Web-to-app funnels: the complete 2026 guide: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/web-to-app-funnels/
👉Is localization the next great growth opportunity for subscription apps?: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/is-localization-the-next-great-growth-opportunity-for-subscription-apps/
👉Annual subscriptions for apps: The pros and cons: https://www.revenuecat.com/blog/growth/annual-subscriptions-apps-pros-cons/