为什么产品胜过分销：月入3万美元的移动应用 | 创业故事

这是埃yal和雅利，两位大学生开发了一款应用，刚上线时下载量非常惊人。

This is Eyal and Yali, two college students who built an app that at first crushed it with downloads.

我们一开始每天平均就有20次下载。

We were averaging 20 downloads a day right off the bat.

但他们遇到了一个问题。

But they had a problem.

试用期结束后，几乎没人继续使用。

Almost nobody stayed after the trial ended.

他们的转化率非常糟糕。

Their conversion was horrible.

如果你的产品很烂，没人会买它。

If your product is shit, nobody's gonna buy it.

他们每月收入卡在2000美元，完全不知道该怎么办。

They were stuck at $2,000 a month, and they had no idea what to do.

于是他们决定推倒重来，重新回到原点。

So they decided to scrap everything and go back into the cave.

所以我们关闭了所有营销活动，花了四个月时间从零开始彻底重建。

So we shut down all marketing and spent four months completely rebuilding from scratch.

在这样做的之后，他们第二次尝试仅用十周就达到了3万美元的月经常性收入。

After doing this, on their second try, they hit $30,000 MRR in just ten weeks.

我邀请了Eyal和Yoly来到频道，让他们跟我详细分享他们具体做了哪些改变。

And I brought Eyal and Yoly onto the channel to share with me exactly what they changed.

在本视频中，我们将深入探讨：如果产品糟糕，分发渠道毫无意义；如何识别你的产品从一开始就注定失败；以及Eyal和Yoly在2025年打造真正赚钱产品的完整方法。

In this video, we'll dive into why distribution does not matter if your product sucks, how to identify if your product is actually doomed from the start, and Eyal and Yoly's exact playbook for building a product that actually makes money in 2025.

对于目前正在开发应用的人来说，这一期必看。

This one is a must watch for anyone building apps right now.

我是Dowells，欢迎来到Starter Story。

I'm Dowells, and this is Starter Story.

Yalli和Eyal，欢迎来到我们的频道。

Yalli and Eyal, welcome to the channel.

跟我讲讲你们是谁，你们做了什么，以及你们的故事。

Tell me about who you are, what you built, and what's your story.

嘿。

Hey.

我是Eyal。

I'm Eyal.

嘿，Pat。

Hey, Pat.

我是Yalli。

I'm Yalli.

我和Eyal一起开发了一款每月收入3万美元的应用。

And together, Eyal and I an app that makes $30,000 a month.

我们大约一年前发布了它。

We launched it around a year ago.

我们曾卡在每月1000到2000美元的收入上。

We got stuck at one to two thousand dollars MRR.

我们花了四个月时间重新构建，之后收入飙升。

We took four months to rebuild it, and then it skyrocketed.

好的。

Okay.

在我们深入了解你们做了哪些改动让应用业绩飙升之前，我需要先了解清楚，你们的应用是什么？它有什么功能？

Before we get into what you guys changed that skyrocketed your app, do need to understand, what is your app and what does it do?

我们开发了PropGBT，这是一个体育博彩分析平台，利用我们的机器学习算法来预测最有可能中奖的投注。

We built PropGBT, which is basically a sports betting analytics platform that uses our machine learning algorithm to hit the most picks.

用户可以访问我们的模型，分析自己的投注选择，或者查看我们每天扫描的所有预分析投注。

So users get access to our models and get to analyze their own picks or look through all of the preanalyzed bets that we scan every single day.

我们每月收入约3万美元，应用下载量超过4万次，付费用户超过3000人。

We do about $30,000 a month, and we've had over 40,000 downloads and over 3,000 paying customers.

我们的试用转化率为48%。

We have a 48% conversion to trial rate.

对于每一个下载PropTP的用户，我们大约能赚3.30美元。

And for every user that downloads PropTP, we make around $3.30.

在你们上架App Store之前，开发流程是怎样的？

What did the build process look like before you went and, you know, got onto the App Store?

我们花了大约五个月的时间来开发PropGBT的第一个版本。

We spent, like, five months building the first version of ProptuPutT.

开发过程耗时较长，尤其是因为ChatGPT当时还很新。

It was taking a while to build, particularly because ChatuchPutT was still new.

去年NFL赛季中期，我们开始上线，那时才意识到我们的产品市场匹配度并不如预期。

Eventually, in the middle of the NFL season last year, that's when we started launching, and that's when we sort of figured out that our product market fit wasn't exactly what we wanted.

好的，各位。

Alright, guys.

黑色星期五就在几天后了。

Black Friday is in just a couple days.

正如你们可能已经知道的，Starter Story正在筹备一个重磅活动。

And as you might already know, we are doing something huge at Starter Story.

我不想让你们错过我们有史以来最棒的优惠之一，因为去年我们的黑色星期五优惠在两小时内就售罄了。

I do not want you to miss out on one of the best deals we've ever done because last year, our Black Friday deal sold out in just two hours.

一旦人们了解到今年的优惠，我敢肯定它会卖得更快。

And once people hear about this year's deal, I'm positive it's gonna sell out even faster.

所以，如果你不想错过这个，就去 starterstory.com/blackfriday 或点击描述中的第一个链接，我们会在促销上线时通知你。

So if you don't wanna miss out on that, just go to starterstory.com/blackfriday or hit the first link in the description, and we'll notify you as soon as the deal is live.

这次的名额非常有限。

Spots are gonna be very limited for this.

那你还在等什么？

So what are you waiting for?

好吧。

Alright.

让我们开始采访吧。

Let's dive into the interview.

K。

K.

所以你把这个想法上架到了 App Store。

So you get this idea up on the App Store.

你已经准备好了。

You're ready to go.

你到底是怎么为这个应用获取用户的？

How do you actually get users for this app?

你获得了多少用户？

How many users did you get?

你是怎么把这款应用做到这个程度的？

And kinda where did you get this app to up to that point?

一旦我们上架App Store，我们就已经有了一个很好的影响者营销基础。

The moment we got on the App Store, we had a really good base of influencer marketing.

我之前曾与其他非常成功的应用创始人合作过，然后我看到了影响者营销初期热潮的兴起。

I had worked with other really successful app founders before, and then I kind of saw the rise of the initial influencer marketing hype.

我们开始投入几千美元用于影响者营销，看看花多少钱能带来多少下载量。

We start spending a few thousand dollars on influencer marketing to see how many downloads we would get for the money spent.

我们每天能获得大约20次下载，其中大约有5到10个用户转化为免费试用用户，因为我们的下载到免费试用转化率非常高。

And we were able to get around 20 downloads a day, which converted around like five to 10 users a day because we had really high conversion from downloads to free trials.

但我们始终无法将月经常性收入提升到一千到两千美元以上，因此我们意识到，尽管这款应用看起来很受欢迎，但它的核心一定存在严重问题。

And we couldn't really push past one to two k MRR, so we kind of noticed that there was something critically wrong with our app despite seeing a lot of hype around it.

这正是我想邀请你们上频道的原因之一，我觉得这非常有趣。

That's one of the reasons why I wanted to bring you guys on the channel, which I think is super interesting.

你们基本搞定了分发渠道，但你们发现，尽管你们似乎已经掌握了这个诀窍，却还是无法让应用的月经常性收入突破一千到两千美元。

You kinda had the distribution figured out, but you noticed that even though you kinda knew how to crack this code, you really couldn't get the app past one to two k MRR.

你们是如何解决这个问题的？

How did you solve that problem?

你们最终是如何打造出一款月收入超过3万美元的应用的？

How did you eventually build an app that's making over $30,000 a month?

我们意识到，客户真正需要的只是得到考试的正确答案，而不是亲自去浏览体育博彩网站、输入投注并自行判断是否是好赌注。

We realized that what our customers actually wanted was just to be given the right answers to the test and not necessarily go through the sports books and input their bets and check for themselves if it was a good bet or not.

所以我们花了四个月时间重新开发这款应用。

So we took four months to rebuild the app.

没有做任何营销，只专注于工程和设计工作。

No marketing, just engineering and design work.

我们在4月15日推出了新版本，当时月经常性收入为1700美元，每天大约有15次下载。

And we launched the new version on April 15 where we were at $1,700 MRR and around 15 downloads a day.

这是在几个月没有做营销之后。

This is after a few months of no marketing.

下个月，我们再次全力投入营销，针对NBA季后赛。

The next month, we go all in on marketing again for the NBA playoffs.

突然间，我们的付费转化率超过了50%。

And all of a sudden, our conversion rate to paid was over 50%.

两个半月后，我们达到了峰值，月经常性收入达到4万美元，单日下载量达2000次。

Two and a half months later, we hit our peak of 40 k MRR and 2,000 downloads in a single day.

你看，尽管埃yal和Yali从第一天起就掌握了分发渠道，但他们仍然面临一个大问题。

See, even though Eyal and Yali had the distribution figured out from day one, they still had a huge problem.

产品本身还不够好。

The product simply was not good enough.

于是他们花了四个月时间重新构建，正是这时一切发生了转变。

So they spent four months rebuilding it, and that's when everything changed.

这正是学习如何用AI构建产品如此强大的原因。

This is exactly why learning how to build with AI is so powerful.

当你知道如何构建以及该修改什么时，你可以快速迭代，并根据用户真实需求进行优化。

When you know how to build and what to change, you can iterate fast and optimize based on what your users actually need.

这正是我们在《Starter Story Build》中教授的内容。

And this is exactly what we teach inside Starter Story Build.

《Starter Story Build》是我们的一项直播课程，你将在几周内学会如何使用AI工具构建并发布你的项目。

Starter Story Build is our live program where you will learn how to build and launch your project using AI tools in just a few weeks.

你将学会像开发者一样思考，并利用AI构建出真正可用的产品，就像Yali和Eyal那样。

You'll learn how to think like a developer and how to use AI to build real working products just like a y'all and y'all.

我们的下一期加速计划即将开始，如果你准备好开始构建，准备好从旁观者变成参与者，请点击描述中的第一个链接抢占席位。

Our next accelerator is starting soon, so if you're ready to start building, if you're ready to get off the sidelines, head to the first link in the description to claim your spot.

好了。

Alright.

现在让我们回到视频。

Now let's get back to the video.

好的。

Okay.

所以你们明白，我不是有意冒犯。

So you guys realize that no offense.

有更好的表达方式，但你们的产品不好，或者产品不够简单，但你们花了很长时间才意识到这一点。

There's a better way of saying it, but you had a bad product or the product wasn't simple enough, but it took you guys a while to realize this.

对于正在观看这段视频、已经构建或打算构建产品的任何人，你们对如何打造一个优秀产品有什么建议？

For anyone that's watching this right now who's built something or thinking about building something, what would be your advice on how to figure out how to build a great product?

为了避免这种错误，或者在发生时及时纠正，你们每天应该具体做些什么？

What are the actual things you should be doing every day to avoid this mistake or at least fix it if it happens?

最重要的是，对自己的产品保持极其谦逊的态度。

The most important thing is to have an extremely humble attitude about your product.

如果你们的产品很烂，那它根本不会成功。

If your product is shit, then simply it's not gonna work.

没人会去买它。

Like, nobody will buy it.

通过使用Posthog等分析平台，并与足够多的用户交流，你们会发现用户行为模式与应用设计方式存在不一致。

Using analytics platforms like Posthog and simply talking to enough users, you see that there's a pattern of human behavior that doesn't align with how the app is designed.

例如，在 Superwall 上，我们发现很多人注册了试用版，但之后没有人继续使用。

For example, on Superwall, we saw that a lot of people were converting to the trial, but then nobody was staying after.

这实际上说明了你的用户什么情况？

Like, what does that really say about your users?

这意味着你的用户觉得这个想法很棒。

What it means is that your users think this is a great idea.

他们认为这能为他们的生活带来很大价值，但当真正使用应用时，体验却不如他们预期。

They think that this could add a lot of value to their life, but when it actually comes to using the app, it's not the experience they were hoping for.

这些信号正是优秀的产品经理应该关注的，当你确保产品真正契合用户需求时，你的商业模式也会运作得更好。

These signals is what a good product manager should do, and it's going to mean that your business model will work a lot better when you make sure that your product actually best fits your users.

基于你们所有的经验，我非常希望你们能给我一份打造优秀产品的操作指南，特别是如何在2025年打造一款优秀的应用。

Based on all you guys' learnings, I would love if you guys gave me sort of the playbook for how to build a great product, specifically how to build a great app in 2025.

你能给我详细解释一下吗？

Can you break that down for me?

第一步，真正理解你为谁而建，以及他们的痛点是什么。

Step one, really understand who exactly you're building for and what their pain points are.

第二步是倾听你的数据。

Step two is listen to your data.

我们对这些数字着了迷。

We became obsessed with the numbers.

再次强调，有两个数字让我们印象深刻：45% 的用户转化为试用，但只有 13% 的试用用户转化为付费用户。

Again, two numbers that stuck out for us, 45% conversion to trial, but then only 13% conversion from trial to paid.

这意味着什么？

What does that mean?

每个人都想知道我们在卖什么，但产品太烂了。

Everybody wondered what we were selling, but the product was shit.

第三步，痴迷于数据分析。

Step three, obsess over analytics.

如果你知道用户在注册流程中流失，你就知道哪些页面没能很好地展示你的应用。

So if you know your users are falling off during onboarding, then you know which screens aren't selling your app well enough.

如果你追踪应用中所有功能的点击数据，就能识别出你应用最具吸引力的价值主张，并在营销中传达出来。

If you track all of the feature clicks on your app, you can identify your apps most compelling value proposition and then communicate that in your marketing.

任何你能看到客户实际行为的方式，都是巨大的优势。

Any way that you can see what your customers is actually doing is a massive advantage.

第四步，一旦你的应用开发完成，真正的挑战是如何有效扩展它。

Step four, once your app is built, the real challenge is scaling it effectively.

如今最聪明的增长方式是通过网红营销。

The smartest way to grow today is through influencer marketing.

他们的粉丝在看到自己仰慕的人使用你的产品时，会更深入地参与并更快地转化。

Their followers engage deeply and convert faster when they see someone that they admire using your product.

有机社交媒体营销的另一个巨大优势是有机会走红。

Another great advantage of organic social media marketing is the chance to go viral.

例如，我们发布的第七十个视频获得了60万次观看，短短三天内将我们的年经常性收入从约8000美元提升到了38000美元。

So for example, probably our seventieth video to ever come out hit 600,000 views, and that raised our ARR from around eight k to 38 k in about three days.

这正是网红营销的真正力量。

And that's really the power of influencer marketing.

一个视频就可能彻底改变你的整个业务。

One video can seriously change your entire business.

好的。

Okay.

酷。

Cool.

谢谢分享这个演示。

Well, thanks for sharing that demo.

太棒了。

That was awesome.

类似地，我很好奇。

On a similar note, I'm curious.

这个应用背后的技术栈是什么？

What's the tech stack behind this app?

你们是怎么构建它的？

How did you build it?

另外，你们平时都用哪些工具？

And then also, like, what tools do you use on a daily basis?

我们是在一个 React Native 仓库中构建这个应用的。

We built this on a React Native repo.

我们主要使用大量 TypeScript 和 Python 来开发机器学习算法，以及用于所有数据的自动抓取。

We mostly use a lot of TypeScript and Python for our machine learning algorithms along with our automated fetching for all of the data.

此外，我们有一个庞大的数据库，存储在 Neon 上，还有用于分析的工具。

Additionally, we have a giant database which we store on Neon and tools for analytics.

我们使用 RevenueCat 和 Superwall 来管理收入仪表板和付费墙。

We use RevenueCat and Superwall for revenue dashboards and paywalling.

运行这样一个应用的成本或利润率是多少？

What are the costs or the profit margin around running an app like this?

是的。

Yeah.

成本主要是每次转化给 Superwall 支付 20 美分，通常给 RevenueCat 支付 1%。

So the costs are basically 20¢ per conversion to Superwall, typically 1% to RevenueCat.

我们每天要支付大量数据 API 的费用，以获取实时体育数据，每月大约花费 100 美元。

We pay for a lot of data APIs to get all the real time sports data every single day, and that costs about a $100 a month.

我们每月还花费约10美元用于Neon数据库，以确保我们有足够的带宽来处理所有调用。

We also spend about $10 a month on our Neon database to make sure we have the bandwidth for all the calls that we make.

大语言模型的成本每月约为20美元，而且成本一直在下降。

LLM costs cost about $20 a month, and the cost is constantly going down.

营销费用每月约为1万美元。

Marketing is about $10,000 a month.

总的来说，到月底我们的利润率大约为50%。

All in all, we have roughly 50% margins at the end of the day.

好的。

Okay.

很棒。

Cool.

感谢你分享这些信息，如此透明地公开这些数据。

Well, thank you for sharing that, being transparent around the numbers.

很多观看我们节目的人非常欣赏这一点。

A lot of people who watch us really appreciate that.

我最后一个问题想问你们两位。

The last question that I have for both you guys.

很多观看这个视频的人想打造像你们这样的应用，想了解分销和产品方面的东西。

A lot of people watching this wanna build apps like you, wanna learn about distribution and product.

对于现在正打算在线做这件事、开发应用并赚钱的初学者，你们有什么建议吗？

What would be your advice to people that are starting out right now trying to do this thing online, build apps, and make money?

我给的最大建议是找一个合伙人，你们可以在困难时互相依靠。

Biggest piece of advice I could give is have a cofounder who you will be able to lean on and that will be able to lean on you when things get hard.

作为创业者，要诚实地评估自己正在做的事情是否有足够的需求。

As an entrepreneur, be honest with yourself and scientific about whether what you're working on has enough demand.

如果你能自己证明它值得你投入时间去奋斗，那么向他人——无论是投资者还是未来的团队成员——证明它的价值就会容易一个数量级。

And if you prove it to yourself that it's worth the time investment that you will put in struggling, it will be an order of magnitude easier to prove it to others, to both investors and future team members.

太棒了。

Beautiful.

谢谢Ayall和Yoly的到来。

Well, thank you, Ayall and Yoly, for coming on.

你们做的东西太棒了。

What you built is awesome.

恭喜。

Congratulations.

你们真了不起。

You guys are awesome.

帕特，非常感谢。

Pat, thanks so much.

我们非常乐意开启一个故事。

We absolutely love to start a story.

能上节目真是太酷了。

It's so cool to get on.

感谢你，帕特。

Appreciate it, Pat.

我们度过了非常愉快的时光。

We had a great time.

我觉得他们故事中有趣的地方是，通常你能把产品做对，却搞不定分销渠道。

What I thought was interesting about their story is usually you get the product right, but you don't have the distribution figured out.

对他们来说，他们搞定了分销渠道，却没把产品做对。

For them, they had the distribution figured out, but they didn't get the product right.

我觉得这很酷，因为它真正说明了，如果你想打造一个能持久的东西，就必须同时把这两点都搞定。

And I think that's cool because it really goes to show that you have to have both figured out if you actually wanna build something that can last.

这正是我们推出 Starter Story Build 的原因——我们将帮助你把你的想法转化为一个仅用 AI 工具打造的真实应用。

This is exactly why we launched Starter Story Build, where we will help you take your idea and turn it into a real app using only AI tools.

所以，如果你准备好终于把想法付诸实践，从脑子里拿出来，真正落地到现实世界，那就点击下方描述中的第一个链接，了解 Starter Story Build 吧。

So if you're ready to finally build that idea, get it out of your head, and get it into the real world, well, head to the first link in the description right below to check out Starter Story Build.

好了，各位。

Alright, guys.

本期就到这里。

That's it for this episode.

感谢观看。

Thank you for watching.

希望你们喜欢这一期。

I hope you enjoyed it.

我们下一期再见。

We'll see you in the next one.

和平。

Peace.