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Apr 2, 2021 · 19m · top-founders

Mobile Paywall Testing Company Breaks 200 Customers, $500k Raised

Vitaly Davydov · 9m spoken Nathan Latka · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this interview, Nathan Latka speaks with Adapty founder and CEO Vitaly Davydov about building an in-app subscription and paywall A/B testing platform, detailing the company's product origins, tiered pricing model, and path toward $20,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 37.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.2 Guest teaching 2.8 Guest disagreement 2.0 Nathan pushing back 4.8
05100:0010:000:12–2:15 · Nathan as informed peer 1/10 Latka Podcast Subscription and Member Benefits Introductory subscription plug, sponsor promo, and brief welcome introducing Vitaly Davydov and Adapty.2:16–6:32 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 The Origins of Adapty at EasyTen Vitaly details his background at EasyTen and the early Product Hunt launch, while Latka presses on the distinct sales dynamics between marketing and developer buyers.6:33–9:29 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Monetization Model and Dynamic Pricing Latka challenges the fairness of taking a revenue cut from customers whose growth may not be tied to Adapty, prompting Vitaly to justify the infrastructure and experiment complexity at scale.9:32–13:54 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Team Structure, Equity Philosophy, and Funding Latka probes founder equity splits and investigates why a third founder was missing from public records, with Vitaly sharing his philosophy on organizational roles.13:55–17:00 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Customer Acquisition and Marketing Execution Latka rejects Vitaly's organic growth answer as a cop-out that indicates lack of acquisition strategy, while Vitaly pushes back by emphasizing that standard tactics succeed through disciplined execution.17:01–17:42 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Revenue Discussion and Growth Targets When Vitaly attempts to dodge revenue disclosures, Latka immediately uses earlier stated figures of 200 customers and a $100 base tier to calculate a $20k minimum MRR floor.0:12–2:15 · Guest teaching 0/10 Latka Podcast Subscription and Member Benefits Introductory subscription plug, sponsor promo, and brief welcome introducing Vitaly Davydov and Adapty.2:16–6:32 · Guest teaching 3/10 The Origins of Adapty at EasyTen Vitaly details his background at EasyTen and the early Product Hunt launch, while Latka presses on the distinct sales dynamics between marketing and developer buyers.6:33–9:29 · Guest teaching 5/10 Monetization Model and Dynamic Pricing Latka challenges the fairness of taking a revenue cut from customers whose growth may not be tied to Adapty, prompting Vitaly to justify the infrastructure and experiment complexity at scale.9:32–13:54 · Guest teaching 3/10 Team Structure, Equity Philosophy, and Funding Latka probes founder equity splits and investigates why a third founder was missing from public records, with Vitaly sharing his philosophy on organizational roles.13:55–17:00 · Guest teaching 4/10 Customer Acquisition and Marketing Execution Latka rejects Vitaly's organic growth answer as a cop-out that indicates lack of acquisition strategy, while Vitaly pushes back by emphasizing that standard tactics succeed through disciplined execution.17:01–17:42 · Guest teaching 2/10 Revenue Discussion and Growth Targets When Vitaly attempts to dodge revenue disclosures, Latka immediately uses earlier stated figures of 200 customers and a $100 base tier to calculate a $20k minimum MRR floor.0:12–2:15 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Latka Podcast Subscription and Member Benefits Introductory subscription plug, sponsor promo, and brief welcome introducing Vitaly Davydov and Adapty.2:16–6:32 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Origins of Adapty at EasyTen Vitaly details his background at EasyTen and the early Product Hunt launch, while Latka presses on the distinct sales dynamics between marketing and developer buyers.6:33–9:29 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Monetization Model and Dynamic Pricing Latka challenges the fairness of taking a revenue cut from customers whose growth may not be tied to Adapty, prompting Vitaly to justify the infrastructure and experiment complexity at scale.9:32–13:54 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Team Structure, Equity Philosophy, and Funding Latka probes founder equity splits and investigates why a third founder was missing from public records, with Vitaly sharing his philosophy on organizational roles.13:55–17:00 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Customer Acquisition and Marketing Execution Latka rejects Vitaly's organic growth answer as a cop-out that indicates lack of acquisition strategy, while Vitaly pushes back by emphasizing that standard tactics succeed through disciplined execution.17:01–17:42 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Revenue Discussion and Growth Targets When Vitaly attempts to dodge revenue disclosures, Latka immediately uses earlier stated figures of 200 customers and a $100 base tier to calculate a $20k minimum MRR floor.0:12–2:15 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Latka Podcast Subscription and Member Benefits Introductory subscription plug, sponsor promo, and brief welcome introducing Vitaly Davydov and Adapty.2:16–6:32 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 The Origins of Adapty at EasyTen Vitaly details his background at EasyTen and the early Product Hunt launch, while Latka presses on the distinct sales dynamics between marketing and developer buyers.6:33–9:29 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Monetization Model and Dynamic Pricing Latka challenges the fairness of taking a revenue cut from customers whose growth may not be tied to Adapty, prompting Vitaly to justify the infrastructure and experiment complexity at scale.9:32–13:54 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Team Structure, Equity Philosophy, and Funding Latka probes founder equity splits and investigates why a third founder was missing from public records, with Vitaly sharing his philosophy on organizational roles.13:55–17:00 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Customer Acquisition and Marketing Execution Latka rejects Vitaly's organic growth answer as a cop-out that indicates lack of acquisition strategy, while Vitaly pushes back by emphasizing that standard tactics succeed through disciplined execution.17:01–17:42 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Revenue Discussion and Growth Targets When Vitaly attempts to dodge revenue disclosures, Latka immediately uses earlier stated figures of 200 customers and a $100 base tier to calculate a $20k minimum MRR floor.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 64% · guest 36%0:00 · Nathan 64% · guest 36%3:00 · Nathan 13.7% · guest 86.3%3:00 · Nathan 13.7% · guest 86.3%6:00 · Nathan 38.3% · guest 61.7%6:00 · Nathan 38.3% · guest 61.7%9:00 · Nathan 37.8% · guest 62.2%9:00 · Nathan 37.8% · guest 62.2%12:00 · Nathan 32.2% · guest 67.8%12:00 · Nathan 32.2% · guest 67.8%15:00 · Nathan 29.7% · guest 70.3%15:00 · Nathan 29.7% · guest 70.3%18:00 · Nathan 62.1% · guest 37.9%18:00 · Nathan 62.1% · guest 37.9%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 15:54 Defending content execution over novel growth hacks

Vitaly counters Latka's dismissal of blogging as basic playbook 101, insisting growth is all about execution speed and experimentation rather than secret strategies.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 14:44 Calling organic growth an easy answer

Latka bluntly calls out Vitaly's attribution to organic growth, asserting it demonstrates an inability to deliberately pour fuel on marketing acquisition.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 8:17 Justifying value-based revenue pricing

Vitaly methodically explains to Latka why higher MRR apps require significantly heavier infrastructure reliability and complex experimentation tooling, justifying the revenue take rate.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 17:11 Trapping guest with their own customer math

Latka corners Vitaly by multiplying the 200 customers by the $100 minimum plan to extract an MRR estimate after Vitaly refused to disclose revenue.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Latka Podcast Subscription and Member Benefits 1000 Introductory subscription plug, sponsor promo, and brief welcome introducing Vitaly Davydov and Adapty.
The Origins of Adapty at EasyTen 5314 Vitaly details his background at EasyTen and the early Product Hunt launch, while Latka presses on the distinct sales dynamics between marketing and developer buyers.
Monetization Model and Dynamic Pricing 6526 Latka challenges the fairness of taking a revenue cut from customers whose growth may not be tied to Adapty, prompting Vitaly to justify the infrastructure and experiment complexity at scale.
Team Structure, Equity Philosophy, and Funding 6325 Latka probes founder equity splits and investigates why a third founder was missing from public records, with Vitaly sharing his philosophy on organizational roles.
Customer Acquisition and Marketing Execution 6447 Latka rejects Vitaly's organic growth answer as a cop-out that indicates lack of acquisition strategy, while Vitaly pushes back by emphasizing that standard tactics succeed through disciplined execution.
Revenue Discussion and Growth Targets 7237 When Vitaly attempts to dodge revenue disclosures, Latka immediately uses earlier stated figures of 200 customers and a $100 base tier to calculate a $20k minimum MRR floor.

Statements from this episode (5)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Adapty Serves Hundreds of Developers and Over 2M Subscribers
“So we are serving a couple of hundreds of mobile developers you know, and in total we serve over, over two million of subscribers. So because our clients are mobile apps with subscriptions and we serve hundreds of them and we serve over two million of end subs…”
Vitaly Davydov Apr 2, 2021 ▶ 5:06
Disclosure
Adapty Charges $99 Base Plus Scaling Fees Above $20k Tracked MRR
“So we have some revenue threshold, which is 20 K per month. And if you're a developer, you use adaptive for 99 per month flat if you're below 20 K. But after that you pay five 99 on every thousand, if you're greater than 20 K.”
Vitaly Davydov Apr 2, 2021 ▶ 7:35
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Over $20M in Customer MRR Flows Through Adapty
“Maybe Maybe over twenty million. I think even more.”
Vitaly Davydov Apr 2, 2021 ▶ 9:16
Insight
Startups Can Hire a CTO, But Cannot Survive Without a CEO
“So I strongly believe company cannot live without CEO. That's for sure. Most companies cannot live without head of sales and CMOS. But probably you can leave without, you know, a CTO. You can hire a CTO.”
Vitaly Davydov Apr 2, 2021 ▶ 11:25
Opinion
Latka: Citing 'Organic Growth' Means Founders Don't Know How to Scale
“When I hear someone tell me that it's just organic growth, it tells me they don't actually know how to pour fuel on the fire. They don't actually know where growth is coming from. They just say word of mouth and organic.”
Nathan Latka Apr 2, 2021 ▶ 14:46
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