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Jan 28, 2016 · 19m · top-founders

How To Sell a $150/Yr iPhone App with Evi Meyer of uMake

Evi Meyer · 9m spoken Nathan Latka · 7m 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 episode of 'The Top,' host Nathan Latka interviews Evi Meyer, co-founder and CEO of uMake, who details how he left Autodesk, bootstrapped an intuitive 3D sketching iPad app with personal savings, raised $5.2 million in venture capital, and successfully launched a $150-per-year mobile SaaS subscription model.

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 40.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 3.8 Guest teaching 2.0 Guest disagreement 2.0 Nathan pushing back 3.8
05100:0010:001:04–3:31 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 Introducing Evi Meyer and Transitioning from Autodesk Nathan opens with his personal background using AutoCAD at Virginia Tech and establishes Evi's background. The tone is collaborative as Evi outlines uMake's early team structure between Tel Aviv and San Francisco.3:32–9:48 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Bootstrapping uMake and Raising $5.2 Million Nathan presses repeatedly for specific personal cash investment numbers, refusing vague answers about time and life investment until Evi calculates the exact figure in US dollars. Evi details raising their $5.2M round from prominent Silicon Valley angels.9:48–15:54 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Subscription Pricing, Unit Economics, and App Store Launch When Evi deflects on revenue figures due to being only a month live on the App Store, Nathan insists on narrowing down subscriber numbers and unit economics. Nathan guides Evi through customer brackets until Evi settles on near 800-1000 paying users, adjusting for Apple's 30% fee.15:56–19:00 · Nathan as informed peer 2/10 Sponsor Spotlight and Podcast Giveaway Announcement Includes an ad read followed by the standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment and Nathan's summary of uMake's metrics. The exchange is lighthearted and cooperative.1:04–3:31 · Guest teaching 2/10 Introducing Evi Meyer and Transitioning from Autodesk Nathan opens with his personal background using AutoCAD at Virginia Tech and establishes Evi's background. The tone is collaborative as Evi outlines uMake's early team structure between Tel Aviv and San Francisco.3:32–9:48 · Guest teaching 2/10 Bootstrapping uMake and Raising $5.2 Million Nathan presses repeatedly for specific personal cash investment numbers, refusing vague answers about time and life investment until Evi calculates the exact figure in US dollars. Evi details raising their $5.2M round from prominent Silicon Valley angels.9:48–15:54 · Guest teaching 3/10 Subscription Pricing, Unit Economics, and App Store Launch When Evi deflects on revenue figures due to being only a month live on the App Store, Nathan insists on narrowing down subscriber numbers and unit economics. Nathan guides Evi through customer brackets until Evi settles on near 800-1000 paying users, adjusting for Apple's 30% fee.15:56–19:00 · Guest teaching 1/10 Sponsor Spotlight and Podcast Giveaway Announcement Includes an ad read followed by the standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment and Nathan's summary of uMake's metrics. The exchange is lighthearted and cooperative.1:04–3:31 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Introducing Evi Meyer and Transitioning from Autodesk Nathan opens with his personal background using AutoCAD at Virginia Tech and establishes Evi's background. The tone is collaborative as Evi outlines uMake's early team structure between Tel Aviv and San Francisco.3:32–9:48 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Bootstrapping uMake and Raising $5.2 Million Nathan presses repeatedly for specific personal cash investment numbers, refusing vague answers about time and life investment until Evi calculates the exact figure in US dollars. Evi details raising their $5.2M round from prominent Silicon Valley angels.9:48–15:54 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Subscription Pricing, Unit Economics, and App Store Launch When Evi deflects on revenue figures due to being only a month live on the App Store, Nathan insists on narrowing down subscriber numbers and unit economics. Nathan guides Evi through customer brackets until Evi settles on near 800-1000 paying users, adjusting for Apple's 30% fee.15:56–19:00 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Sponsor Spotlight and Podcast Giveaway Announcement Includes an ad read followed by the standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment and Nathan's summary of uMake's metrics. The exchange is lighthearted and cooperative.1:04–3:31 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Introducing Evi Meyer and Transitioning from Autodesk Nathan opens with his personal background using AutoCAD at Virginia Tech and establishes Evi's background. The tone is collaborative as Evi outlines uMake's early team structure between Tel Aviv and San Francisco.3:32–9:48 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Bootstrapping uMake and Raising $5.2 Million Nathan presses repeatedly for specific personal cash investment numbers, refusing vague answers about time and life investment until Evi calculates the exact figure in US dollars. Evi details raising their $5.2M round from prominent Silicon Valley angels.9:48–15:54 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Subscription Pricing, Unit Economics, and App Store Launch When Evi deflects on revenue figures due to being only a month live on the App Store, Nathan insists on narrowing down subscriber numbers and unit economics. Nathan guides Evi through customer brackets until Evi settles on near 800-1000 paying users, adjusting for Apple's 30% fee.15:56–19:00 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Sponsor Spotlight and Podcast Giveaway Announcement Includes an ad read followed by the standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment and Nathan's summary of uMake's metrics. The exchange is lighthearted and cooperative.

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

0:00 · Nathan 59.2% · guest 40.8%0:00 · Nathan 59.2% · guest 40.8%3:00 · Nathan 19.5% · guest 80.5%3:00 · Nathan 19.5% · guest 80.5%6:00 · Nathan 34.6% · guest 65.4%6:00 · Nathan 34.6% · guest 65.4%9:00 · Nathan 23.9% · guest 76.1%9:00 · Nathan 23.9% · guest 76.1%12:00 · Nathan 22% · guest 78%12:00 · Nathan 22% · guest 78%15:00 · Nathan 75.3% · guest 24.7%15:00 · Nathan 75.3% · guest 24.7%18:00 · Nathan 69.8% · guest 30.2%18:00 · Nathan 69.8% · guest 30.2%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 10:10 Evi declines to disclose early App Store revenue

Evi resists Nathan's demand for November revenue numbers, arguing that being featured on the homepage distorted early data and stating he prefers not to speak about their data yet.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 10:43 Nathan refuses deflection and demands subscriber scale

Nathan rejects Evi's hesitation to share financial performance by arguing that listeners need scale context, immediately pivoting to extract paying subscriber metrics.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 15:34 Evi reminds Nathan of Apple's 30% App Store cut

When Nathan proposes an ARPU of $13 to $15 per month, Evi corrects the assumption by noting that 30% must be deducted for Apple's platform fee.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 15:47 Nathan calculates net ARPU on the fly

Nathan immediately factors in the platform fee deduction to calculate the exact net ARPU of $10 to $11 per subscriber and estimates total MRR.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Evi Meyer and Transitioning from Autodesk 3211 Nathan opens with his personal background using AutoCAD at Virginia Tech and establishes Evi's background. The tone is collaborative as Evi outlines uMake's early team structure between Tel Aviv and San Francisco.
Bootstrapping uMake and Raising $5.2 Million 4226 Nathan presses repeatedly for specific personal cash investment numbers, refusing vague answers about time and life investment until Evi calculates the exact figure in US dollars. Evi details raising their $5.2M round from prominent Silicon Valley angels.
Subscription Pricing, Unit Economics, and App Store Launch 6347 When Evi deflects on revenue figures due to being only a month live on the App Store, Nathan insists on narrowing down subscriber numbers and unit economics. Nathan guides Evi through customer brackets until Evi settles on near 800-1000 paying users, adjusting for Apple's 30% fee.
Sponsor Spotlight and Podcast Giveaway Announcement 2111 Includes an ad read followed by the standard Famous Five rapid-fire segment and Nathan's summary of uMake's metrics. The exchange is lighthearted and cooperative.

Statements from this episode (6)

Disclosure
uMake Bootstrapped for Two Years Before Raising $5.2 Million
“So we bootstrapped for almost two years and we just founded recently raised a 5.2 million dollars.”
Evi Meyer Jan 28, 2016 ▶ 2:50
Disclosure
uMake co-founders each invested at least $80,000 of their own savings
“We invested about each at least At least 80,000.”
Evi Meyer Jan 28, 2016 ▶ 6:31
Assertion Partly supported
Israel's average product manager salary was $95k-$100k in 2016
“I think in, in general, the average product manager salary in Israel is around 95, 100,000 a year.”
Evi Meyer Jan 28, 2016 ▶ 7:27
Disclosure
Google Earth creator Brian McClendon was uMake's first angel investor
“After that, the first engine investor we had was Brian McClendon which was the founder of Google Earth, and he was responsible, responsible for the acquisition of SketchUp at that time, and of course, head of Google Maps, and now head of Maps, and Autonomous …”
Evi Meyer Jan 28, 2016 ▶ 8:44
Disclosure
Waze CEO Noam Bardin invested in uMake's AngelList campaign
“We ran a campaign on AngelList and also Noam Bardeen, the CEO of Waze, joined and supported us as well.”
Evi Meyer Jan 28, 2016 ▶ 9:40
Assertion Supported
uMake closed its Series A on app launch day
“We raised our CRSA before we launched Launch the app. Actually, we raised the CRSA on the same day we launched the app.”
Evi Meyer Jan 28, 2016 ▶ 11:05
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