Subversive

Phil Carter

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.

  1. How GameChanger Became the World’s #1 Youth Sports App

    2월 19일

    How GameChanger Became the World’s #1 Youth Sports App

    Sameer Ahuja is President of GameChanger, which he originally joined as VP of Finance and Analytics in 2017 before being promoted multiple times. He is also an SVP of Dick’s Sporting Goods, which acquired GameChanger in 2016. Prior to joining GameChanger, Sameer founded a boutique hedge fund called Dera Capital Advisors that he ran for six years. He is also a venture advisor for Marquee Ventures. Key Takeaways: GameChanger’s initial core product was built around scorekeeping for youth baseball and softball teams. They built strong product/market fit in this niche and established powerful network effects between coaches, parents, athletes and fans.Once the company had established these network effects, they naturally grew through word of mouth both within and across youth sports teams. Coaches loved GameChanger for all of its team management features, and parents and fans enjoyed following the scores of their teams.When the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, Sameer and his team recognized that teams were desperate for connection. In one pivotal week, they decided to fast track the development of livestreaming video as a way to ensure family members and other fans were able to stay even more connected with their teams.As livestreaming video was being developed, one of GameChanger’s interns identified an opportunity to automatically generate highlight clips from video footage captured during games. The company launched both features in less than a year, and they’ve become a crucial part of the company’s success.In 2026, GameChanger launched its most advanced product to date with expanded features for baseball and softball, including livestreaming video in 1080 pixel resolution. Going forward, the company is also excited to continue its expansion into other sports like basketball, soccer, and flag football as part of its mission to become the “home of youth sports.”Sameer Ahuja: Website: https://gc.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sameerahuja/Phil Carter: Website: philgcarter.comSubstack: philgcarter.substack.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/philgcarterX: x.com/philgcarterPodcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io

    1시간
  2. How Speak Built a $1B AI Language Learning App

    2월 5일

    How Speak Built a $1B AI Language Learning App

    Connor Zwick is the cofounder and CEO of Speak, a billion dollar app that is reinventing digital language learning by getting users into real conversations with AI-powered voices. Connor started Speak in 2016 with cofounder Andrew Hsu. Prior to founding Speak, Connor built his first startup called Flashcards+ when he was still in high school and eventually sold it to Chegg. He then went to Harvard, but dropped out to become a Thiel Fellow and found another startup called Coco Controller. Key Takeaways: After dropping out of Harvard to pursue a Thiel Fellowship, Connor became very interested in deep learning along with another Thiel fellow named Andrew Hsu.After Connor and Andrew developed a speech recognition model that outperformed all of the existing models at the time, they realized that AI had the potential to revolutionize language learning, which led them to cofound Speak.From the beginning, Connor and Andrew believed there was a major gap in the language learning market around immersive language learning. Unlike Duolingo and Rosetta Stone, which focus on helping people learn vocabulary, Speak went all in on AI-powered voice right away to help students learn by speaking.For the first four years, Speak exclusively focused on English language learning in South Korea. This is a ruthlessly competitive market, with South Koreans spending 1% of GDP learning English, but this forced Speak to tune its model to be great at one language before the company decided it was ready to expand.Since international expansion was part of Speak’s DNA from day one, it allowed the company to expand quickly to other markets once it was ready to grow beyond South Korea. Today, Speak helps people around the world learn six languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, and Korean. Based on this growth, the company recently raised a Series C at a $1B valuation.Connor Zwick: Website: https://www.speak.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connorzwick/X: https://x.com/connorzwickPhil Carter: Website: https://www.philgcarter.comSubstack: https://philgcarter.substack.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philgcarterX: https://x.com/philgcarter

    46분
  3. How Margins Built a Viral Reading App

    1월 22일

    How Margins Built a Viral Reading App

    Paul Warren is the founder and CEO of Margins, a beautifully-designed reading app that recently won Apple’s App of the Day award and that reached hundreds of thousands of active readers less than a year after it launched. He is a self-described “extreme reader” who reads hundreds of books every year. Prior to Margins, Paul held CTO and Head of Software roles at multiple companies, including Daylight Computer Company, Darvis, and an undisclosed stealth crypto startup. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in computer science from Stanford University. Key Takeaways: As a self-described “extreme reader” who reads hundreds of books per year, Paul founded Margins in 2023 because he wanted a single integrated platform for discovering new books, tracking all of his reading activity, and keeping up with what his friends were reading.Before spending any time on app development, Paul invested nearly a year into building their own proprietary book database, which has become a critical competitive advantage.Unlike other reading apps like Goodreads that can feel overly transactional, Paul and his team are obsessed over craft, which has led to delightful features like the ability to search for a book based on “vibes,” as well as lots of fun easter eggs.In late 2024, just before the holidays, Paul hired a few microinfluencers to create TikTok content that quickly went viral on BookTok. Then in 2025, the same thing organically happened on X. Margins also recently won Apple’s App of the Day award in December 2025. These spikes have contributed to viral word of mouth, helping to organically propel the company to hundreds of thousands of users just a year after launching.While Margins doesn’t yet have any premium features, it has managed to convert many enthusiastic subscribers by appealing to their love of reading and asking them to support the app. That being said, Paul and his team have lots of plans to supercharge Margins’ premium product experience over the next year to further accelerate subscriber growth.Paul Warren: Website: https://margins.app/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulandrewwarren/X: https://x.com/paulwarren_Phil Carter: Website: https://www.philgcarter.comSubstack: https://philgcarter.substack.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philgcarterX: https://x.com/philgcarterPodcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io

    1시간 1분
  4. How FLORA is Reinventing Creative Design with AI

    1월 8일

    How FLORA is Reinventing Creative Design with AI

    Weber Wong is the founder and CEO of FLORA, an AI-powered workspace designed to help creative professionals ideate, iterate, and scale their ideas faster than ever before. Prior to founding FLORA, Weber had a diverse range of professional experiences that included stints as an investment banker, a geopolitical researcher, a venture capitalist, and an artist. Key Takeaways: After stints as an investment banker, a geopolitical researcher, a venture capitalist, and an artist, Weber went to NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) where he studied how to use technology for creative innovation.Weber observed that tools for creatives were outdated, and that AI had created the opportunity to reinvent the creative process for marketers, product designers, architects, and other creative professionals. And because Weber is an artist designing for his own needs, it’s given him a very clear vision for FLORA’s product.FLORA’s core innovation has been moving beyond single LLM prompts to an infinite workspace that integrates cutting-edge AI models across text, images, and video, allowing creative professionals to continuously iterate on their ideas.In two years, FLORA has gained adoption from some of the best creative teams in the world, including industry leaders like Netflix, Nike, Levi’s, WPP, and AKQA. Not only are these companies customers, they are also design partners whose feedback has played a critical role in shaping FLORA’s product vision and strategy.Weber expects AI to shift creative tools from a bottom-up paradigm that requires users to manually design creative assets piece by piece, to a far more efficient AI-native paradigm that is top-down, where creatives can start with a rough concept and then iteratively refine it until it’s pixel-perfect.Weber Wong: Website: https://www.florafauna.ai/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weberwong/X: https://x.com/weberwongwongPhil Carter: Website: philgcarter.comSubstack: philgcarter.substack.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/philgcarterX: x.com/philgcarter Podcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io

    55분
  5. How Fitbod Uses AI to Hyperpersonalize Strength Workouts

    2025. 12. 26.

    How Fitbod Uses AI to Hyperpersonalize Strength Workouts

    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 career to team up with his former college friend, Jesse Venticinque, to build the strength training app they both wanted for their own workouts.For years, Allen and Jesse kept Fitbod lean and built the product to meet their own needs, choosing to bootstrap the company and focus on building a highly retentive core product before raising outside capital to accelerate growth.Inspired by Nir Eyal's "Hooked" framework, Allen and Jesse built habit loops into Fitbod around natural muscle recovery cycles that bolstered subscriber retention, as well as extrinsic triggers to bring subscribers back to the app more often.Fitbod has grown subscribers exponentially through two primary growth loops: organic word of mouth amplified by viral hooks built into the product experience, and performance marketing through Meta and other paid user acquisition channels, which the company optimizes based on LTV/CAC and payback period.Fitbod is already using AI to hyperpersonalize workouts for its many subscribers, and as AI continues to evolve, Allen expects it to unlock all sorts of additional applications within the fitness category that will further benefit human health.Allen Chen: Website: https://fitbod.me/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allen-chen-17a7748/Phil Carter: Website: https://www.philgcarter.comSubstack: https://philgcarter.substack.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philgcarterX: https://x.com/philgcarterPodcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io

    1시간 1분
  6. How Opal Reached $10M ARR with 11 Employees

    2025. 12. 11.

    How Opal Reached $10M ARR with 11 Employees

    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:  After spending more than a decade as a serial entrepreneur, Kenneth founded Opal in 2020 with the mission to "align technology with human wellbeing" because he believed it was more important than ever for people to track their screen time and understand the role it plays in their lives.In 2022, when Apple launched its Screen Time API, Opal seized the first mover advantage and used this opportunity to reinvent screen time tracking, propelling itself to $10M in revenue by 2025 despite keeping its team very lean.From early on, Opal was laser focused on D8 ROAS as its primary growth metric, because Kenneth wanted to ensure the company could convince enough subscribers to pay for its product that they could grow reliably through paid ads.More recently, Opal has invested in gamification to boost motivaion and retention, as well as word of mouth and incentivized referral programs to help supplement paid user acquisition with organic growth.AI is making social networks and games even more addictive, which makes Opal even more important than before. Longer-term, Kenneth plans to expand beyond screen time tracking to other use cases that align technology with human health and happiness, and to also market the product to companies, schools, and insurance companies in addition to individuals. Kenneth Schlenker:  Website: https://www.opal.so/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennethschlenker/ X: https://x.com/kschlenker Phil Carter:  Website: https://www.philgcarter.com Substack: https://philgcarter.substack.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philgcarter X: https://x.com/philgcarter Podcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io

    52분
  7. How Preply Built the World’s Largest Language Learning Marketplace

    2025. 11. 27.

    How Preply Built the World’s Largest Language Learning Marketplace

    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 Asian market. Key Takeaways: Preply has built the world’s largest language learning marketplace, with an online platform that connects over 100,000 experienced tutors teaching dozens of different languages to millions of learners across the globe.Preply’s human-powered marketplace differentiates it from language learning apps like Duolingo and Babbel that are 100% digital. While scaling to 100,000+ tutors has been difficult, it has also helped Preply boost learner motivation, increase subscriber retention, and ultimately improve learning outcomes.Preply has run hundreds of experiments to optimize its learner onboarding flow, improve its tutor matching algorithm, and accelerate time to value. While these experiments have improved registration, activation, and trial lesson start rates, ultimately Preply focuses on subscriber conversion and retention as the metrics that matter most, because subscriptions are what drive value for the business.In parallel, Preply has invested heavily in maintaining tutor quality as it scales the supply side of its business. This includes surfacing metadata about tutors that build confidence for new learners, as well as imposing policies that encourage tutors to maximize their availability so that learners have a positive experience.While Simon believes language learning is an inherently human activity that will never be fully replaced by technology, he is excited about the potential for AI to boost tutor productivity and hyperpersonalize the language learning experience.Simon Mizzi: Website: https://preply.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-mizzi/details/experience/Phil Carter: Website: https://www.philgcarter.comSubstack: https://philgcarter.substack.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philgcarterX: https://x.com/philgcarter Podcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io

    1시간
  8. How Calm Added 1.2M Subscribers with Creative Marketing Tactics

    2025. 11. 13.

    How Calm Added 1.2M Subscribers with Creative Marketing Tactics

    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. Key Takeaways: Nick joined Calm in 2019 at an exciting time when the company was on the cutting edge of optimizing both how to monetize a digital product through subscriptions and how to distribute it through performance marketing channels.The launch of Sleep Stories was a critical inflection point for Calm, both because sleep proved to be a more acute pain point vs. meditation and because paid social channels like Instagram proved to be perfect for acquiring users who were up late at night doomscrolling because they were struggling with insomnia.Calm was one of the first companies to get sophisticated about using “social listening” techniques to incorporate trending memes from social media into their ad creatives to improve the performance of paid user acquisition campaigns.Not only was Nick’s performance marketing team at Calm extremely creative, but they also took a highly iterative and analytical approach to optimizing campaigns while using metrics like LTV/CAC and payback period to measure performance.Ultimately, Nick’s team ran 5,500 ads while he was at Calm that converted an incremental 1.2 million subscribers. Calm’s paid user acquisition efforts were also complemented by Calm’s organic growth engine, which fueled additional and highly cost-efficient user acquisition and subscriber conversion.Nick Candler: Calm Website: https://www.calm.com/10 Scale Website: https://10scale.co/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolascandler/Phil Carter: Website: https://www.philgcarter.comSubstack: https://philgcarter.substack.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philgcarterX: https://x.com/philgcarter Podcast Production by Podders: https://podders.io/

    53분
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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.

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  • 제작진
    Phil Carter
  • 방송 연도
    2025년 - 2026년
  • 에피소드
    30
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    전체 연령 사용가
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    © 2026 Subversive
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    Subversive

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