How Elevate Labs Hit Cash Flow Positive in 2022 — Andrew Maguire, Elevate Labs

On the podcast we talk with Andrew about the journey to cash flow positive for Elevate Labs, the importance of creative, and why spending less money can sometimes be the key to figuring out paid user acquisition.

Top Takeaways
📈 The journey to cash flow positive is a long one, demanding tough decisions along the way
💵 Spending less money can sometimes be the key to figuring out paid user acquisition
🎨 Control and collaboration are key elements of a creative culture

About Andrew Maguire
⚙️ Chief Operating Officer at Elevate Labs and Managing Partner at Volo Ventures
💪 Andrew saw Elevate move from rolling back on ad spend in order to survive, to becoming cash flow positive with record growth in 2022.
💡 “How do you have values that are not just the poster on the wall that no one cares about, but are actually lived in the organization?”
👋  LinkedIn and Twitter

Links & Resources
‣ Join the Elevate Labs team
‣ Connect with Andrew on Linkedin
‣ Follow Andrew on Twitter
‣ Volo Ventures
‣ Elevate App
‣ Balance App

Follow us on Twitter
‣ David Barnard
‣ Jacob Eiting
‣ RevenueCat
‣ Sub Club

Episode Highlights
[1:46] Inspirational investment: Making waves at Elevate, Volo Ventures invested in RevenueCat based on Jacob’s juice for building a big company and solving real problems.
[6:48] Early elevation: The duality of Volo Ventures and Elevate gives Andrew insight to create great apps while investing at the same time.
[10:25] Living organizational values: An ongoing commitment to incorporate company mission into every aspect of work — from hiring to recognition and performance — is what makes a company really stand out.
[13:25] Pay to play: You need to spend money to make money. Jacob and Andrew discuss getting a handle on LTV, plowing money into advertising, the subscription model, and trials.
[19:20] The slow degradation of ATT: It’s not an overnight thing, but Elevate still took a hammering.
[21:26] Circling the wagons: Andrew talks about the experiments they ran, what worked, and what failed, including pulling back ad spend.
[24:32] The importance of creative and the power of ads: Everyone taking responsibility for the quality of the product builds a culture of creativity with ideas coming from all angles.
[33:22] Blending acquisition costs: When you’re building a second app, you can leverage the customers you already have for the old one to build an even better product. And sometimes free giveaways can scale ad spend in asymmetric ways.
[40:25] Becoming a “real business”: Hitting cash flow positive feels really good. Andrew found that focusing on being lean and scrappy allowed them to scale the business without having to raise more capital.
[46:13] The Volo connection: Andrew, David, and Jacob discuss what’s happening at Volo Ventures.