How to grow a subscription business | Yuriy Timen (Grammarly, Canva, Airtable)
Executive Summary
A Lenny's Podcast conversation with Yuriy Timen, a growth advisor and former head of growth and marketing at Grammarly, on how to grow consumer subscription products through virality, SEO, paid acquisition and onboarding. Sponsors named at the start: Flatfile and Modern Treasury. PARTIAL COVERAGE: the episode runs about 68 minutes and the available caption text is cut off during the onboarding discussion, so the last part is not covered. The caption has no capitalisation or punctuation. Figures are Timen's own estimates and examples, not verified data. This is a summary of his views, not advice.
Key Takeaways
Give a channel a real test
Timen says the only thing worse than a tactic that does not work is concluding too early that it does not work when it was never given a proper shot.
What he advises on
The host introduces him as a full-time advisor who worked with companies such as Canva, Airtable and Otter after nine years at Grammarly.
SEO audits
He says a relatively inexpensive SEO audit, about 5 to 10 thousand dollars, is usually a good use of time because agencies have templates, and he points to Graphite as a high-end SEO shop.
Paid media is contracting
He says paid media budgets are contracting, citing falling ad revenue at Meta and Snap, and that a consumer subscription payback target moved from about 12 months to six months or less.
Less tolerance for loose attribution
He says with less runway and more focus on burn, sales that cannot be attributed get cut, which opens a chance for smarter attribution tools.
Conversion benchmarks
He says a healthy visit-to-free-account rate for prosumer freemium products is about 20 to 35 percent, and free-to-paid under 5 percent is unlikely to work long term.
Onboarding
He says onboarding is almost always worth investing in, that early-stage companies can see 2 to 4 times better activation, and later-stage ones maybe 20 to 30 percent.
The Conversation Breakdown
Give a channel a real test
⏱ Untimed topicTimen says the only thing worse than a tactic that does not work is concluding too early that it does not work when it was never given a proper shot.
What he advises on
⏱ Untimed topicThe host introduces him as a full-time advisor who worked with companies such as Canva, Airtable and Otter after nine years at Grammarly.
SEO audits
⏱ Untimed topicHe says a relatively inexpensive SEO audit, about 5 to 10 thousand dollars, is usually a good use of time because agencies have templates, and he points to Graphite as a high-end SEO shop.
Paid media is contracting
⏱ Untimed topicHe says paid media budgets are contracting, citing falling ad revenue at Meta and Snap, and that a consumer subscription payback target moved from about 12 months to six months or less.
Less tolerance for loose attribution
⏱ Untimed topicHe says with less runway and more focus on burn, sales that cannot be attributed get cut, which opens a chance for smarter attribution tools.
Conversion benchmarks
⏱ Untimed topicHe says a healthy visit-to-free-account rate for prosumer freemium products is about 20 to 35 percent, and free-to-paid under 5 percent is unlikely to work long term.
Onboarding
⏱ Untimed topicHe says onboarding is almost always worth investing in, that early-stage companies can see 2 to 4 times better activation, and later-stage ones maybe 20 to 30 percent.
Core Frameworks & Ideas
Give it a fair shot - Timen's test
Before dropping a channel, check whether it was designed to have a chance.
Payback window - Timen's observation
Shorter payback targets are now expected for paid media.
Customised onboarding - Timen's method
Use what you know about the user to guide them to their first result.
Actionable Next Steps
- ✓Review a channel you dropped and check whether it was given a fair test.
- ✓Calculate the payback period for each paid channel.
- ✓Compare your sign-up and free-to-paid rates with the benchmarks Timen cites.
- ✓Look at what new users see on the first screen and customise it to their goal.
Notable Quotes
“the only thing that's worse than that is when you didn't give it the appropriate shot”
“you can 2 to 4x activation rates easily through onboarding”
“i think anything under five percent is not gonna it's not gonna work long term”
The One Thing to Remember
Timen says a channel that fails because it was never given a proper shot is worse than one that truly does not work, and onboarding is almost always a big opportunity.