May I Have Your Retention Please?

This week on May I Have Your Retention Please? we step beyond consumer apps and into consumer healthcare. Kathryn, founder of Anja Health, is building a cord blood banking startup that helps parents safeguard their child’s future health.She shares how she turned personal motivation into a company, grew it through TikTok, and raised $5M from top funds like 776 and Hustle Fund.Key TopicsTurning a personal story into a healthcare startupValidating through mom groups and early interviewsWhy 80% of customers came from TikTokWhich channel is having a “moment” right nowFundraising lessons: from cold DMs to closing $5MHow to build trust when marketing in healthcareAB testing sales materials with OB/GYNsThe importance of urgency and founder-product fit

In this episode of May I Have Your Retention Please?, we sit down with Harry Dixon, co-founder and CEO of one of the fastest-growing shopping apps in the world. Harry shares how scrappy hacks like “Burrito Gate” on college campuses turned into a playbook that scaled to millions of shoppers and even a #1 App Store ranking. We cover:how he got the very first users on the appwhat happened when they tried influencer marketingthe system behind their TikTok growththe onboarding trick every founder should knowwhy marketing is more technical than you thinkAbout CheckmateCheckmate is a shopping app that helps people save money with personalized deals and offers.

In this episode of May I Have Your Retention Please, I talk with Jay, the founder of Nomadtable, a fast-growing meetup app for solo travelers. Nomadtable connects travelers to activities and people nearby, making it easy to meet others while on the road.We cover how Jay bootstrapped from idea to 75,000 monthly active users and $18,000 MRR in under six months, the “ghost marketing” method he used to validate the concept before building, and the lessons learned from three MVP pivots. This conversation is a must-listen for anyone in the travel app, social networking, or consumer startup space.You’ll learn:How Nomadtable validated demand before writing codeWhy monetizing from day one worked in the travel marketThe onboarding and growth tactics that drove rapid adoptionHow to differentiate from competitors and copycatsThe importance of being your own target userWhy bootstrapping can be an advantage over raising VCPractical advice for founders building marketplace and travel appsAbout NomadtableNomadtable is a solo travel app that lets you instantly find and join activities with other travelers nearby, making it easy to meet people on the road.About the podcast"May I Have Your Retention Please?" is a podcast where we break down how the best consumer apps grow, retain, and delight their users. Each episode features tactical, no-fluff conversations with founders and builders who’ve done it.About the hostSaba Karim is a founder-turned-investor with a global network built from years of backing and advising startups. A seasoned public speaker and now a founder again, he leverages his investing experience and connections to build and grow products that people genuinely love.

Locket started as a birthday gift for one person — and became one of the most downloaded consumer apps in the world. In this episode, you’ll learn:How a private project between two people turned into a global product.Why the first TikTok video going viral wasn’t just luckThe surprising factor that kept user growth consistent beyond the spikeHow to turn authentic UGC into a repeatable growth engineThe retention metric that convinced them they had a businessWhy onboarding might not matter as much as you think (in the early days)The team structure that powers their in-house content machineHow to decide when to kill a feature — even if it’s “working”The mental model they use to decide what’s worth focusing on and the early signal that proved Locket had real staying powerThis is a masterclass in building a consumer app that people actually love — from finding early product-market fit to sustaining virality and keeping retention strong long after launch.•••••••••••••••About LocketLocket is a photo-sharing widget that lets you send pictures directly to friends’ home screens in real time. It turns everyday moments into a personal, instant connection without the noise of traditional social media.About the podcast"May I Have Your Retention Please?" is a podcast where we break down how the best consumer apps grow, retain, and delight their users. Each episode features tactical, no-fluff conversations with founders and builders who’ve done it.About the hostSaba Karim is a founder-turned-investor with a global network built from years of backing and advising startups. A seasoned public speaker and now a founder again, he leverages his investing experience and connections to build and grow products that people genuinely love.

Neil from Howbout joins Saba to break down how a simple idea — a better way to share time with friends — turned into one of the most downloaded social apps in Europe.With over 5 million users and 100 million+ events created, Howbout is quietly winning in a category most builders write off as dead. In this episode, Neil shares the scrappy tactics, surprising insights, and hard lessons behind their growth.You’ll hear:– How a meme account helped them get their first 1,000 users– Why "Chief Friendship Officer" isn't just a cute title — it’s a core growth lever– What happened when they tested invite walls in 2024 (hint: it still works)– How TikTok carousels outperformed video for viral reach– The small product detail that spiked retention (and almost didn’t ship)– What investors actually asked for in their Series A– How they handled the classic chicken-and-egg problem of social apps– And why branding came after product-market fit, not beforeNeil also opens up about building without a technical background, leading with intuition, and why most consumer founders are optimizing for the wrong things too early.If you're working on a consumer product — especially something social, utility-driven, or event-based — this episode is a goldmine.And yes, we get into the hard stuff too: churn, local network density, when to fake it, and what didn’t work at all.•••••••••••••••About HowboutHowbout is a social calendar app that makes it easy to find a time, pick a place, and get friends together. It replaces endless group chats with one shared space for invites, polls, and plans.About the podcast"May I Have Your Retention Please?" is a podcast where we break down how the best consumer apps grow, retain, and delight their users. Each episode features tactical, no-fluff conversations with founders and builders who’ve done it.About the hostSaba Karim is a founder-turned-investor with a global network built from years of backing and advising startups. A seasoned public speaker and now a founder again, he leverages his investing experience and connections to build and grow products that people genuinely love.

In this episode of May I Have Your Retention Please, we dive deep into what it actually takes to get a consumer app off the ground in 2025 — no funding, no team, and no paid ads required.We break down a tactical, unfiltered roadmap for indie founders who want to launch fast, test ideas without wasting months, and build products that spread without spending a dime. From microplastics to AI-generated babies, this episode covers the full stack of distribution, onboarding, and early traction — all through the lens of firsthand experience.We cover:– How to get your first 100–200 users using TikTok content that borrows from what’s already working– The importance of humility when launching — and why the best ideas come from remixing existing formats– A behind-the-scenes look at App Store Optimization: stealing your competitor’s keywords, mimicking their app icon, and why it actually works– Tap-to-reveal onboarding flows, AI-generated results, and the new black-box strategy used by top-ranking apps– Why some founders ask for App Store ratings before users even try the product — and how it impacts growth– Whether founder-led storytelling or light drama bait performs better online — and why a little exaggeration might be your best distribution tool– A contrarian take on paid ads: when they’re worth it, how to use them for learning, and how to turn winning ads into organic content– The unintended downsides of building in public — especially when your audience isn’t your customer– A framework for sequencing priorities: focus on acquisition → virality → retention, in that order– Real talk on retention metrics: when to track them, when to ignore them, and why revenue buys you the right to care laterThis one is a playbook for indie hackers, TikTok founders, solo devs, and anyone launching consumer products without a growth team or millions in venture capital. If you’re trying to figure out what to build, how to get attention, and how to turn strangers into users — this episode is for you.Let’s get into it.•••••••••••••••About the podcast"May I Have Your Retention Please?" is a podcast where we break down how the best consumer apps grow, retain, and delight their users. Each episode features tactical, no-fluff conversations with founders and builders who’ve done it.About the hostSaba Karim is a founder-turned-investor with a global network built from years of backing and advising startups. A seasoned public speaker and now a founder again, he leverages his investing experience and connections to build and grow products that people genuinely love.

In this episode of May I Have Your Retention Please, I sit down with Eric Singh — a Stanford-trained engineer turned full-blown growth hacker who's built multiple #1 consumer apps using tactics most founders have never even heard of. From faceless content to product-led growth, Eric breaks down exactly how to make an app go viral — and why most people completely mess it up.Eric’s first app hit 1,500 users on day one. Since then, he’s:– Built and scaled Habitat, the #1 social habit tracker on the App Store– Created a TikTok for travel called Reverie, then pivoted to Rezz to solve a real problem: mapping saved spots from Instagram and TikTok– Unlocked 8 million views in seven weeks with a viral video strategy involving Anthony Bourdain quotes– Figured out how to run 800+ social posts per month across 12 accounts using custom automations– And most importantly, learned why views don’t always equal users — and what to do about itWe dig into:– How product-led growth actually works (and why most apps don't do it right)– The difference between invite lock vs. invite block– Why you shouldn't let users into your app without friends– The truth about ASO and whether it's still worth optimizing for– How faceless content works, what makes it convert, and how to build a system that scales– The Anthony Bourdain hack that pushed one of his apps to thousands of users– Why most TikTok videos fail and how to A/B test your way out of zero-view jail– Why you need to optimize for conversion, not just virality– How Eric builds automations that generate content at scale– The real mindset of someone who understands consumer distribution at the deepest levelWe also talk about:– How many phones he runs simultaneously– What founders get wrong about Reels– What metrics actually matter when you're testing creative– Why growth isn’t about guessing — it’s about iteration, volume, and precisionQuickfire at the end:– Where Eric met his co-founder– Would he sell for $10M?– Favorite apps right now– What he checks first thing in the morning– Why he believes distribution > productIf you’re a founder building anything in consumer, mobile, or social — or just trying to make your TikToks actually drive installs — this one’s for you.Listen now and subscribe for more no-fluff convos with the best consumer builders of 2025.•••••••••••••••About the podcast"May I Have Your Retention Please?" is a podcast where we break down how the best consumer apps grow, retain, and delight their users. Each episode features tactical, no-fluff conversations with founders and builders who’ve done it.About the hostSaba Karim is a founder-turned-investor with a global network built from years of backing and advising startups. A seasoned public speaker and now a founder again, he leverages his investing experience and connections to build and grow products that people genuinely love.

In this episode of May I Have Your Retention Please, I sit down with Drew Levin — the 23-year-old co-founder of Side Shift, one of the fastest-growing creator marketplaces in the U.S. Built for Gen Z, Side Shift connects student creators with brands, apps, and companies looking for distribution — and it’s doing it at scale.In May alone, they hit the Top 50 on the App Store, pulled in 45,000 downloads, and had to pause marketing just to keep supply and demand balanced. Oh, and they’ve done it all bootstrapped.But it didn’t start with virality. In fact, it started with something far less glamorous: handing out flyers from a Honda Civic on college campuses and pitching local bars. Drew walks us through how that hustle eventually evolved into a powerful growth engine and why their early cease-and-desist moment actually fueled the pivot.We dig into:- Why Drew and team used flyers, cold calls, and TikToks to onboard their first 14,000 users- The exact viral video that brought in 20,000+ users overnight- How they engineered a K-factor loop by bundling analytics into their platform- Why being in New York changed everything — and why founders need to be near their users- How Side Shift focuses on power users, not just more users — and why 20% of their creators drive 80% of the revenue- The pros and cons of UGC at scale, the rise of AI-generated content, and why TikTok might eventually clamp down- Why Side Shift is now one of Stripe’s fastest-growing companies globallyWe also talk about:- Why Drew believes revenue > fundraising, and why chasing a $100M business is often smarter than aiming for $1B- The team's obsession with customer feedback, and why they still call almost every new user- Tactical lessons on product-led growth, campaign performance metrics, and how to avoid “dead” marketplaces- Hot takes on the future of AI content, TikTok saturation, and why founders need to make content themselves before outsourcing itYou’ll also hear:- The internal metric that predicts long-term creator retention- How Side Shift thinks about virality, saturation, and market equilibrium- Drew’s take on why AI-generated UGC might eventually break TikTok- A few spicy mentions (including cloning rumors) and how they’re protecting their creatorsThis isn’t a fluff story. It’s tactical, raw, and loaded with lessons for anyone building a consumer product in 2025 — especially those in marketplaces, social apps, or the creator economy. Whether you’re experimenting with TikTok, trying to hack your App Store rankings, or wondering how to scale without a budget, Drew’s story offers an honest and incredibly useful roadmap.Quickfire at the end:- Would he sell for $10M after tax? (spoiler: no)- Favorite apps right now- What app he checks first thing in the morning- The philosophy that shapes how he and his co-founders operateIf you’re a founder building anything in consumer, creator economy, or mobile, this one’s for you. And if you’ve ever questioned whether TikTok is still worth it… you’ll have your answer by the end of this episode.Listen now and subscribe for more no-fluff convos with the best consumer builders of 2025.