Episode Details

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Matthieu Rouif is the co-founder and CEO of PhotoRoom. PhotoRoom enables anyone to create studio-quality photos on their iPhone. Before founding PhotoRoom, Matthieu was the Senior Project Manager at GoPro. Matthieu is also the co-founder and CTO of HeyCrowd, and co-founder and CEO of As-App.

Matthieu earned his graduate degree in materials science and engineering from Stanford University, and his bachelor’s degrees in economics, and physics from École Polytechnique. While at École Polytechnique, Matthieu was a member of the skydiving team and debate team. Matthieu also served as a Parachutist Commando Officer in the French Air Force.

Matthieu started developing apps in 2009 as a student at Stanford, and subsequently started two iPhone app companies. He was part of the Replay app team when they won App of the Year in 2014. Matthieu started PhotoRoom after leaving GoPro in 2018.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Matthieu’s retention strategies for keeping app users subscribed
• Innovative and clever ways to get users to demo your app
• Balancing your app’s pricing and features
• How churn can be an asset

Links & Resources

• YC
• HeyCrowd
• GoPro
• Photoshop
• Zenlea
• Shopify
• Poshmark
• Depop
• Corel

Matthieu Rouif’s Links

• Matthieu on Twitter
• Matthieu on LinkendIn
• PhotoRoom is hiring!
• 10 Tools to Ship an iOS App in 2 Weeks
• PhotoRoom’s Website
• PhotoRoom API
• PhotoRoom on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter:

• David Barnard
• Jacob Eiting
• RevenueCat
• Sub Club

Episode Transcript

00:00:00 David:

Hello, I’m your host, David Barnard. And with me as always, Jacob Eiting, RevenueCat CEO. Our guest today is Matt Rouif, co-founder and CEO at PhotoRoom, the app for removing backgrounds and creating studio quality photos right from your phone.

On the podcast, we talk with Matt about how his time at GoPro led to founding PhotoRoom, how churn can actually be an asset, and how being locked in Apple’s basement led to one of PhotoRoom’s biggest marketing wins.

Hey, Matt. Thanks for joining us on the podcast today. How are you doing?

00:00:48 Matthieu:

Great. Hey David, Hey Jacob.

00:00:51 Jacob:

Hi, it’s nice to finally meet internet/virtual face-to-face. We’ve known each other for a little while. I’ve become fortunate to know you kind of through RevenueCat, but not actually know-know you. So, it’s nice to finally put a face to the name.

I was looking back through my email and I think the first I ever heard of you was from our mutual friend,