Consumer applications
Retention curves, and the cost of the next user.
App businesses are underwritten on cohort behaviour and platform risk. Buyers pull store console and advertising data directly, because summarised metrics in this category are rarely comparable between businesses.
Who acquires in this sector.
The buyer set determines the process. These are the parties we approach on a mandate here, and the reason each of them pays.
What moves the number, and what moves it back.
Both lists are what buyers in this sector actually examine. The first is where preparation earns its return. The second is where processes lose ground once diligence opens.
What lifts the multiple
Worth fixing twelve to twenty-four months before you go to market.
- Retention at day thirty and beyondThe curve that determines whether acquisition spend compounds or evaporates.
- Organic share of installsDemand that arrives without being bought is the most valuable line in the model.
- Monetisation per user and payback periodHow quickly a user repays the cost of acquiring them.
- Platform diversificationRevenue and distribution spread across stores, channels and geographies.
- Store ranking and review baseAccumulated position that a competitor would have to spend to displace.
What gets discounted
Found in diligence if it is not addressed first, and repriced when it is found.
- A single acquisition channelOne network or one campaign structure carrying installs is a concentrated, repriceable risk.
- Platform policy exposureBusinesses dependent on a permission, placement or policy that can change without notice.
- Declining cohorts masked by spendRevenue growth on worsening retention is valued as decline with a marketing budget.
- Contractor-owned code and assetsUnassigned work in the codebase or the art pipeline.
- Refunds and chargebacksSubscription reversals that are netted informally rather than accounted for.
How a process runs here.
Expect direct read access to the store consoles, the advertising accounts and the analytics stack. The practical preparation is making sure those sources agree with each other and with the accounts, because any gap between them becomes the buyer's opening argument on price.