Shows
ExperiMENTAL Marketing | Playbooks to measure and scale Marketing ROIHow to not f*ck up CRM onboarding | Karan Tibdewal (Blinkist, MyFitnessPal, HelloFresh)Mastering CRM: From Paper Notes to Lifecycle GrowthIn this episode of ExperiMENTAL, host Sundar sits down with Karan Tibdewal, The CRM Guy™️ and trusted CRM advisor to top subscription apps. Together, they trace CRM's journey from Rolodex-era notes to today’s role as a strategic lever for growth. Whether you’re leading lifecycle marketing or wondering if CRM is still relevant, this episode reveals what great looks like, what most teams miss, and why onboarding might be completely broken. With practical frameworks and sharp insights, this is CRM like you’ve never heard it before.
2025-10-0249 min
LTV Talks with Karan#32: What can brands learn from Content creators? Engaging at scale, building loyalty through content with Ines Lee (Founder @ Seni Studios)SummaryIn this conversation, we explore the intricate relationship between content creation and branding. We discuss how and what can brands learn from successful content creators, the importance of understanding user personas, and the role of tone of voice in building brand loyalty. Ines shares her journey from academia to the creator economy, emphasizing the need for a consistent brand voice and the potential of AI tools in content marketing. The discussion highlights the significance of distilling complex ideas into engaging content and the future of content creation in a competitive...
2025-09-2352 min
LTV Talks with Karan#31: Building an AI Data Engineer for Lifecycle Marketers - What Can an AI Data Agent Actually Do for Lifecycle Marketing - Ishan Rakshit (Co-founder @ Sortment | Forbes 30u30)This episode explores how AI data agents promise to unlock speed, autonomy, and strategic clarity that lifecycle marketing teams have been waiting for — by removing their biggest blocker: access to usable, contextual data.Through a conversation with Ishan Rakshit (Co-founder @ Sortment), we dive into how AI is shifting from being a creative assistant to becoming a deeply integrated data teammate — helping CRM teams move from ticket requests to instant, insight-driven execution.I honestly feel this is one of the most insightful episode of my podcast so far. Some of the key topics we d...
2025-07-0345 min
LTV Talks with Karan#30: How to Structure and Apply Cognitive Biases to Improve User Metrics with Angèle Lenglemetz (Product @ Cleo AI, ex-Wise)Cognitive biases shape how users make decisions, but how do you apply them strategically in product, CRM, and growth—without relying on gimmicks? How do you choose and prioritise which biases can help your users?In this episode of LTV Talks, I sit down with Angele Lenglemetz, Senior Product Manager at Cleo AI, to explore the right (and wrong) ways to use cognitive biases in your work. Angele shares how she evolved from using psychological tricks as quick wins to systematically integrating behavioral science into product strategy.We cover:✅ How to choose the right cogn...
2025-03-0849 min
LTV Talks with Karan#29 Bridging CRM & Data: Measuring Impact, ROI on your CRM Investment, Avoiding Pitfalls, and Building a Smarter Retention Strategy with Dr. Tim Wiegels (ex-VP Data at FreeNow)In this conversation, I speak with Dr. Tim Wiegels explore the intricacies of CRM data, focusing on effective measurement strategies, common pitfalls in CRM teams, and the importance of understanding the broader business context.Tim shares his journey from academia to data leadership, emphasizing the need for CRM teams to align their metrics with overall business goals and to avoid siloed thinking. The discussion also touches on the challenges of managing control groups and the potential overload of CRM tools, advocating for a more strategic approach to data utilization.In this conversation, wel discuss the...
2025-02-1055 min
LTV Talks with Karan#28:Challenges of lifecycle marketing, the significance of personalization, and strategies for maximizing impact while minimizing effort with Sundar Swaminathan (ExperiMENTAL, ex-Uber)Summary
In this conversation, I interview Sundar Swaminathan, a marketing data science leader, about his journey from software development to B2C marketing analytics.
Sundar shares insights from his time at Uber, emphasizing the importance of a data-driven culture and psychological safety in fostering innovation.
We discuss the challenges of lifecycle marketing, the significance of personalization, and strategies for maximizing impact while minimizing effort. The conversation highlights the need for clear lifecycle definitions and the role of leadership in creating an environment conducive to data-driven decision-making.
In this conversation, Sundar and...
2025-01-2256 min
LTV Talks with Karan#27: Mastering User Retention Playbook with Google's NotebookLM Audio OverviewHere's an experimental podcast episode, created entirely by Google's NotebookLM. When I was starting out, this playbook from Amplitude was the most helpful resource that I found, studied and applied as cleanly as possible. It's a comprehensive guide to mastering user retention, which is crucial for achieving sustainable product growth.
The playbook emphasises that retaining existing users is as important as acquiring new ones, and that focusing on retention impacts all critical business metrics. The central theme is the Retention Lifecycle Framework, which categorises users into four stages: New Users, Current Users, Resurrected Users, an...
2024-10-0614 min
LTV Talks with Karan#26: Insights on monetising subscriptions, Importance of focusing on fundamentals, Experimentation mistakes & more with ex-Growth Lead at Codeacademy - Daniel Layfield (Founder @ Subscription Index)In this conversation, Daniel Layfield, former Growth Lead at Code Academy & founder of Subscription Index shares insights on monetizing subscription businesses. He discusses his transition from JP Morgan to Code Academy and the challenges of transitioning to a subscription model.
Daniel emphasizes the importance of focusing on the fundamentals of pricing, paywalls, checkout pages, and churn tactics. He also highlights the significance of metrics and data analysis in optimizing monetization. Additionally, Daniel discusses team structures, the balance between speed and accuracy in product development, and the impact of unnecessary complexity on velocity. The conversation covers topics such...
2024-09-0249 min
LTV Talks with Karan#25: How to make reporting work for CRM teams. The Importance of regular check-ins & sharing of results. Connecting business outcomes with CRM campaigns with Giulia Penna (Director of Growth @ Clue)Giulia Penna, Director of Growth at Clue, discusses the topic of reporting in CRM teams and organisations. She shares her career progression, from working in startups to becoming a freelancer before joining Clue.
Giulia highlights the importance of reporting in CRM and the challenges she faced when she joined the company. She emphasizes the need for structure, planning, and reliable reporting to measure the impact of CRM campaigns.
We also discussed the evolution of CRM and the changing expectations in reporting and attribution. In this conversation, Giulia discusses the importance of clear communication and oversharing...
2024-08-2659 min
LTV Talks with Karan#24: [Conference Talk]: How we 2x'd impact of CRM on M1 Retention featuring Lifesum.In this talk, I described an onboarding case study with a health & fitness app called Lifesum. We used behavioral psychology research to create an onboarding checklist program and delivered it entirely through CRM channels.
The talk goes through the key steps in delivering and measuring such projects through understanding CRM leverage, having the right team mindset as well as staying away from some key data traps.
2024-07-2727 min
LTV Talks with Karan#23: Allison Bryant - Senior Lifecycle Manager at 10 percent Happier: Scaling up from a 1-person CRM team - experiences with prioritisation, setting expectations and proving impact.Summary
In this episode, I interview Allison Bryant, a senior lifecycle marketer at 10 percent Happier.
Allison shares her experience of starting a team from scratch and building marketing infrastructure for the company's growth. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the customer journey and collaborating with other teams. Allison also discusses the role of CRM as a force multiplier and the need for prioritization in driving impactful initiatives.
In this conversation, Allison discusses various strategies and tactics for increasing engagement and preventing churn in a meditation app. She shares insights on the power of...
2024-02-291h 03
LTV Talks with Karan#22: Janet Mao (Senior Product Manager) - A Product Manager's confessions, challenges, learnings & observations collaborating with a CRM team to drive business objectives.Episode Summary
Janet Mao, an experienced product professional (previously at Blinkist), discusses the collaboration between product and CRM teams. She shares her career trajectory and highlights the importance of CRM in product development. Janet explains the challenges faced when working together and provides advice for CRM professionals on collaborating with product teams. In this conversation, Janet and Karan discuss the collaboration between CRM and product teams. They share examples of how merging features and using CRM as a testing ground can lead to increased engagement and adoption. They also explore the idea of a shared CRM resource...
2024-02-1954 min
LTV Talks with Karan#21: Annalize van Deijl (Head of CRM at Mr. D Foods) How do you get into CRM, why is it so hard to develop and hire CRM talent? The role of data, tech, ops, user psychology, strategic CRM thinkingIn this episode, I had a chance to talk with Annalize van Deijl (Head of CRM at Mr. D Foods) about a topic that's always been fascinating - how does someone get into and excel in CRM. In the hour, we spoke about Annalize's journey from being a cabin crew at Emirates to being a Head of CRM, and how CRM as a field has evolved over time. Often folks start out in CRM, with a data, tech or ops background, Annalize talks about what she looks in new hires and much more!
2024-01-171h 00
LTV Talks with Karan#20: Monetisation for subscription apps, using ML & Al for innovation & monetisation, building a subscription package with Lana Dubinsky (Product Advisor)In this episode, I spoke with Lana Dubinsky. Lana comes with tons of monetisation experience with her prior roles as Senior Director of Product at IMVU. More recently, she also found Women & AI. She works independently as a product advisor to a lot of gaming companies.
Lana discusses how she had been already using machine learning (ML) to foster monetisation & innovation at companies before gen AI became a rage. It was an interesting conversation, that I hope you can also get some value out of! Enjoy!
2023-12-2151 min
LTV Talks with Karan#19: Recipe for CRM transformation projects, how to train and build a CRM team, driving business growth through lifecycle marketing, and more with Emmanuelle Arrault (VP of CRM at Deezer)In this week's episode, I speak with Emmanuelle Arrault, VP of CRM at Deezer. She was previously Head of Customer Engagement with Betclic and Director of CRM Strategy at Sephora.
We talk about the role of data in CRM over the years, CRM team structures over the years and the playbook to build and train a CRM team for business growth.
You can reach out to Emma through her LinkedIn profile here.
I host 1-hour sessions to help CRM teams get trained on important lifecycle marketing aspects. You can check it out here.
2023-10-281h 01LTV Talks with Karan#18: [Conference Talk]: Crafting Reward Programs via Advanced CRM - How we Increased Subscriber Engagement by 300% at App Promotion Summit (San Francisco)In this episode, I am sharing a recent talk I gave at the App Promotion Summit demonstrating my projects with Blacklane & Blinkist.
You can check out the entire talk, also from other speakers here.
2023-10-1314 min
LTV Talks with Karan#17: Misconceptions about CRM & Lifecycle Marketing with Nina Pollex (Senior Director of CRM at Paramount)In this episode, me and Nina talk about common misconceptions or topics that receive undue attention sometimes in the customer engagement space. Most CRM teams find themselves at some stage talking about
👉 Email marketing topics such as email designs,
👉 Subject line testing - should we go short, long, funny, etc.
👉 Personalization in lifecycle marketing - how & when to do this effectively?
👉 Gamification - but struggle to see whether they create any business impact.
You can reach out to Nina on her Linkedin & do let us know if there are...
2023-10-0449 min
LTV Talks with Karan#16: Accelerating CRM and customer data projects: faster time-to-value & better business outcomes - lessons from Thierry Sequeira (CEO of Massive Rocket, leading global Braze Consultancy.For this episode, I spoke with Thiery Sequeira - CEO of Massive Rocket. Massive Rocket has been accelerating CRM & customer data projects for brands all across the world.
Thiery shares his journey of creating Massive Rocket & his early experiences working with CRM tools. He shares his insights on how the industry has evolved over the last few years & how Massive Rocket has been helping clients get to value, quickly.
I hope you enjoy the episode and consider rating it - if you enjoyed it.
2023-09-1856 min
LTV Talks with Karan#15: Insights that subscription app developers should focus on, how to get to key insights for your business without the fuss with Dara Hizveren (Chief Builder at Madduck Insights)Dara & Madduck started by creating their own apps & they were successful. Then they failed at a few. During the process, they found a way to systemise insights & focus areas for subscription app developers. They've been helping app developers ever since through Madduck Publishing & Insights.
In this episode, we talk about the journey of getting to Madduck insights & some observations from the sometimes confusing world of growth for app developers.
You can reach out to Dara on his Linkedin, or you can integrate Madduck in less than 5 minutes on their...
2023-09-1258 min
LTV Talks with Karan#14: Journey from Junior to Head of CRM Europe, CRM training & mentorship, CRM onboarding & rebranding projects at Delivery Hero with Tobias Lüder (Head of CRM, Europe at Delivery Hero)In this episode, I spoke with Tobias - Head of CRM Europe at Delivery Hero.
We spoke about how Tobi transitioned from starting his journey at Delivery Hero in CRM to now leading a team of CRM specialists. We also talk about what CRM migrations & rebranding projects entail - both in terms of strategy & execution.
You can reach out to Tobias on his LinkedIn profile here.
2023-09-0650 min
LTV Talks with Karan#13 CRM for fintech - Building trust with users, team setup, challenges & opportunities with Andrei Dinca (CRM Lead @ Wise)Our guest for this episode is Andrei Dinca, the CRM lead at Wise. Andrei has also previously worked as an independent consultant as well as a Senior CRM manager at Memrise.
Wise is a UK-based foreign exchange financial technology company founded by Estonian businessmen Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011.
In this episode, we discuss how CRM can be a lever for Growth for Fintech companies.
We explore the key facets of developing a well-functioning CRM team at a Fintech company such as CRM team setup, measurement of CRM impact on Gro...
2023-08-071h 04
LTV Talks with Karan#12: The guide to subscription management and growth for mobile apps with Michael (CEO @ Qonversion IO)I interview Micahel - Co-founder & CEO of Qonversion IO in this episode.
We discuss the pain points of managing subscriptions for mobile apps at various growth stages. We briefly also discuss Michael's journey from a Physics background to building a company to help app developers with their subscriptions.
I found Michael's journey fascinating as he drops a lot of insights into how the industry & space has evolved over the last 4-6 years. Finally, team structure & organisation roles are still unclear for a lot of apps & Michael talks about what is the secret sauce based on h...
2023-07-3159 min
LTV Talks with Karan#11: Evolution of CRM & its transition to being a Product function with Roma Sieradzka (Head of CRM @ Lovoo)In today’s episode, I spoke to Roma who is currently the Head of CRM at Lovoo about her views on the evolution of CRM into being a product function. Her CRM team recently moved from being a Marketing function to being a Product function.
We talk about Roma's journey from being a budding journalist to currently heading the department at Lovoo. We talk about how CRM has evolved over the years from being a promotion centre for brands to a crucial retention driver for apps & brands.
Founded in 2012, LOV...
2023-07-2157 min
LTV Talks with Karan#10: Email deliverability Masterclass with Anne Sophie Marsh (Deliverability Consultant at Iterable)In this episode of LTV Talks, we talk about email deliverability. In the fight against spam, ISPs (Internet Service Providers) put more and more restrictions on access to the user’s mailbox. This all works to the users’ benefit – it lets them have a clean mailbox with content they want to receive and an experience they expect. Anne-Sophie is a deliverability consultant at Iterable and has over 10 years of experience in the field helping brands improve how they reach their users.
In this episode, we go into the details of deliverability. We discuss:
Why ema...
2023-06-261h 08
LTV Talks with Karan#09: A deep-dive into mobile paywalls & onboarding for subscription apps with Nikita Maidanov (Founder at Paywall.tips)In this week's episode, I interview Nikita who has a unique view of looking at paywall optimisations & onboarding. He has a strong developer background & has led various product teams at Adapty, Welps, Wheely, etc.
The episode is focused on understanding Nikita's approach to identifying app developers' key problems & generating a solution for these problems, especially around conversions. App developers & marketers working for subscription apps will find a lot of key insights in the episode, coming from a very rich & practical experience in the field.
Background on Nikita:
Nikita currently is the founder of...
2023-06-1648 min
LTV Talks with Karan#08: Driving organic app growth at HER through experiments with Jakub Chour (Growth at HER app)In this episode, I had the pleasure to interview Jakub Chour who is driving growth for HER app (a FLINTA dating & community work). We discuss his team's approach to leading organic growth initiatives & his learnings from various product growth experiments.
Our guest for this episode is Jakub Chour, a growth expert with over 5 years of experience helping apps drive growth through various methods including SEO, Subscription pricing, app store optimization (ASO) & more.
We discussed various topics during this conversation & you can find some of the key topics below:
Being a T-shaped marketer: Jakub is...
2023-05-1044 min
LTV Talks with Karan#07: Diversifying your app monetisation strategy with Jenny Kay Pollock (Lead Monetization Program Manager @ Together Labs: Creators Of VCOIN, IMVU & WithMe)Jenny Kay Pollock leads monetization at Together Labs, where she focuses on strategies that help keep IMVU a top social app. Previously, she drove customer strategy for an ad tech company and created systems to manage customer relationships for two leading augmented reality startups. Jenny routinely speaks on mobile monetization, women in the workplace, and building a tech career. She has published on these topics in outlets like Forbes, Hackernoon and Ellevate.
In this episode, we talk about Jenny's framework for diversifying your monetization strategy, and her qualitative background that helps her to have a uniq...
2023-05-0341 min
LTV Talks with Karan#06: How to position & use CRM as a key Growth function with Karan Gupta (Global Head of CRM at Marley Spoon)In this week's episode, I chatted with Karan Gupta, currently leading CRM at Marley Spoon. He previously has also worked with Grover where he helped them reduce net customer churn to less than 1% from 7% within 6 months as well as transformed and optimized core engagement & retention metrics during the Black Friday mania: Activation rate (+52%), upsell rate (+140%), reactivation rate (+83%), win-back rate (+58%). He played an instrumental role in evolving Marley Spoon's CRM team to cope with their hypergrowth phase as well.
Some of the topics we covered in the session:
How Karan helped Grover's CRM team ev...
2023-04-2356 min
LTV Talks with Karan#05: Retention Strategy Masterclass with Ioana Iordache (Global Head of Retention at Blacklane)In this episode/masterclass on retention strategies, I sit down with Ioana Iordache, Global Head of Retention at Blacklane, to discuss all things retention and engagement.
Join us as we dive into Ioana's unique background and path to working at Blacklane, how the team structures and understands retention given the complexity of their audience system, and Blacklane's north star for retention on both the chauffeur and passenger sides.
We also discuss our recent joint project, the Rewards Framework for Chauffeurs, and the importance of using solid frameworks as the base of your retention projects. Plus...
2023-04-1050 min
App Revenue Growth Podcast with Michael StysinEp.14. How to Reduce Subscription App Churn. Karan TibdewalKaran Tibdewal is a Growth Consultant Expert focusing on Mobile Retention. He is current advisor of Ada Health, Blinkist, Deezer, Blacklane, ad other successful apps, helping them with long-term user retention, subscription optimization & monetization. Check out Karan's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karantibdewal/
01:30 what’s behind of 27% improvement in win-back campaign results
04:50 channels to use for win-back campaigns
07:50 push notifications should be super actionable, and Duolingo is a good reference
08:37 what to offer to a client during a win-back campaign
10:30 perfect win-backs and cancellation flows: Spotify, Class Pass, Elevate Labs, Fabulous app
14:54 specific of...
2023-04-0422 min
LTV Talks with Karan#04: In-depth look at how tools like Adapty are helping app developers make more revenue with Maya Shamray (Product Manager at Adapty)In this one, I sat down with Maya Shamray (Product Manager at Adapty.io) for a candid & exciting chat on tools, tactics & strategies for subscription optimisation for app developers. What tools they can use, which team structures work better, what can you A/B test for maximal impact, hybrid pricing, & how app developers should use benchmarks, among other things.
Since Maya Shamray is working really closely with thousand of app developers and is on the front line of helping create a solution, it was fascinating to get her perspective on the following:
2023-03-271h 06
LTV Talks with Karan#03: How to design a more ethical user experience AND drive more conversions for your subscription apps with Jaycee Day (Senior Product Designer at GitHub)In this episode, I spoke with Jaycee Day, a Senior Product Designer at GitHub. She previously worked at Blinkist where she helped them drive a 23% increase in trial conversion, a 55% reduction in customer complaints & a 1000%+ increase in push opt-in rates. The paywall she designed along with the team is now being prescribed by both Apple & Google. In this episode we talk about:
The BLINKIST paywall & process Jaycee & the team used to get there. The paywall, which is now prescribed by both Apple & Google led to a 23% increase in trial conversion, a 1000% increase in push opt-ins & 55% reduction in customer...
2023-03-1950 min
LTV Talks with Karan#02: How CRM teams can use AI & ML (Machine Learning) to optimise push notifications with James Laurain - Head of Growth @ AampeIn the episode, we cover a lot of interesting subjects - such as
1️⃣ James's journey from being a medical device engineer to being the head of growth at Aampe.
2️⃣ Discussed how a consultant like myself would approach setting up CRM for a client & how Aampe can help you do the same while generating a higher volume of insights & positions the CRM team to be an insight generator for the organisation.
3️⃣ Thoughts on why user journeys might be too static & where the current pain points and obstacles are for CRM teams in the way we are used...
2023-03-0153 min
LTV Talks with Karan#01 How to setup & optimise your app's Monetisation strategy - Vahe Baghdasaryan (Sr. Growth Marketing Manager @ Coinstats)In this episode, me & Vahe talk about
His early days at Coinstats
How apps can optimise their monetisation strategies - Willingness to pay surveys, Geo-testing, Pricing tests on platforms, etc.
Opinions on using industry best-practices - does video paywall, or long-form paywall a proven success tactic?
Metrics that you need for an overview of your subscription performance.
2023-02-1736 min
People's StoriesKaran Tibdewal : Freelance CRM consultant #32Karan has been born and raised in India but has made his mark in many countries including France and Germany. Growing up, he knew what he wanted and never shied away from expressing his opinions. This also shows in his career trajectory where he moved from being a civil engineer to a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) consultant and provides independent freelancing services. If you are interested to know how the CRM space looks like, the skills that will help you shine, how to manage your stress in high pressure situations, as well as the details on perusing Master in...
2022-09-2034 min
Business of Apps Podcast#31: A/B Testing for an app with Karan Tibdewal, Growth Consultant at PhitureWhen developing an app, the work of many is put together. It’s a combination of art, math, and marketing expertise that equates with users to uncover uncertainty through A/B testing.
A/B testing for mobile apps is one of the key techniques to make sure the app meets its users expectations and keep them engaged.
Today’s guest is Karan Tibdewal of Phiture, a mobile growth consulting company that assists clients with ASO, Apple search ads, mining user retention, growth consulting and A/B testing.
Today’s Topics Include:
✔️ A/B Testing: Impo...
2020-08-1020 min