Investor update · September 2026
Summer is over. The engine is working. and September is proving it.
Over the last several months, WikiSleep has grown from a limited product to an entirely rebuilt one with an acquisition engine that is paying for itself. The first ten days of September have been the strongest we've ever had and we know exactly where and how to improve across the board.
+70%
Revenue, first ten days of September vs the same ten days in August
+49%
MRR growth over the last 90 days
44–47%
Trial-to-paid conversion, holding steady all summer
~1.2×
LTV:CAC in the US and Canada, July–August — up from 0.3× in May after the relaunch
TL;DR
- September is Accelerating. Revenue in the first ten days is up 70% on the same window in August and we're tracking toward our biggest month yet. Over the last 90 days MRR is up 49% and the paid subscriber base is up 41%.
- Paid Acquisition Pays for Itself Again. In July, every acquisition dollar in the US returned $1.62 in expected lifetime value, and $1.23 in Canada. August dipped in the US as the funnel leaked between install and trial, an issue we've since identified and are fixing, while Canada kept climbing.
- More Fuel, Better Mileage. We experimented by raising ad spend by 25% and cost per install fell on both channels (down to $2.97 on Meta). That's the opposite of what usually happens.
- The Funnel is Diagnosed. Installs work. Trial-to-paid works. The leak we've identified is getting people from install to free trial, and the fixes are already in development.
- B2B is Starting to Land. Sooke Harbour House goes live this month, Hotel Zed/Accent Inns is in conversation and 258 people are currently in a free WikiSleep trial through Therabox.
01 — Where we are
The year so far, without the spin
In late spring we launched V2 — a full rebuild with proper attribution, so every dollar and every tap is now measurable. The trade-off was starting the ad account from scratch and, as sometimes happens, our efficiency numbers cratered. But that gave us insight and actionable solves. Since then the trend has run one direction in the two markets that matter most. Canada has been above breakeven for three straight months and the US for two — a dollar of ad spend now brings back more than a dollar of expected subscriber value in both. The UK never got close and we've stopped spending there. From here, it's the US and Canada as our primary targets.
Lifetime value divided by cost to acquire a paying subscriber, all channels, by market. Above 1.0× means paid acquisition pays back. Canada had no paid spend in January. Source: WikiSleep August data, LTV:CAC tab.
It's worth noting that August was a dip. US Meta — our biggest channel — slipped from 1.62× in July to 1.15×, not because the ads got worse (installs went up), but because the cost of getting an install to start a trial rose from about $50 to $65. That's the leak I explore in the next section. September is showing our initial fixes are working: revenue for the first ten days is 70% ahead of August's, the paid base is up 41% on the quarter, and cost per install dropped on both Meta and Apple Search Ads the same week we raised spend. Every dollar is going to the channels that work.
02 — The funnel
Two of three stages are working. We know exactly which one needs work.
For the first time, we can see the whole funnel with real attribution instead of guessing. It breaks into three stages, and the picture is unusually clean:
Install
22 → 830
Working & ScalingMonthly US installs from Meta, April to August. Last week: 430 installs at $2.97 each on a budget 25% higher than the week before. More installs per dollar the more we spend — rare, and a sign the creative and targeting have found their groove.
Start a trial
$50 → $65
The LeakCost per trial start, July to August. People install and don't hit the paywall with intent. This is a product and messaging problem but it's one we are able to and are actively fixing.
Trial → paid
44–47%
Working & SteadyOnce someone starts a free trial, close to half convert to paid. That's the product doing its job: people fall asleep, and they come back.
The dip in August is actually good news: fixing a leak in the middle of a funnel is a known kind of problem with known solutions — onboarding, notifications, paywall tests, email. Fixing a product nobody wants isn't. We have the first problem, not the second.
03 — The levers
A subscription business that comes down to three numbers
Our team built a forecast model this mont, and the thing that clicked for me is how simple the levers become once the product works and the data is real: how much we spend, what it costs to acquire a paying subscriber and how many we keep. Everything we're working on maps to one of those three.
What surprised me is how little has to change. Shaving $40 off the cost of a subscriber or holding onto one more person in a hundred each month doesn't sound like much, but those gains apply to every dollar we spend afterward and they compound month over month. A few small tweaks turn a business that breaks even into one that funds its own growth. And these aren't mysteries: we can see exactly where the leak is, we know which tools close it — onboarding, notifications, paywall tests, email — and every one of them is already in motion. Tightening this up is work we know how to do.
Below is a live model. Drag the sliders and watch what happens to revenue. It assumes the raise is deployed into the channels that are working and that we finish the work already underway — nothing in it assumes we get lucky. The dashed line is the no-improvement case: August's churn, today's funnel, no partners.
What small tweaks do to revenue
Three things we're working on right now. The sliders start where we expect to be next quarter with the work already underway; the dashed line is what happens if nothing improves from August.
Ad spend divided by every new paying subscriber. Notifications, onboarding and paywall tests close the install-to-trial leak and pull this down.
Our weighted average this year. August, the worst month we've seen, was 9%, and that's where the dashed line sits. Win-back offers, nightly notifications and annual-plan nudges each shave a fraction of a point.
Hotels, subscription boxes, employer perks, on top of what ads bring, at near-zero cost. Fifty is the floor once the current deals are live: Sooke Harbour House plus one more hotel.
Held constant: the raise deploys into paid acquisition — ad budget ramps from today's ~$6K to $30K a month over nine months, then grows modestly. Revenue per subscriber at today's blended figure. US and Canada only.
today's monthly revenue, at month 24
Paid subscribers
Annual run rate
At these settings a new subscriber pays back in and returns what we spent to find them.
Try this: slide Fix the Funnel to $60 — this represents the funnel optimization already in progress. Then take churn to 5% with win-back offers and B2B to 100 as hotels and other partnerships land. This shows how simple nudges can have significant impacts.
Directional, not a promise. Starts from today's paid base; cost per subscriber is blended (ad spend divided by all new paying subscribers); B2B subscribers churn at the same rate as paid ones; revenue is before app store fees. The full model, with channel-level inputs and bear/base/bull scenarios, is available to any of you on a call with me and the team.
04 — What's shipping
Every item on this list moves one of the three levers
Permission prompt on the third open, then nightly nudges back into the app. The single biggest tool we didn't have for turning an install into a habit — and a habit into a trial. iOS first; Android follows.
Spec is with the developers. We'll test timing, offer and copy on the paywall itself, measured directly in RevenueCat. This is the cleanest shot at cost per trial.
Every new sign-up will get a note from me with an offer to jump on a 15-minute call. Cheap, personal and it's how you learn what's actually stopping people. Win-back emails to lapsed trials ship alongside it.
Two new ad formats in production, plus a new sound and brainwave library for the app — the white-noise style content our competitors lean on, which widens who we can win at the top of the funnel.
05 — Distribution beyond ads
The second engine, quietly starting
Paid ads are the engine we can measure to the penny. B2B is the one that runs in the background at near-zero cost: a rack card in a hotel room, an insert in a box, a perk in a benefits program. Each one is small on its own. Stacked, they're the difference between a good subscription business and a great one — and they're starting to stack. My working target once the hotel deals are live is a minimum of 75 new subscribers a month from B2B, before we spend a dollar on ads.
06 — Where you can help
Hotels & Hospitality. If you know anyone at a hotel group, a resort, or a short-term rental operator, that's my highest-value intro right now. The Sooke Harbour House playbook is a one-day setup we can repeat anywhere.
Employer Benefits. HR leads or benefits brokers who'd trial a sleep perk. Same low-cost, high-intent logic.
The round. The pre-seed is still open on the same terms you came in on. If you'd like to add, or know someone who should see this, reply and I'll set up a call with me and the team to walk the full model. Reminder: BC residents still get the 30% refundable EBC credit that can also be stackd with RRSP contributions.