The $8 Billion+ B2B Marketing Strategy That Loses 10% Revenue in Month 1 (But Creates Unbreakable Customer Loyalty)
By Jason Lemkin
Rick Hondrickman, Vice President of Growth, Marketing, Sales & Success at RevenueCat, has a unique perspective on what sets their B2B marketing strategy apart from the rest. With $8 billion in annual subscription revenue and 5 out of 8 billion dollars coming from apps that started at zero revenue when they joined the platform, RevenueCat is crushing it in the in-app monetization space.
But how did they get there? And what's behind their remarkable success?
The Developer in the Corner Problem
Rick Hondrickman's journey to leading RevenueCat began with a simple question: "What killed deals?" He turned to their top (and only) AE and asked for an honest answer. The response was revealing:
“Leadership was on board, product was on board, marketing was on board, but there’d be a developer in the corner of the room just shaking their head.”
The developer didn’t believe RevenueCat actually cared about what they cared about. This insight sparked a complete rethinking of how to build trust with skeptical technical audiences.
A Marketing Approach So Authentic That Customers Now Volunteer to Quote Their Mission Statement on LinkedIn
Rick and his team realized that their mission-driven approach was the key to building trust with customers. They focused on creating a culture where customers felt like true partners, not just numbers in a funnel.
Here's a brutal but effective litmus test: Would your customers voluntarily wear your company mission on a t-shirt?
RRevenueCat’s mission is simple:
“Help apps make more money.”
This mission resonates with app developers, who would proudly display it on their t-shirts. In contrast, most SaaS missions are mired in corporate speak and focus on increasing shareholder value.
The Data Backs This Up
Edelman Trust’s 2024 research found that 65% of people globally said sharing values with companies they buy from is very important to them. For the 18-34 demographic, this number jumps to 80%. When your values align with your customers' values and they know it, your CAC drops and LTV increases.
Mission-Driven Marketing: Mission → Believability → Generosity → Revenue
Rick's approach is based on a simple yet powerful progression:
- Mission
- Believability
- Generosity
- Revenue
This sequence makes sense because you can only be generous (sharing unique insights, building useful tools, creating experiences) if customers believe you genuinely care about their success. And that generosity, compounded over time, generates more revenue by turning skeptics into advocates.
The Generosity Ladder: From Insights to Championship Revenue
Rick has developed a framework for escalating mission-driven tactics called the “Generosity Ladder.” Each rung increases in effort but creates deeper customer intimacy and becomes harder for competitors to copy:
- Share what you know through blogs, podcasts, and content.
- Build reusable tools and resources.
- Give customers the microphone.
- Collaborate on open source projects and joint research.
- Learnside by side through high-touch experiences.
- Let customers lead.
This ladder is designed to help companies build trust with their customers, one rung at a time.
Making Mission-Driven Marketing Work in Practice
Rick has distilled the key takeaways from his approach into four actionable tips:
- Align Your Pricing With Your Mission
- Don’t Ask for Social Proof
- Measure Mission Progress With Numbers
- Focus on Building Human Relationships
The Question Isn’t Whether You Can Afford to Invest in Mission-Driven Marketing
The question is whether you can afford not to.
Rick's approach has helped RevenueCat achieve remarkable success, but it's not just about the bottom line. It's about building a company that truly cares about customer success.