These YC founders pivoted 5 times before building a social app that nabbed 300K users and over $1M ARR in 6 months

A mates of months ago, the founders down YC-backed societal app Candle were successful “pivot hell,” cycling done much than a twelve ideas aft joining Y Combinator’s Fall 2024 batch, portion the timepiece connected their effect wealth ticked down.

Alex Ruber, antecedently an technologist astatine Apple, and Parth Chopra, formerly an technologist astatine Asana and Twitter, had built aggregate projects unneurotic including Encore, a conversational AI buying instrumentality that got them into YC and with which they raised $2 million.

However, portion the tech worked, the portion economics didn’t, according to Ruber.

“The secondhand buying abstraction is simply a pugnacious marketplace to statesman with,” Ruber told TechCrunch. “To win, you either go similar Google Shopping oregon physique a truly beardown marketplace similar Whatnot oregon eBay. That wasn’t a people we wanted to pursue.”

What followed were months of accelerated experiments betwixt past December and April, with pivots astir ideas successful areas similar manner and sports, nary of which stuck. “We tried much than 10 antithetic ideas successful the span of 4 oregon 5 months,” Ruber said.

The unit began to strain their ain relationships with friends and partners, a acquainted communicative for galore early-stage founders. Ironically, that hostility sparked the thought that would yet click.

The archetypal mentation was simple: a swipeable platform of questions designed to spark conversations with their partners. Then an intern, present selling pb astatine the startup, shared a TikTok astir the app that went viral, unexpectedly gaining traction successful Europe.

Downloads surged, feedback poured in, and the squad leaned into the momentum. That aboriginal prototype has since evolved into Candle, a lightweight, gamified app that helps couples and adjacent friends enactment connected.

Image Credits:Candle

Six months aft launch, Candle has grown to 300,000 users, including 150,000 couples. The institution says much than 250,000 are progressive each month, with a DAU/MAU ratio of astir 50%, a beardown awesome of engagement for a user societal app and an aboriginal motion of regular wont potential. Candle has besides ranked successful Apple’s App Store apical 25 aggregate times.

Candle’s wedge is sustaining existing relationships with small, regular prompts and games alternatively than helping radical find caller ones. Users reply speedy questions, comparison results, stock photos, and support a “streak” that shows however consistently they’ve checked in. The mechanics are textbook mobile engagement aimed astatine Gen Z and young millennials.

In different atypical determination for a user societal app—but 1 much communal among newer AI-native products—monetization has travel early. Candle’s monthly gross precocious crossed $150,000, implying an yearly tally complaint supra $1 million.

The app runs connected a freemium model: the escaped tier offers regular prompts, photograph updates, and halfway games, portion premium unlocks other contented and features.

While maturation remains a precedence for the startup, monetizing aboriginal is simply a beardown awesome of product-market fit. “At the extremity of the day, this app helps radical fortify their connections. Most of it is free, but erstwhile users wage for other contented and features, it shows existent product-market fit,” the CEO said.

The months-old level is 1 of the fewer apps successful the space, alongside Paired and Couple Joy, designed to marque relationships much fun. These apps are tapping into a taste undertow wherever post-pandemic enactment habits, solo meals, and endless societal feeds person hollowed retired day-to-day connections and left radical successful the U.S. lonelier than ever.

For Candle, the stake is that the adjacent question of societal astatine standard volition beryllium little astir broadcasting to strangers and much astir making it easier to amusement up regular for a fewer adjacent people. That insight, combined with its laminitis and creator-led organisation motor crossed TikTok and Instagram, is however the squad hopes to debar the destiny of galore user societal apps that surge rapidly lone to stall months later.

Still, the large questions remain: durability and depth. Can a regular photo-and-game app prolong 12-, 24-, oregon 36-month retention curves? Can Candle grow from lightweight prompts into a broader suite of “connection types” without bloating the experience? Ruber and CTO Chopra accidental that’s the roadmap: adding much ways to gain “sparks,” the app’s constituent system, for a wider scope of interactions, and introducing richer features that beforehand consistency.

The effect wealth raised for the team’s earlier buying app volition present springiness Candle the resources to bring connected much engineers, velocity up experimentation, and standard faster. Existing backers, including Goodwater Capital, Pioneer Fund, Progression Fund, and Y Combinator, are afloat down the caller direction, Ruber said.