The original BALOMMON™ onboarding explained the app in three slides and asked people to sign up. Clean. Logical. All wrong.

I came across the Adapty State of In-App Subscriptions 2026 report this week – based on $3B in revenue across 16,000+ apps – and two numbers stopped me cold. 90% of trial starts happen on Day 0. And 77% of users never come back after their first session.

That first session is the whole game.

One of the report contributors, Hannah Parvaz of Aperture, framed it simply: conversion is a belief problem, not a pricing problem. By the time someone hits a sign-up wall, they are already asking three questions. Most apps answer none of them before the gate fires.

So I rebuilt the entire flow from scratch.

Now every audience that comes into BALOMMON™ App gets a simulation of their actual experience before they ever see an invitation request form.

Sponsors get to reveal a winner with a full induction ceremony – confetti, announcement, the full presentation moment. VIP Builders record a 30-second project video and see it live in the app before they commit. General Admission voters cast a simulated vote and feel the governance experience for themselves. Every path ends at the correct invitation request page on gaidechicago.org.

The onboarding is now the experience. Not slides about the experience.

If you are building an app with subscription income or an invitation gate, the Adapty 2026 report is worth reading. Build belief before you build the wall.

GAIDE™ Chicago is May 22 and 23, 2026. Invitation only. 100 Max. $2,375 in prizes decided by public vote. No VCs. No judges.

Request your invitation at gaidechicago.org.