Why we kill apps that don't hit D30 ≥ 15%
Retention is the studio's circuit breaker. Here is the rule, and why holding to it is the whole strategy.
At Synora the discipline is the product. We don't ship features hoping they land; we validate, measure, and let the numbers decide what gets resources and what gets cut.
Every decision routes back to two questions: does it retain, and does it compound across the portfolio? If the answer to both is no, it doesn't ship — no matter how good the demo looks.
This is build-in-public, so the real numbers — retention, CAC, margin — show up here as we learn them. Signals into systems.
Keep reading
How we validated an app before writing a line of code
A landing page, a waitlist and a $300 ad test told us more than a month of coding would have.
The 60–90 day build: what a one-person studio ships
Inside the cycle that turns a validated idea into a usable MVP — and the parts we deliberately leave out.
Model routing: keeping AI cost under the margin line
Cheap models for cheap jobs, mid-tier only for the work that matters, and caching everywhere. The margin lives here.