UNDERBOSSMEDIAFree teardown

A subscription marketing agency that starts before the free trial.

Underboss Media is a subscription marketing agency for consumer subscription apps and subscription boxes. It builds short-form video formats on the company's own Instagram, TikTok and YouTube accounts, so people know the brand before a trial or a first order. Paid budget goes only behind pieces that already worked organically. Retention work inside the product is not sold.

Want to know how many of your next subscribers could arrive already knowing your name?

Show me what you would doSee how it works
Rented stops, owned keeps goingSpend stopsRentedOwned+50%second-purchase rate, one DTC brandthird-purchase rate up 40% on the same brandFig. 01, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube
+50%Second-purchase rate, one DTC brand
+40%Third-purchase rate, same DTC brand
10,000Waitlist at $0 paid, our own app

This is for consumer subscription apps and subscription boxes. You get video formats on your own accounts, built so people know and choose your brand before they see a trial offer. The score is branded search, the count of people looking for you by name. Paid budget only goes behind pieces that already worked, on your ad account. A playbook and training for your team run over twelve months, month to month, and you can cancel in any month. You keep the accounts, the formats and the playbook either way. Churn work inside your product is not sold here. Start with a free written teardown, back in three days, with no call.

Show me what you would do

Four reasons a low trial cost can still lose you money.

Subscription marketing is usually judged on the cost of a trial or a first box. That number is easy to push down and easy to misread. It comes from an ad platform's own report, and those reports are estimates. When researchers checked standard ad measurement against Facebook's own experiments, the standard methods missed the real effect.

1.6BAd impressions in Facebook's own measurement testsStandard measurement missed it. Gordon et al, Marketing Science, 2019
The offer does the choosing.A free month or a half-price first box brings in people who wanted the deal. They did not pick your brand over another one. When the price returns to normal, many of them have no reason to stay, and you paid to find that out.
The count stops at the trial.A report that ends at trial starts or first orders hides the payment that matters, which is the second one. You can hit your trial target every month and still watch revenue stay flat. The target was met and the business did not move.
Every subscriber is bought from zero.With ads as your only source, next month's subscribers cost as much as this month's, or more. Nothing you paid for last quarter keeps bringing people in. Your own channel works differently, because a video format that worked in spring can still be watched in summer.
Nobody knows you before the paywall.A subscription asks for a card and a standing commitment. That is a lot to ask of someone who met you ten seconds ago in an ad. People who have watched your videos for weeks arrive with most of the decision already made.
“You can buy a trial. You cannot buy the reason someone stays.”

Two things your subscription keeps when the ads are off.

Both are in your company's name from the first week.

01OWNED

The Engine

Short-form video formats built around what your subscription is like to use or to open, posted from your own Instagram, TikTok and YouTube accounts. For a box, that can be what arrives each month. For an app, it is the moment the product earns its place in someone's day. Each format is kept only if more people search for your brand by name afterwards. Pieces that worked for free get paid budget on your own ad account, and nothing else is advertised. You approve the topics, and the logins never leave your hands.

02OWNED

The Playbook

A written record of the engine, kept up to date as it runs. It sets out how a topic is chosen, what the opening of a video has to do, how each piece is shot and cut, and the rule for dropping a format. A person on your team takes over one task at a time, with each piece checked before it is posted. Your subscribers keep seeing new videos from you, made by your own people.

The audience belongs to the brand, not to a campaign. Every login, file and format is yours from the start. Pause the ads or end the contract, and your channels keep posting.
See what you own →

The repeat-purchase record comes from a DTC brand.

DTC BRAND · REPEAT PURCHASE · NDA

The repeat-purchase record in the portfolio belongs to a direct to consumer brand. Its second-purchase rate rose 50% and its third-purchase rate rose 40%. Across portfolio engagements the average cost of a new customer came down 35%, with $0 paid ad spend across the 2025 portfolio. A dating app built and owned by the operator collected a 10,000 person waitlist in five months at $0 paid. Those are 10,000 people who put their name down before launch. Client names are withheld under NDA.

Second purchase, +50%Third purchase, +40%
Fig. 02, Second purchase, +50% to Third purchase, +40%, real endpoints only
+50%Second-purchase rate, DTC brand
+40%Third-purchase rate, DTC brand
35%Avg CAC reduction, portfolio
Client names stay private under NDA, so these are not numbers you can check from outside. The one thing you can check is what we would do with your product.See the full record →
Don Mateo Blazeka
Don Mateo BlazekaOperator, Underboss Media

“I would sooner tell you in a free teardown that your problem is inside the product than sell you videos that feed a leaking subscription. If that is what I see, it will be the first thing the document says.”

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First formats in month one. Your own team in charge within the year.

  1. Month 1

    Count the searches, then start posting

    First you get a baseline: how many people search your brand name in a normal week. The first formats are then filmed and published on your accounts. One KPI is agreed in writing, so nobody argues later about what changed.

    Output: Baseline set, first formats posted

  2. Months 2 to 9

    Keep the formats that bring people looking

    A format stays if branded search rises after it, and goes if it does not. Pieces that proved themselves get paid budget on your ad account. You watch what those subscribers do in your own billing data, and the person you chose on your team takes on more of the weekly work.

    Output: Proven formats funded, your team learning the work

  3. Months 10 to 12

    Your team runs the channels

    Planning, filming and posting are done by your people. The numbers are still reviewed with you each week. You can stop in any month before this point and keep the accounts, the formats and the playbook.

    Output: Channels run in house

A typical subscription growth agency vs demand you own

Updated November 2026
  1. What is bought

    A typical subscription agencyTrials and first boxes, through ads and offers.

    You, with usNothing at first. Formats on your own channels.

  2. The headline number

    A typical subscription agencyCost per trial.

    You, with usHow many people look for your brand by name.

  3. Who arrives

    A typical subscription agencyPeople who wanted the offer.

    You, with usPeople who already picked the brand.

  4. When the budget stops

    A typical subscription agencyNew trials stop that week.

    You, with usYour channels keep posting and being found.

Before you ask.

Most buy trials or first orders with ads and discount offers, then report a cost per trial. Here the work comes before the offer. You get video formats on your own channels, so people know your brand and look for it by name. Paid goes behind the pieces that worked. You keep the channels and the playbook.

No. Onboarding, paywalls, pricing, cancellation flows and win-back emails are not sold here. The work covers who arrives and what they already know about you. If the bigger leak is inside your product, your teardown says so plainly. There is also a free retention loop map in the vault that you can use on your own.

Both, as long as your buyer is a person. A subscription app gets formats about the moments the app is used. A subscription box gets formats about what arrives and why someone would want it every month. Software subscriptions sold to businesses are outside the work, so those get a clear no.

No. Churn depends on your product, your price and your billing as much as on who signs up. The KPI named in your first month is one the work controls, usually branded search for your brand. If the KPI we name is not climbing by month six, the next month is free.

Sometimes you should. If paid trials turn into paying subscribers at a cost you can live with, keep buying them. The case for your own channels is that they do not reset each month. A format that works keeps bringing people who looked for you, with or without a budget behind it.

Many charge a retainer plus a share of ad spend, so the bill grows with your budget. No price is published here. You get a written quote after your teardown, only if there is a fit, for a twelve-month build billed month to month. You can cancel in any month and keep what was built.

Nothing. Send a link to your app or your box and to the accounts you post from. In three days you get a written teardown of where your subscribers come from now and the first formats worth making. There is no call, nothing to sign, and the document is yours to keep.

Three days from link to teardown.Work begins within 5 business days of signing. Personal response within 48 hours.
Adjacent lanes
From the journal

Organic growth, or the next month is free.

We name one KPI we control for your company in your first month. If the KPI we name is not climbing by month six, the next month is free.

One KPI, named in month one.Picked for your company once there is a baseline and written into the contract, so there is one number to hold us to.

You read it off your own numbers.Your analytics and the platforms' own reporting. Nothing of ours in the middle.

Send the subscription. See who could arrive already knowing you.

Send one link to your app or box and one to your channels. In three days a written teardown comes back: where your subscribers come from today, and what to build so the next ones know you first. It is free, and you keep it whether or not you hire anyone.

Show me what you would doSee how it works
Two minutes. No call. No numbers.