Beyond the Install: How Consumer Apps and Brands Keep the Users They Fight to Win
App stores are crowded, paid acquisition keeps getting more expensive, and more people now ask AI tools what to download, buy or try before they ever reach your store page or website. Each new user costs more than the last. So the growth question is changing: it is less about getting more users and more about finding the right ones and keeping them.
This evening is a small, off-the-record conversation among marketing, growth and product leaders at consumer apps, brands and game studios about what happens after the install. No slides, no presentations, no vendor pitches. Just peers comparing what they are testing, what they measure and what they would not do again.
What we will cover
Where new users actually find consumer apps and brands now: storefronts, creators, shared links and AI answers
Where teams are moving budget as paid acquisition gets more expensive
The first session, first week and first month, and what decides whether a user stays
Spotting a change in user behavior fast enough to act on it, and what AI is changing about that
Showing a CEO or board that retention, not just installs, is driving revenue
Who should attend
CMOs and VPs of Marketing, Heads of Growth and Product Growth leaders, Lifecycle and Retention leaders, and Data and Analytics leaders at Bay Area consumer apps, marketplaces, games and consumer brands.
The evening
5:30 PM Arrival, food and drinks
5:50 PM Panel discussion
6:30 PM Open Q&A
6:45 PM Networking
7:30 PM Close
Panel
Dan Usedom, Founding GTM, ThinkingAI (Moderator)
Markiesha Patrice, Head of Startup Platform & Community, Nebius
Sina Farzaneh, VP of Marketing, TrueNAS
Laura Fu, Head of GTM Development, DevRev
Hosts
Murray Newlands, CEO, Open Future Forum
Yvonne Newlands, Chief Business Officer, Open Future Forum
Meena Karnani, Director of Partnerships and Events, ThinkingAI
Dan Usedom, Founding GTM, ThinkingAI
Harsha Vankayalapati, CEO and Co-Founder, AgentWeb
About Open Future Forum
Open Future Forum is a global executive community founded in Silicon Valley in 2019, creating spaces where leaders expand what’s possible. Through Forum Select, its private gatherings, and Forum Events, its open panels, it brings executives together to build relationships, exchange ideas and learn from peers. It runs series for C-suite leaders (CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CISOs and General Counsel), investors (VC and Private Equity), and builders (YC Founders and AI Leaders). Open Future Forum also publishes original research based on first-party surveys and insights from its community. Learn more at openfutureforum.com.
Our Partners
ThinkingAI
ThinkingAI helps consumer apps and brands hold on to the users they have worked hard to acquire. Its AI agents spot changes in live user behavior and recommend the fix before users leave, with people approving every decision. Trusted by more than 1,500 companies worldwide.
AgentWeb
AgentWeb is the company behind Emma, an AI marketing operator that helps teams research audiences, create campaigns, generate content, and manage lead follow-up while keeping marketers in control of strategy and brand.