How two podcasters used Uscreen to launch a global paid membership in less than a year

The Curve Investing Club began in New Zealand with a simple experiment: a room of thirty women, most of them friends and family, gathering to talk about money. The appetite was immediate. Within months, events were drawing over 250 women who wanted a place where investing felt approachable, not intimidating.

When the pandemic hit, founders Sophie and Victoria pivoted to a podcast called The Curve. What began as a way to stay connected with their community quickly grew into a phenomenon, reaching two million downloads and building a loyal audience of more than 70,000 women.

But the duo wanted to give their audience the full experience - right from charts and market visuals, to hands-on examples. Besides, they wanted to build a more stable recurring revenue stream beyond podcast sponsorships. That’s when they launched their membership, The Curve Investing Club, with Uscreen.

As The Curve’s audience grew, so did the cracks in their existing model.

• Audio limitations: The podcast had momentum, but audio alone created barriers. Victoria and Sophie often found themselves trying to describe stock market charts or investment platforms without visuals. It left listeners piecing things together on their own. What the community needed was a format where they could see what was being explained, not just hear it.
• Community hesitancy: Finance is deeply personal, and for many women in their audience, there was a lingering sense of being “behind” or of having “missed the boat.” That fear often made them reluctant to post questions in public forums. Without a private, trusted space, some voices stayed silent — exactly the opposite of the inclusive culture The Curve was trying to build.
• Revenue unpredictability: While the podcast was popular, the income model wasn’t built for stability. Sponsorships covered costs when they came through, but they were inconsistent and dependent on advertisers’ budgets. The founders knew they needed a model that could support long-term planning, not one where revenue spiked and dipped without warning.

As Victoria put it:

“With podcasting, sponsorships help but they’re lumpy. We needed a recurring revenue stream through a membership model.”

The podcast proved demand, but audio had limits and sponsorships were unstable. The membership offered a sustainable, interactive space with recurring revenue. Victoria explained:

“We asked ourselves, how can we give our audience a more intimate kind of offering? With a podcast, you can only go so far. A membership model meant people could dive deeper, and we could finally build something sustainable.”

When they compared platforms, Uscreen stood out. It combined everything they needed, including video hosting, apps for a mobile-first audience, community tools that offered both group and private interactions, localized pricing for global members, and analytics to track growth.

They launched their membership and app simultaneously, giving the brand credibility from day one and ensuring members could engage on the devices they used most.

With Uscreen, Sophie and Victoria transformed their podcast success into a thriving membership business, one designed to grow sustainably while giving women worldwide a safe, inclusive space to learn about money.

1. Launching a mobile app on day one

The Curve’s members are mostly women in their 20s and 30s—busy, mobile-first, and consuming content in short windows between work, family, and social life. From the start, Victoria and Sophie knew the membership had to live where their audience already was: on their phones.

By launching their branded app the same day as the membership, they gave their community instant access and removed the friction of remembering logins or navigating browsers. Push notifications meant members were nudged back into the platform at key moments—whether to watch new videos, join discussions, or check updates—keeping engagement high beyond the initial sign-up.

For the founders, the app was also a credibility play. It positioned The Curve not just as a podcast extension but as a serious membership business.

“The app has been game-changing. We’d always wanted one, but building it ourselves would have taken months or years and cost a lot of money. With Uscreen, we had it straight away. For our audience of 20- to 30-year-olds, always on their phones and busy, being able to watch and learn on the go was huge.”

2. Reducing friction with localized pricing

Early on, The Curve discovered that even small details at checkout could derail a conversion. With pricing set in pounds, New Zealand and Australian members often emailed asking whether the content was really for them, or worse, assumed they would be charged foreign exchange fees and abandoned sign-up altogether.

Uscreen’s localized pricing feature solved this instantly. Pricing now gets displayed in familiar local currencies, reducing hesitation and making the offer feel tailored, not generic. It also saved the team hours of back-and-forth support explaining exchange rates or discounts across regions.

As Victoria put it:

“When we expanded from New Zealand to the UK, having prices only in pounds created confusion. Members worried about foreign exchange fees or thought the content wasn’t meant for them. Localized pricing fixed that, showing people their own currency and making the experience feel like it’s made just for them. That reduced confusion immediately and gave people confidence to join.”

3. Building trust with private community tools

Money is one of the most personal topics to talk about, and for many women, there’s an added layer of vulnerability in admitting what they don’t know. Public discussion threads couldn’t fully address that hesitation.

Uscreen’s direct messaging feature gave The Curve’s members a safe channel to privately message Victoria, ask specific questions, and get expert advice without broadcasting their situation to the wider community. Over time, those private conversations often became gateways to more open dialogue, as Victoria encouraged members to share questions that could benefit others.

This balance—private when needed, communal when possible—helped cultivate trust and inclusivity in a space where fear of “falling behind” can easily silence voices.

“Direct messaging is crucial. Talking about money is intimidating, and many women feel like they’re ‘behind.’ Private DMs let them ask questions without sharing publicly, while still giving me the option to highlight great questions for the whole community. Over time, we’ve definitely seen members become more comfortable and supportive, commenting and engaging openly, but it mostly starts with that private channel.”

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4. Automating conversions with built-in marketing tools

As the membership scaled, chasing down every abandoned cart or lapsed member manually would have been impossible. Uscreen’s abandoned cart recovery and churn winback features automated that work in the background, re-engaging potential members who might otherwise slip away.

For Victoria and Sophie, this was more than a convenience. It allowed them to run a lean operation without sacrificing growth. Revenue could trickle back in through automations while the team focused on creating content, running events, and nurturing the community.

“Abandoned cart and churn winbacks have been great. They take away the burden of manual follow-ups and run in the background. We’ve tested turning them on and off, and the difference is clear. Any feature where you can set it up, forget about it, and it brings in revenue is gold. The automations definitely helped increase conversions.”

5. Using analytics to guide strategy

Behind every decision at The Curve is data. Each week, the team reviews Uscreen’s analytics dashboard, monitoring metrics like trial-to-paid conversion, churn, and member engagement.

The addition of benchmarking was particularly valuable. Instead of second-guessing whether their numbers were “good,” they could compare themselves to other Uscreen creators, giving context to their performance. It became a motivator as well as a measuring stick.

“We review analytics weekly as a team, tracking engagement, new members, churn, and trial conversions. The detail is really valuable. The benchmark feature is especially helpful. It shows if our numbers are actually good compared to others. When we see we’re outperforming, it motivates us and it gets competitive in the best way.”

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The Curve Investing Club began as a conversation in a small room. Today, it’s a global membership reshaping how women talk about money. With Uscreen, Victoria and Sophie found a platform that could scale their mission: making finance accessible, inclusive, and sustainable.

Since launching on Uscreen, The Curve has:

• Grown into a 70,000+ strong community of women learning and investing together
• Reached nearly 2 million podcast downloads, fueling the membership funnel
• Launched their branded app on day one, boosting engagement and retention
• Reduced checkout friction with localized multi-currency pricing
• Increased conversions with automated cart recovery and churn winbacks
• Saved significant time answering member questions about pricing and access

Story written by: Aarushi Singh