In the Lab+ Doubles In Viewership After Migrating to Uscreen

“In order to have success in any field, 10,000 hours of practice and training must be achieved.” - Malcolm Gladwell, “Outliers: Story of Success” 

Born out of the idea of mastering your craft and literally being “in the lab” for 10,000 hours to reach mastery in your chosen field, Navin Ramharak and Devin Williams built their company called In the Lab. It’s a global basketball brand dedicated to providing athletes with everything they need; from professional training programs and coaching, to an extensive line of branded apparel.

As of May 2024, In the Lab has 661,000 subscribers on YouTube, 157,000 followers on Instagram, and 1,000+ active subscribers in their membership. The “In the Lab+” mobile apps (Android and iOS) account for nearly 79% of their membership’s total viewing hours and watch time, and they have almost doubled their viewer count in the past year alone.

In The Lab’s story may seem like an overnight success, but it's the behind-the-scenes dedication, countless hours of hard work, and relentless pursuit of excellence that both Devin and Navin put into the brand. 

“I was a basketball trainer for a long time out here in Canada. That's where I was born and raised. In the lab is based in L.A. and at the time, that's really when YouTube and Instagram...were really taking off in the sense of like people are making money.”

Two years into building In the Lab, Navin and Devin, his co-founder, recognized a growing trend in the creator economy: memberships. Despite being new to the concept, they saw the potential and launched their own online membership platform, In the Lab+. They started with a lower price point to attract early adopters and were pleasantly surprised by the results:

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"We weren't sure what to expect, so we had a lower price point and people were signing up like crazy. And that really allowed us to kind of get where we are today with you guys on Uscreen and actually building a consistent base of customers. Now, In the Lab has grown into an online empire that includes everything from educational and entertaining content to an extensive branded apparel line, with the In the Lab+ membership platform at the center of it all."

-Navin Ramharak, Co-founder, In the Lab

When Navin started building the In the Lab+ membership platform, Vimeo seemed like the right choice. He did all the research, evaluated the top membership platforms, and ultimately settled on a popular name with a good track record. In theory, it should have worked perfectly. As Navin said:

"I just knew, like, Oh, Vimeo was a big name. "Let's start with that."

But once he got his hands on the platform, reality hit. Vimeo lacked many of the essential features needed to run a successful membership business. He expected features like a community tab or the ability to organize and price your content effectively, but Vimeo fell short.

He constantly struggled with Vimeo's backend; organizing content strategically was cumbersome and frustrating. 

“Vimeo didn’t have a bunch of functionality features that we needed. Then, I found Uscreen and realized you guys had so many of the basic features that I wanted, but in my mind, Vimeo was so much bigger. The reality was OTT was more of a new feature for them and with Uscreen, you had a core OTT product saying ‘Hey, that’s what we do!’ So what intrigued me the most was the clarity and focus Uscreen had that “we are only going to focus on this and we want to be the best at this!” And then it hit me ‘That’s what I need for my membership business.’”

-Navin Ramharak, Co-founder, In the Lab

Dynamic pricing was another major issue. Navin wanted the ability to offer different prices for his membership plans but found it impossible to do so with Vimeo. Plus, the customer support they received was another point of frustration. Navin shares, "We had issues in the past where apps would get broken with updates and there were just so many issues."

Eventually, it was time to make a change.

Navin needed a platform that understood the ins and outs of membership culture in order to build a recurring revenue engine. In 2021, he decided to migrate In the Lab+ to Uscreen. He then got to work creating a training and lifestyle platform that would become a part of everyday life for his audience.

One of the things that caught Navin’s eye first was Uscreen’s value and its affordable starter plans: 

“In my opinion, Uscreen has a crazy price like it’s super affordable. As a creator you don’t want to be burning cash on something you don’t even know is going to be successful yet.”  

-Navin Ramharak, Co-founder, In the Lab

He also appreciated all the functionality that just seemed obvious to him, like the clean and simple back end, content organization capabilities, and built-in community page where they can provide membership updates and build culture from within. Navin says, “We’ve never had that before. Uscreen is always listening and implementing ideas – that was huge for us.” 
Uscreen offers premium, custom-branded mobile and TV apps that are tailored around the unique branded assets of each customer. This approach ensures that apps like those for In the Lab+ not only align perfectly with the customer's brand identity but also provide practical value. For In the lab+, the apps make a lot of sense because people can take the basketball training programs with them to practice, or download any of the platform’s educational and entertainment content to watch on the go.

It drives home the fact that In the Lab+ provides exactly what athletes need to help them achieve their goals — easy access to lessons, and easy access to the wider community. 

And from a growth standpoint, having an app means they can reach more members.

As they branch out into the global market, they’ve found places where the basketball community is much smaller, with fewer educational resources available for athletes, and computer access is unreliable. 

Apps, however, are more universal and downloadable – so the apps are In the Lab’s way of opening up their premium basketball community and training for anyone, anywhere, at any time.

“Having the mobile app to be fully functional on iPhone and Android within a short amount of time was huge for us. Your turnaround time was excellent. You guys kept on updating us and in the past we had issues where apps would get broken with updates and basically, too many glitches.”

-Navin Ramharak, Co-founder, In the Lab

Featuring well-known basketball stars gives In the Lab+ serious street cred – but more importantly, it becomes a valuable selling point and creates uniquely personal connections with its audience, contributing significantly to membership growth.

“Dev, my partner is a big differentiator. He’s a unique individual – everybody likes him and everybody wants to work with him, so we have that shining star at the top that people relate to. He motivates people, and he’s that real face of the brand that a lot of other brands don’t actually have.”

-Navin Ramharak, Co-founder, In the Lab

To create hype and prominently feature these well-known faces, coaches get their own themed content collections in the Uscreen library. Plus, they regularly promote new collaborations with teasers and free content giveaways. Navin describes how introducing coach Ryan Razooky reeled in a ton of new business:

“He made almost an entire shooting program for free and gave a seven day free trial, and people wanted to get to know him better,” Navin said.

In the Lab+ has seen incredible success because they prioritize quality, community, and culture as much as the training itself.

Their focus on creating the best content, choosing a platform that can grow with them, and providing features with the user experience in mind is exactly the stuff that membership wins are made of – and their approach paid off.

The In the Lab+ mobile apps (Android and iOS) make up nearly 79% of the viewing hours and watch time, and they’ve nearly 2Xed their viewer count in the past year alone.

They’ve even been able to build multiple streams of income by creating a community around the brand. Because their brand culture is so strong, the In the Lab apparel line is thriving as well.

That financial security means Navin can focus on growing the membership by experimenting with new types of content and adding value everywhere.

And it’s working! The 5 star testimonials speak for themselves:

So what’s the secret to Navin’s membership success? How has In the Lab+ gained – and retained – this dedicated audience of superfans who are more than willing to help build up the brand?

We asked Navin, and the answer was simple.

“A lot of our jobs as creators and what we do is to make people feel seen. And I think that’s something that gets swept under the rug. So if you can make them feel seen and appreciated, they’re going to want to do it naturally.”

Looks to us like In the Lab+ is winning the membership game.

COMMUNITY TAB

When Navin Ramharak and Devin Williams migrated In the Lab+ from Vimeo to Uscreen, one of the standout features for them was the community tab. For the first time, they had a dedicated space within the app to engage directly with their members. Navin explains:

“You have so many features like the community tab which is us being able to update fans in the app itself through messages and it's like a posting board. We never had that before. Then, you had so many other functionalities with a simple-to-use back end and it was easy to organize and create our playlists.” 

Beyond the community tab, Uscreen's backend offered a range of functionalities that made organizing and pricing content seamless. This ease of use was a game-changer for Navin and his team:

“We’re able to have different prices which wasn’t allowed to us as customers with our previous platforms.”

CUSTOMER SUPPORT 

What truly set Uscreen apart was the exceptional customer support. Navin recalls the challenges he faced with previous platforms and the immediate difference he noticed with Uscreen:

"What I really love the most is the support. So if I have an issue or a customer emails us, I forward it to your guys' support email and I swear to God you guys answer in like 20 minutes, like every time. And that's helpful for me because I copy and paste the response back to the customer. But we’ve never had that before. Normally, it’s like the iPhone app is broken and we’re wondering “where do we start?” because we didn’t build the app, we don’t know how to solve it.” 

The swift and reliable support from Uscreen allowed Navin and Devin to focus on what mattered most: creating valuable basketball content and growing their community.

These features and support not only made their lives easier but also provided their audience with a cohesive and engaging platform experience, helping In the Lab+ flourish into the global basketball brand it is today.

Story Written By: Aarushi Singh