How BeforeTheApp works, without the fine print.
Pay once, be part of every app in the club. What you get on day one, what each grid guarantees, what is never included, and what happens if things run late.
The short version
You pay once
A one-time payment for a fixed slot on a 16×16 founder grid. It covers every app in the club — past, current and future.
You join production
Roadmap, production log, idea & feature requests, votes and priority beta invites — working from day one.
One app guaranteed per grid
Often more: surprise second and third apps, sometimes all three candidates. The team decides how many.
Every app's benefit
Premium access, a member price or an offer code, set per app and delivered through the App Store, for every app. No equity, no revenue share.
Founder vs Supporter
Every epoch opens with a Founder Grid: 256 physical squares arranged into 197 slots — 184 singles (1×1), 9 blocks of 2×2 and 4 blocks of 3×3. Every grid starts from the same layout.
Big blocks reward the early: the block multiplier starts at ×1.2 and rises a step for every 10% of squares paid, up to ×2.0. At each of the nine steps one unsold 2×2 also splits into four singles; at ×1.4, ×1.6, ×1.8 and ×2.0, one unsold 3×3 splits into nine. The order is fixed and published: outside in, the centre 2×2 last. Sold and reserved blocks are skipped, and a square you bought never changes.
Next to it opens a Supporter Grid: 256 single seats at one supporter price, the same on every grid ($9) and never above the founder 1×1. A supporter joins only this grid: one vote in its app selection and, app by app, the rights each of this grid's apps grants its supporters — votes in that app's polls, feature requests, production updates, a beta place after the founders, a supporter benefit. Every app publishes its list before you buy, and a list can only grow. Supporter seats open with the founder grid and stay on sale after its founder sale ends.
How blocks split as a grid fills
If no block sold: the layout at launch and after each step.
- ×1.2launch
- ×1.326 paid
- ×1.452 paid
- ×1.577 paid
- ×1.6103 paid
- ×1.7128 paid
- ×1.8154 paid
- ×1.9180 paid
- ×2.0205 paid
- ×2.0231 paid
2×23×3singlesplit block
- ✓ Roadmap, production log, decision reasoning
- ✓ Idea & feature requests
- ✓ One vote in every open poll
- ✓ Priority beta invites when a build exists
- ✓ Profile and square on the grid
- ✓ Every app's member benefit, past and future
- ✓ Every app in the club, not just this grid's
- ✓ One vote in this grid's app selection
- ✓ Per app, what it grants supporters: votes, requests, updates, beta, benefit
- ✓ A seat with your name and colour on the supporter grid
- ✗ Other grids' apps and club-wide polls
- ✗ Blocks and images (founder squares only)
- ✗ Never called a founder
Every app's benefit
Members get the benefit of every app in their club — including apps that ship long after they joined. The type is set per app, versioned and published on its card; at checkout we store the catalog and benefit versions you bought under.
Premium access
The app's defined premium features for members, unlocked the way the App Store allows, for example with an App Store offer code. App features are never sold here.
Member price
A member-only price on the app's App Store purchase, through Apple's offer codes or promotional offers.
Offer code
A free or discounted App Store offer code within the app, country and Apple's current rules.
To be announced
The app exists or is coming, but its benefit type isn't set yet. We say so openly until it is.
Real Apple offer codes can only exist after an app is Ready for Distribution and its in-app purchase is approved. We never sell a future App Store code as if it were already delivered, and nobody pays twice for the same access.
The AI credit boundary
AI model calls, image or video generation, tokens, third-party API usage and extra storage are never included in membership or in any app's premium access. They are sold as separate credits, usage packs or subscriptions — via Apple in-app purchase when consumed inside an iOS app. Each app card separates features covered by premium access from screens that need credits.
Grid epochs
A grid epoch is one sales event. Every grid guarantees one app; we can decide to ship a surprise second or third — sometimes all three voted candidates. Extra apps don't open a new grid or raise the price, and every member of the club, from any grid, is part of all of them. A club can also have in-house apps: ones our team builds for it outside the grids, often from its first day. They are never on a vote, never count as a grid's guaranteed app and take no share of grid sales; every founder gets them. iOS, Mac and every category club count their grids independently. The table below is an example milestone plan, not a production commitment — twenty apps do not require twenty grids.
| Grid | Catalog on entry (example) | Planned this epoch (example) | Founder 1×1 | Supporter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 or 1 app | The first app gets selected; it may be in production or already out | $9 | $9 |
| 2 | App 1 | App 2 | $19 | $9 |
| 3 | Apps 1–2 | Apps 3 and 4 | $29 | $9 |
| 9 | First 8 apps | App 9, not yet selected; 10 and 11 may follow | $89 | $9 |
| 10 | First 11 apps | App 12 | $99 | $9 |
| 11 | First 12 apps | Apps 13 and 14 | $109 | $9 |
| 12 | First 14 apps | App 15 | $119 | $9 |
| 13 | First 15 apps | Apps 16 and 17 | $129 | $9 |
| 14 | First 17 apps | App 18 | $139 | $9 |
| 15 | First 18 apps | Apps 19 and 20 | $149 | $9 |
| 16 | First 20 apps | App 21 | $159 | $9 |
| 17 | First 21 apps | Apps 22 and 23 | $169 | $9 |
| 18 | First 23 apps | App 24 | $179 | $9 |
| 19 | First 24 apps | Apps 25 and 26 | $189 | $9 |
| 20 | First 26 apps | App 27 | $199 | $9 |
Epoch statuses: idea pool → selected → in production → in review → released. Surprise apps are included for every club member at no extra cost. When a new grid opens, unsold slots from the previous one are withdrawn; sold rights are kept.
Pricing
Every grid publishes its own founder 1×1 price P and its own flat supporter seat price. A later grid never costs less than an earlier one. Prices of grids that haven't opened are planned and can still change; the moment a grid opens its prices are fixed. A 2×2 is 4 × P × M(s) and a 3×3 is 9 × P × M(s), where s is the most squares ever paid for in that grid when your quote is created (a refund lowers the count shown, never the price, so prices never go down). The multiplier M starts at 1.2 and rises 0.1 for every 10% sold, up to 2.0. Because one unsold 2×2 splits at every step and one unsold 3×3 at every second step, a 2×2 never sells above ×2.0 and a 3×3 never above ×1.9.
The steps fall at 26, 52, 77, 103, 128, 154, 180, 205 and 231 paid squares; the 3×3 splits happen at 52, 103, 154 and 205. Every price is computed on the server, stored in cents and locked into your order.
Grid 1
1×1 $9
2×2 $43.20
3×3 $97.20
3×3 highest $153.90
Supporter $9
Grid 10· planned
1×1 $99
2×2 $475.20
3×3 $1,069.20
3×3 highest $1,692.90
Supporter $9
Grid 20· planned
1×1 $199
2×2 $955.20
3×3 $2,149.20
3×3 highest $3,402.90
Supporter $9
If you wait for a cheaper 3×3, the block may sell — or split — first. We never guarantee a future price and never re-price what you already paid. A refund that lowers the sold count doesn't re-price anyone either, and a split never merges back.
Voting rules
- One vote per person per poll. A 3×3 does not give nine votes, and owning slots in several grids still means one vote.
- iOS votes stay in iOS; Mac votes stay in Mac.
- Every poll states up front whether it sets binding priority or is advisory feedback, plus its open/close times and tie rule.
- Next-app polls offer three feasible candidates with a responsible partner, scope and rough cost.
- The winner is confirmed by the partners on technical, financial and capacity grounds. If it can't be built, we publish why and the new plan.
- Results are final once a poll closes. Corrections are new, reasoned decisions; individual votes are never published.
Reservation & payment
30-minute checkout
Stripe Checkout sessions last at least 30 minutes. Your price is locked for that window.
40-minute hold
The slot is held for 40 minutes, so a checkout still open can never collide with a new buyer.
Webhook, not redirect
Your membership opens only when the payment is verified server-side, never from the success page.
When a hold expires we check Stripe before releasing anything. If a payment succeeded but the slot can't be delivered, it goes straight to an operations review — never a silent failure.
Refunds & the wait limit
Before a grid opens for sale, its terms define a last selection date, the update cadence, a maximum waiting limit and the refund or exit option if that limit is passed. If no date is given, the uncertainty and the refund right are shown plainly.
A grid doesn't have to fill up. Every grid is on sale for a limited time, with the end date on its page. Its sale ends on that date, when the last square sells or when we close it earlier; unsold squares stay empty and the next grid opens (supporter seats stay on sale). The selection vote then ends within 3 days at the latest (sooner if its published date comes first).
The current draft offers a full refund if no closed beta opens within nine months of the selection vote. A refund or chargeback deactivates the related membership rights; what happens to the slot is defined in advance. If a refunded block goes back on sale after its split is due, it splits into singles.
What “0 released apps” means
The first grid can open before a single app has shipped — even before the first idea is picked. It still guarantees one app, chosen by founders. When that's the case we show “0 released apps” big and honest on every sales screen. Unbuilt apps are marked “not available yet”, with their uncertainty, target window and what happens if they are delayed or cancelled. What works on day one is the founder space itself.
FAQ
Seen enough?
Pick a square, or wait on the list — we never charge the waitlist.