ZeroSettle
Product & Competitive Intelligence
Helps mobile app developers move subscriptions off Apple/Google billing onto web-based checkout.
Company Overview
Builds a drop-in direct billing SDK for mobile apps that switches customers from App Store billing to direct billing, reducing fees from 30% to 5% + 50¢ while handling entitlements, retention flows, analytics, and merchant-of-record operations.
Competitive Advantage & Moat
Product Roadmap & Public Announcements
ZeroSettle has publicly launched on Product Hunt with a 15-minute setup SDK that switches existing App Store subscribers to direct billing post-Epic v Apple ruling. Active SDKs across iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native. Product surface spans checkout, entitlement sync, migration campaigns, cancel flows, and analytics. Expanding across more mobile SDKs, deeper subscription migration tooling, richer experimentation and targeting, stronger retention flows, and more robust merchant-of-record back-office features for tax, disputes, and compliance.
Signals & Private Analysis
Public signals suggest a founder-led engineering-heavy build phase: two former Apple engineers with deep insider knowledge of App Store billing infrastructure. Active SDK/docs footprint across iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native, and a product surface that already spans checkout, entitlement sync, migration campaigns, cancel flows, and analytics despite the company's very early stage. The post-Epic v Apple regulatory environment creates a structural tailwind with $150B+ in annual in-app purchases as addressable market.
Product Roadmap Priorities
Predict which mobile subscribers are most likely to accept a direct-billing migration offer so the company can maximize revenue lift without damaging conversion.
Instead of showing every user the same billing-switch offer, the system learns who is most likely to switch and when to ask them.
Like knowing which airline passengers will actually pay for an upgrade, instead of offering first class to everyone at the gate.
Predict churn risk during cancellation and renewal moments, then personalize save offers such as pauses, discounts, or plan downgrades to retain more subscribers.
When someone looks ready to cancel, the system chooses the retention offer most likely to keep them subscribed.
Like a skilled hotel manager who knows whether a guest wants a late checkout, a room change, or a discount before they decide to leave.
Detect high-risk transactions, abusive usage patterns, and likely chargebacks in direct billing so the company can protect merchant-of-record margins while keeping good customers frictionless.
The system flags suspicious purchases before they become expensive disputes, while letting normal customers pay smoothly.
Like a nightclub bouncer who quietly spots fake IDs and troublemakers without slowing down the line for regulars.
Company Overview
Key Team Members
- Ryan Elliott, Co-Founder
- Gabe Roeloffs, Co-Founder
Founder Force Multiplier
Both founders left Apple to build ZeroSettle, giving them deep insider knowledge of App Store billing infrastructure, compliance requirements, and policy gray areas. They sit at the intersection of post-Epic platform-policy change and difficult mobile billing implementation, packaging compliance, payments, entitlement sync, and monetization tooling into one SDK that reduces developer fees from 30% to 5% + 50¢.
Funding History
- 2026 | Ryan Elliott and Gabe Roeloffs co-found ZeroSettle.
- 2026 | Accepted into Y Combinator Winter 2026 batch.
- 2026 | Product Hunt launch with drop-in SDK.
Competitors
- Subscription Management: RevenueCat, Adapty, Qonversion, Superwall.
- Payment Infrastructure: Stripe Billing, Paddle.
- Native Billing: Apple In-App Purchase, Google Play Billing.
