Shumel Lais

In your own words, what’s your role in the app business right now?

I’m building Day30, a company offering tech-enabled services for subscription apps. We’re focused on helping teams navigate the fallout from iOS privacy changes and the shift toward black box ad platforms. Most brands are still optimizing for early-funnel events and using proxies for real value. We’re working to change that by unlocking better predictions and clearer signals, so growth decisions are tied to actual business impact.

How did you end up working in apps?

I started designing and building websites as a side hustle when I was 15, then studied Marketing at university. As part of my degree, I did a one-year placement, which ended up being my way into the app world. I joined one of the first mobile app-focused ad agencies, a tiny startup at the time called Fetch, back in 2010, just as the App Store was starting to take off.

There were no MMPs yet, no Facebook app ads, and everything was hands-on. That early experience hooked me, and I’ve been in the app space ever since.

What are you most excited about in apps right now?

I’m genuinely excited about what AI is unlocking. Creative production and iteration have become much faster, which is changing how teams test and scale. It has also opened the door for more indie makers and solo founders to build high-quality apps. Tools like Cursor and Replit are making that possible in ways we just didn’t have a few years ago.

On the growth side, I think the subscription space is entering a new phase. I’ve seen how sharp user acquisition became in gaming, and I think that same level of sophistication is now coming to non-gaming categories. That shift is going to create a lot of interesting opportunities.

Is there anyone you’d like to shout out to who has influenced your journey in the app industry?

I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by supportive people at different stages of my career. Early on, my first two managers had a huge impact. James Connelly, who co-founded Fetch, was a 24-year-old CEO when I joined at 20. That gave me a sense of what was possible and definitely planted the seed for starting my own thing. Later, James Hilton at M+C Saatchi Performance shared a ton of wisdom around how to scale and lead a large agency business, which stuck with me.

I’ve also learned a lot from our early key investors at Appsumer, especially Nick Jones and Jon Claydon, who have been generous with their guidance and perspective.

Then there are the peers who helped solve real problems in the trenches: Clément Boutignon, Joseph D’Souza, Luke Dansie, Inga Meskauskaite, and Alexander Stewart, to name a few. And I’ve got to shout out the clients who pushed our thinking too. Mario Dietrich from Lovoo and Moshi Blum from his time at Viber really influenced how we shaped Appsumer and thought about what marketers actually need from data.

All of those inputs have helped shape how I think and work today.

What’s in your app tech stack?

I regularly work across the main MMPs like AppsFlyer, Adjust, and Branch, depending on the client setup. I’m often deep in the dashboards of the major ad platforms, and I spend a lot of time in product analytics tools like Mixpanel and Amplitude.

I’ve also been exploring ways to automate parts of analysis and creative workflows using AI, and more recently, reviewing a range of paywall tools. The stack shifts depending on the project, but those are the key areas I keep coming back to.

What do you like most about working in apps?

From a performance marketing perspective, I’ve always loved the data side. There’s something satisfying about being able to test, learn, and see the impact of your decisions play out in real numbers, even with the added complexity of today’s privacy landscape.

But what’s kept me in the space is the community. I haven’t come across another industry that is as open, collaborative, and willing to share what’s working. People genuinely want to help each other get better, and that makes it a fun space to be part of.

What one thing would you change about the app industry?

This is where I’ll give a nod to what we’re building at Day30, because we wouldn’t be doing it if there weren’t a clear gap. I still see the top 0.1% of app publishers running with sharper tools and stronger internal processes than everyone else. That level of sophistication isn’t widely accessible, and I think it should be.

With Day30, the goal is to bring more of that capability to the broader market through tech-enabled services. To me, the two biggest opportunities in app acquisition right now are creative and signals, and it’s the signals piece I’m focused on solving.

If you weren’t working in apps what would you be doing?

I’d probably still be in performance marketing, just outside of apps. Or I’d be in a product management role. I think product management is the closest job to being an entrepreneur. You get to identify problems, design solutions, and bring something new to life. That’s the part I’ve always enjoyed most, whatever the space.

Is there anything else we should know about you?

Outside of performance marketing, I’m still building trackers and dashboards to life-hack everything—gym, sleep, personal finance, you name it. When I’m not doing that, I’m usually chasing my kid around or pretending I’ll finish one of the 50 open Notion docs I started with good intentions.

Do you know someone driving change and growth in the app industry? Nominate an app leader here.