April’s Product-Led Growth Pivot: Why They Abandoned Direct-to-Consumer for B2B2C
In the tax software market, direct-to-consumer marketing has been the dominant playbook for decades. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, April co-founder Ben Borodach revealed why they chose to completely abandon this approach in favor of a B2B2C strategy that’s fundamentally changing how tax software reaches consumers.
Understanding the Market Reality
The decision started with clear-eyed analysis of market dynamics. “Building tax software is hard,” Ben explains. “You’ve got a federal tax law that’s ballooned 350% over the last few decades. You have income tax in over 40 states.”
But the real challenge wasn’t technical – it was distribution. With TurboTax’s dominance, traditional customer acquisition was prohibitively expensive. As Ben notes: “To it is just so dominant that they’re going to outspend anybody that’s out there, including some of those second and third players.”
Identifying the Strategic Opening
April recognized that consumer financial services were undergoing a fundamental shift. “We’re entering the age where most of financial services are going to be increasingly delivered online,” Ben shares. “And that means that consumers will increasingly expect that what they’re seeing is completely contextual to them.”
This insight revealed an opportunity: fintech platforms needed tax capabilities, but partnering with dominant incumbents created strategic risks.
The B2B2C Value Proposition
April’s pivot centered on becoming the independent infrastructure provider for fintech platforms. As Ben explains: “We can come kind of as that independent player that’s a true infrastructure provider and in return, get distribution for a product that would otherwise be extremely expensive to market.”
This approach solved multiple problems:
- Platforms could offer tax services without competitive threat
- Customers got integrated tax capabilities within existing workflows
- April gained distribution without direct marketing costs
Selecting Strategic Verticals
Rather than targeting all fintech platforms, April focused on three specific verticals:
“We’re seeing a wide array of adoption across different finance apps,” Ben notes. “I think the ones that we’re focused on heavily today are in the banking credit space… seeing a lot of traction in the investment category… and then third is going to be payroll.”
Enabling New Business Models
The B2B2C approach enabled April to fundamentally rethink pricing. While incumbents rely heavily on upselling, Ben explains their different approach: “We believe having more of a flat fee model where what you see is what you pay is really the best thing for the consumer. And there’s not a reason why you also can’t have a great business in the process.”
This was possible because embedded distribution dramatically reduced customer acquisition costs.
Market Validation
The pivot is working. April has attracted “dozens of companies on the platform” with “hundreds of thousands of users.” Their NPS scores “in the high fifties and sixties” suggest the embedded approach delivers better customer experience than traditional direct-to-consumer models.
Framework for Distribution Decisions
April’s journey offers a framework for founders evaluating distribution channels:
- Analyze true customer acquisition costs in your market
- Identify structural shifts in how services are delivered
- Look for partners whose customer relationships you can enhance
- Focus on verticals where integration creates clear value
- Use distribution model to enable differentiated business models
The broader lesson? Sometimes the path to disrupting an entrenched market isn’t through better product or marketing – it’s through fundamentally reimagining distribution. April’s story shows how deep analysis of market evolution can reveal innovative go-to-market strategies that turn seemingly insurmountable barriers into strategic advantages.