ADN Membership App – From Monthly Live Sessions to a Platform Built for Growth

The starting point

When I first spoke with, Martín Quintanilla, the founder of ADN de México about building an app, the business itself was already working well. Every month, around 150 to 200 paying members joined one of his two-hour "journeys through time" live sessions built around historical storytelling, research, and audience participation. After each session, the recording was edited and added to a growing archive that as of writing this, reached around 120 hours of content.

The problem was not the membership or the content. It was the way members accessed everything afterwards. ADN had temporarily hosted the recordings on its website, but as the library grew, the experience became harder to manage. Updating the content took too much effort, finding previous sessions was inconvenient, and the overall presentation did not match the quality of the membership. Some members had already started asking whether ADN would create an app, so that became the starting point for our conversations.

At first, the request sounded fairly simple: create a better place for members to watch the recordings. But once we started looking more closely at how the business worked, it became clear that the app could play a much bigger role.

Designing around the membership

The value of ADN was not limited to its video library. The live sessions, the archive, the membership, and the wider mission of the company were all connected, so the product needed to bring those elements together rather than treating them as separate features.

The app became the main place where members could browse previous journeys, access upcoming sessions, and stay connected with ADN. Members can receive notifications before a new live event and open the Zoom link directly from the app, which removes the need to search through emails or messages every month. Once the live session is finished and the content has been edited, it becomes part of the same on-demand library.

Home screen and on-demand library of previous journeys

This created a much smoother experience for members. The live and recorded parts of the membership now feel like one product rather than a collection of disconnected tools.

Turning the app into a growth channel

We also wanted the app to be useful for people who had not joined the membership yet. Instead of requiring an account immediately, new users can enter the app, explore the platform, and watch trailers or previews of the content.

When they try to watch a complete journey or join a live session, they are presented with the membership paywall. This gives ADN a more natural way to show potential members what they are paying for before asking them to subscribe.

That changed the role of the app. It was no longer only a private content library for existing members. It also became part of the customer journey, helping new users discover the product and understand its value.

The app had around 200 downloads from the first day, but the more important point is that ADN now owns the full experience between discovery, membership, live participation, and on-demand content.

Including the wider mission

ADN is also involved in charity work, and it was important that this part of the company did not disappear inside a content-focused product.

We created a dedicated mission section that presents updates in a visual grid. Members can browse the projects and initiatives ADN supports and see another side of the organization beyond the monthly historical journeys.

Mission section with charity updates and supported projects

It may not be the feature that drives someone to download the app, but it adds depth to the brand and helps members understand what the company stands for. For a membership business, that connection matters.

Discovering a larger business opportunity

One of the most valuable parts of the project happened during the discovery process. While discussing the product, we started looking at how ADN could grow beyond individual monthly memberships.

That led to a B2B model in which companies could buy larger access packages and offer the content to hundreds or even thousands of people. This could be for employees, customers, or members of another organization.

The opportunity was significant, but it would have been easy to overbuild it. A complete enterprise access system could have added a large amount of cost and complexity before ADN had properly tested the offer.

Instead, I reduced the idea to the smallest useful version. We added enough business logic to support larger access packages without turning the first version into an unnecessarily complicated platform. That gave ADN a practical way to begin selling the B2B offer while keeping room to expand the system later.

This is an important part of how I work. Custom software should support where the business is going, but that does not mean building every possible feature from the beginning.

Why a custom app made sense

Before deciding to build, the founder had already looked at existing membership and content platforms. The issue was not that those tools were incapable of hosting videos or charging for access. The issue was that none of them properly matched the way ADN operated.

Most off-the-shelf platforms are built around standard business models. They can work well until the company has its own rules, branding requirements, access logic, or customer journey. At that point, the business usually has to change the way it works to fit the software.

ADN needed a particular combination of live sessions, on-demand content, previews, paid access, notifications, charity updates, and B2B packages. A generic platform could cover parts of that, but not the whole experience in a way that felt coherent.

Building the product from scratch allowed the software to follow the business, rather than forcing the business to follow the software.

More than a content app

The project started as a way to organize and present a growing archive of videos. It became something more important: the digital foundation of the membership.

Members now have a better way to access the content and live sessions they are already paying for. Potential customers can understand the value of the membership before subscribing. ADN has more control over its branding and customer experience, and the company has a technical foundation for selling larger B2B packages.

That is the part of the project I find most interesting. The value did not come from adding as many features as possible. It came from understanding how the business worked, where it wanted to go, and translating that into a product.

How I approach projects like this

Most clients do not come to me with a perfectly defined software product. They usually come with a business problem, an opportunity, or a rough idea of what they think they need.

My job is to understand the business before deciding what should be built. I look at how the company creates value, why its customers pay, where the current experience is breaking down, and which parts of the business could become more scalable through software.

The app is the final result of that process, but it is not the starting point.

With ADN, the original request was for a better content experience. The final product supports the membership, helps attract new users, improves engagement, and creates room for a more scalable business model.

That is what I mean when I say I translate business models into software.