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Q3-board-memo.pdf 90%
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Finch — Board pack
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Finch
Board memo · Confidential
To Board of Directors
From Growth team
Date September 28, 2026
Re Q3 retention & the onboarding bet

Cohort C delivered a record quarter

In Q3 we made a single concentrated bet: rebuild the new-user onboarding flow and ship it to one cohort. The result exceeded plan. D7 retention for cohort C reached 52.4% — the highest in the company's history and a 9.2 point improvement over the Q2 baseline.

60%30%0% w17w18w19w20w22
Figure 1. Weekly D7 retention by cohort, w17–w22. Cohort C (amber) is the redesign group.

The mechanism is clear in the funnel. The redesigned flow lifted onboarding completion by 14 points and closed the activation→D7 drop-off by 12 points. We see no evidence of a novelty effect; week-over-week gains compounded through w21.

Recommendations

Roll the redesigned onboarding to cohort D in week 23, with a 10% holdback.
Stand up a D30 retention holdback to confirm the lift is durable, not pulled-forward.
Reallocate Q4 growth budget toward activation, where the marginal return is now highest.
Finch, Inc. — Board memoConfidentialPage 3 of 12