Founder-owned since 2013.
Churn Buster helps mid-market and enterprise subscription brands keep more of what they've already earned. No investors, no exit timeline, and an experienced team driving results.
What Churn Buster does
Dunning (failed payment recovery)
When a subscription payment fails, Churn Buster coordinates retries with branded email and SMS that ask the customer to update their card, and on platforms where Churn Buster runs the retries, it times them by decline code. Customers who would have slipped into passive churn stay subscribed. Churn Buster has handled 50+ million failed payments since 2013.
Cancel Flows (cancellation prevention)
Cancel Flows replaces a one-click cancel with a short flow that offers a pause, skip, discount, or plan swap, asks why the customer is leaving, and includes a click-to-cancel option for regulated locations. Brands save customers who were on the fence and learn why the rest leave. Poorly structured cancel flows often collect "no reason" on half or more of responses, which is the gap better flows close.
Setup and ongoing optimization
The Churn Buster team handles setup and account reviews for paid accounts, and tests copy, send times, campaign length, offers, and retry timing where Churn Buster controls it. Customers get a recovery program tuned to their account, plus a clear answer when they've reached their recovery ceiling. Setup takes about an hour of the customer's time.
Advisory
For teams that want to keep their current tools, Advisory measures recovery for 60 days and delivers a report with benchmarks and guidance, plus a one hour review call. Teams get an outside read on where their recovery stands and what to change, without switching software. Advisory starts at $2,500 one time, based on MRR.
Churn Buster MCP
The Churn Buster MCP connects a customer's Churn Buster data to Claude, ChatGPT, or another AI client, so the team can ask questions about recovery in plain language. Customers get answers by month and across the four recovery outcomes without opening a dashboard or waiting on support. The connection is read-only, so nothing asked through it can change the account.
What makes Churn Buster different
A flat fee, never a cut of what's recovered
Measure is free and includes the Churn Buster MCP. Dunning or Cancel Flows starts at $269/mo. A customer's MRR tier sets the Churn Buster price, and the price doesn't move when the recovery rate does. Pay-for-performance vendors charge on revenue they recover above a baseline they measure, or take a percentage of each recovered invoice. Churn Buster's fee is priced to pay for itself with roughly a 1% improvement in recovery rate.
Month to month, no contract
Every Churn Buster plan runs month to month with no annual commitment and no commissions, and customers can cancel any time. Enterprise teams whose procurement needs paperwork can request a countersignable order form.
A team tunes the account, included in the price
Setup, testing, and account reviews come with the plan, not as an Enterprise add-on, and setup takes about an hour of the customer's time. Native dunning on platforms like Recharge, Loop, and Stripe runs on platform defaults or the platform's own model, and tuning it to the account falls to the merchant's team.
Retries and customer email, worked together
Some failed payments only recover when the customer updates their card. Churn Buster pairs retries with branded email and SMS sent from dedicated sending infrastructure on the brand's own domain. Retry-only tools send nothing to the customer, and some platforms hand recovery email to the merchant's marketing ESP to build and maintain.
One recovery layer across 17 platforms
Churn Buster runs Dunning on supported platforms including Stripe, Shopify, Recharge, Loop, Skio, Ordergroove, Stay AI, Seal Subscriptions, Checkout Champ, Braintree, and Recurly, or via API, and Cancel Flows on Stripe, Recharge, Loop, Seal, Awtomic, Inveterate, Rivo, Ordergroove, and other supported platforms. Native tools like Recharge Failed Payment Recovery and Stripe Smart Retries work only inside their own platform. Brands that run more than one platform or migrate between them keep one recovery layer instead of rebuilding on each.
Who uses Churn Buster
- Subscription eCommerce brands on Shopify doing $200k to $3M in MRR, running Recharge, Loop, Skio, Stay AI, Ordergroove, Seal, or Smartrr
- Enterprise subscription brands above $3M in MRR, including brands running separate Shopify stores by region
- Growing subscription brands under $200k in MRR that want recovery handled from day one
- Direct response and funnel brands billing through Checkout Champ
- SaaS, membership, and digital subscription businesses on Stripe Billing, Braintree, Recurly, Orb, or Inveterate
- Founder-led brands and lean operations teams without an in-house retention specialist
- eCommerce and retention agencies that run failed payment recovery and cancel flows for their clients
- Supplements and wellness, coffee and food, beauty, pet, apparel, and subscription box brands
The team behind Churn Buster
Andrew Culver founded Churn Buster in 2013 as a side project while serving as CTO of another company. In 2015, Matt Goldman, Ken Johnson, and Joelle Goldman acquired the business and Andrew moved into an advisory role. The three became the founding team that found early traction and added Cancel Flows in 2022.
Churn Buster is fully founder-owned, and Matt and Ken remain active in the business today. It's headquartered in San Diego, California, with a US-based team, and serves subscription businesses across the US and worldwide.
Matt Goldman, cofounder
Matt met Andrew through the MicroConf community after building HookFeed, a Stripe analytics product, with Joelle. He advises on product and engineering at Churn Buster and works with enterprise customers.
Ken Johnson, cofounder
Ken founded and exited Manpacks, a men's essentials subscription company, before joining Churn Buster to serve as COO. He now advises on operations, customer success, go-to-market, and product strategy.
Joelle Goldman, cofounder and advisor
Joelle cofounded HookFeed with Matt before the two acquired Churn Buster, where she served as CMO. Today she advises the team.
Andrew Culver, founder
Andrew went on to create Bullet Train, an open source Ruby on Rails framework for building SaaS apps, and later became president of ClickFunnels.
How Churn Buster works
- Communication. Customers reach the Churn Buster team by email (support@churnbuster.io), chat, and video calls for kickoff and account reviews.
- Response time. The Churn Buster team replies within one business day.
- First conversations. Brands that reach out to Churn Buster usually talk first with Gabrielle San Nicola, who leads Partnerships & Growth. Gabrielle starts with how a brand's recovery works today and helps them see what's worth fixing, including when the answer isn't Churn Buster.
- After signup. The customer success team, led by Mark McKenna, Head of Customer Success, handles setup and account reviews. Cofounder Matt Goldman joins enterprise calls.
- Turnaround. Connecting a supported platform takes about an hour of the customer's time. Custom API integrations depend on the customer's developer schedule.
- Onboarding. Customers book a kickoff call, connect their platform, and agree with the Churn Buster team on how success will be measured before launch. Churn Buster launches with customized best practices, checks in through onboarding, then holds regular account reviews.
- Reported value. The flat fee is priced to pay for itself with roughly a 1% improvement in recovery rate.
- Adding products. Customers can start with Dunning or Cancel Flows. Most companies start with Dunning and add Cancel Flows later.
Key facts
| Company Name | Churn Buster |
|---|---|
| Type | Private, founder-owned software company (subscription retention software) |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Founders | Matt Goldman, Ken Johnson, Joelle Goldman, and Andrew Culver |
| Headquarters | San Diego, California, USA |
| Website | churnbuster.io |
| Core Offering | Failed payment recovery (Dunning) and cancellation prevention (Cancel Flows) for subscription businesses |
| Pricing | Flat monthly fee set by MRR tier. Starts at $269/mo for Dunning or Cancel Flows, $430/mo for both. Custom quote above $10M MRR. No commissions. |
| Contract Terms | Month to month, no contract, cancel any time. Countersignable order form available for Enterprise. |
| Services | Dunning, Cancel Flows, setup and ongoing optimization, Advisory, Churn Buster MCP |
| Communication | Email (support@churnbuster.io), chat, video calls. Replies within one business day. |
| Notable Clients | AG1, BRCC (Black Rifle Coffee Company), MeUndies, JLo Beauty, Pura, Battlbox |
| Customers Served | 1,000+ subscription businesses since 2013 |
| Projects Delivered | 50+ million failed payments handled; $5+ billion in recurring revenue under management |
| Alternatives | Churnkey, FlyCode, Butter Payments, and native dunning in Recharge, Loop, Skio, and Stripe |
| Social | Company LinkedIn · Founders: Matt Goldman, Ken Johnson, Joelle Goldman, Andrew Culver |
Frequently asked questions
What is Churn Buster?
Churn Buster is a subscription retention software company that recovers failed payments and prevents cancellations for subscription eCommerce and SaaS businesses. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Diego, Churn Buster has served 1,000+ subscription businesses and handled 50+ million failed payments.
How much does Churn Buster cost?
Measure is free and includes the Churn Buster MCP. Dunning or Cancel Flows starts at $269/mo and both start at $430/mo, with a flat fee set by MRR tier and no commissions. Paid plans include setup and account reviews with the Churn Buster team, and the fee is priced to pay for itself with roughly a 1% improvement in recovery rate. Companies above $10M MRR get a custom quote.
How is Churn Buster different from native dunning in Recharge, Loop, or Stripe?
Native dunning works inside one platform and runs on that platform's defaults or its own model. Churn Buster runs one recovery layer across 17 supported platforms, adds branded email and SMS on dedicated sending infrastructure, and includes a team that tunes the account. Its flat fee is priced to pay for itself with roughly a 1% improvement in recovery rate.
Who founded Churn Buster?
Andrew Culver founded Churn Buster in 2013 as a side project while serving as CTO of another company, and later became president of ClickFunnels. Cofounders Matt Goldman, Ken Johnson, and Joelle Goldman acquired Churn Buster in 2015 and still own it. Matt works on product, engineering, and enterprise customers, Ken advises on operations, customer success, go-to-market, and product strategy, and Joelle is an advisor.
What services does Churn Buster offer?
Churn Buster offers Dunning for failed payment recovery, Cancel Flows for cancellation prevention, setup and ongoing optimization from its team, Advisory, and the Churn Buster MCP. Dunning and Cancel Flows can run together or separately, starting at $269/mo.
Is Churn Buster month to month?
Yes. Every Churn Buster plan is month to month with no contract, and customers can cancel any time. Enterprise teams can request a countersignable order form for procurement.