Relying solely on paid acquisition for growth is risky. If your growth depends only on ads, it may not be sustainable in the long run, especially as competition increases.

In the early stages, focus on organic growth rather than paid users, as relying on paid growth can be misleading and should be avoided as much as possible.

For paid growth, ensure you have revenue before investing in ads, and understand your customer acquisition cost (CAC) versus the lifetime value (LTV) of your users to ensure profitability.

Paid growth involves spending money to acquire users. It's important to ensure that the lifetime value of a customer exceeds the cost of acquiring them, or else the growth strategy may not be sustainable.

There are three types of growth: sticky growth, which focuses on retaining existing users; viral growth, which relies on users referring others; and paid growth, which involves spending money to acquire users.

As a startup grows, the focus shifts from just acquiring users to ensuring sustainable growth and revenue. We learned the hard way that even if users love our product, we must also pay attention to our overall growth metrics to avoid becoming a beloved startup that fails due to lack of financial viability.

If users refuse to pay, it indicates that you haven't built enough value into your product or you're targeting the wrong customer segment.

In the early stages, it's important to be cautious with spending and have a plan to reach profitability, even if you're reinvesting revenue into growth.

Companies should avoid overpaying for talent during rapid growth, as it can create unsustainable salary expectations that are difficult to reverse later.