For consumer startups, achieving at least 15% month-on-month growth in active users is ideal, with 10% being acceptable, while 5% is likely insufficient for long-term viability.

Startups are now achieving significant milestones, like hitting a million dollars in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within six months, which was previously an aspiration for 12 to 18 months post-batch.

The belief is that as you reach a critical mass, more people will see it as viable to work for a startup, which can take time.

In most consumer and B2B startups, you can build and launch a minimum viable product (MVP) in less than a month.

Startups often churn as they grow, meaning that acquiring early customers doesn't guarantee long-term retention.

For consumer startups, tracking headline user growth is crucial because monetization often comes later, and a good growth rate is 15% month-over-month, which can lead to a 5x increase in user base annually.

A lot of people undervalue building an audience ahead of time; they get impatient and think their first couple of blog posts will be a home run, but it usually takes a long time.

It's important to evaluate startups based on whether they have a small number of users who truly love the product, rather than just a large user base.

We went from close to zero in scale to 200 million in just 6 months, but I would not recommend that to anybody; really do it for the love of building.