The most significant challenge we faced was not just building the network but also acquiring users, which proved to be incredibly difficult.

Understanding how users interact with your product is crucial for growth and building something people truly want.

Initially, we thought we were on the path to success, but I later realized that we were not converting users into paying customers because we were too focused on fundraising and PR instead of creating a product that people actually needed.

If you create a product, simply putting it on the market won't guarantee users will come; active growth strategies are necessary.

We didn't take the approach of getting a billion users and figuring out how to make money later; we focused on how to monetize if we could get to 100 million monthly active users.

In startup customer acquisition, the idea that 'if you build it, they will come' is often false; you need to actively find your audience.

We always knew we could grow users first, which was our primary focus in the early days of Duolingo.

The key to success is to engage with users and build what they want, which fosters loyalty and growth.

When we opened our platform to a wider audience, we found that self-selection by users led to better engagement and feedback than our initial closed beta approach.