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Lv

Luis von Ahn

12/01/23

@ The Logan Bartlett Show

For the first five years, we focused solely on improving user retention without making any money, which made our product stickier.

Video

TL

The Marketing Formula that Propelled Duolingo to 500M Users

@ The Logan Bartlett Show

The Marketing Formula that Propelled Duolingo to 500M Users

12/01/23

Related Takeaways

YC

Y Combinator Cast

01/03/17

@ Y Combinator

In the early days, focus on product retention rather than just growth. If your retention rate is low, prioritize improving your product before trying to scale.

GA

Gustaf Alstromer

09/12/18

@ Y Combinator

Measuring retention is critical; if you don't have a product that retains users, you shouldn't focus on growth yet.

JC

Jason Citron

04/29/25

@ a16z speedrun

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.

AC

Adora Cheung

03/20/17

@ Y Combinator

Sticky growth is about ensuring your existing users keep coming back and spending more. Delivering a good experience is crucial for retention.

DL

Daniel Lereya

04/27/25

@ Lenny's Podcast

In the early days, we avoided free trials to ensure we received feedback only from customers who truly valued our product, which helped us stay focused on delivering real value.

Lv

Luis von Ahn

05/10/25

@ Stanford Graduate School of Business

We spent the first five or six years of Duolingo not monetizing, which I regret; we should have started monetizing after year three to be further ahead today.

MC

Mathilde Collin

10/25/18

@ Y Combinator

We started with a freemium model, but realized it distracted us; we shifted to a paid model and consistently increased prices over time, which helped us focus on serious customers.

DH

Drew Houston

02/24/17

@ Y Combinator

When Dropbox was growing rapidly, we focused on user activation and retention, realizing that many users signed up but didn't engage with the product effectively.

BK

Bryan Kim

06/01/24

@ a16z

Obsess over delivering the core product value quickly to enhance user retention.