B2C · English learning app

How EWA: Learn English grows

3 tactics and 3 figures from 1 interview.

EWA is an English-learning app that launched as a funny, whimsical product in its founders' home market and language, then added languages one by one. Its founder stayed hands-on with marketing, writing ads himself, and paid ads ran alongside organic growth and fed its Instagram. The guest said EWA reached #2 after Duolingo, though she tied that to these moves only loosely.

EWA won its home market first and then expanded into other languages; the guest cited Babbel and Blinkist in Germany as the same pattern.EWA: Learn English
EWA's founder sat in every marketing meeting and came up with ad creatives himself, and he took marketing back over after the guest left.EWA: Learn English
The guest said organic-only apps such as Replika and Solid Starts eventually saturate their niche and paid added late cut into organic about half the time; EWA's partly ad-fed Instagram grew to around 7-10M.EWA: Learn English

Summary written 2026-09-26 from the tactics below. Figures are as founders stated them.

About EWA: Learn English

What it is: Whimsical English-learning app; bootstrapped; at one point #2 after Duolingo
Funding: bootstrapped

As described in the interviews, not independently verified.

EWA: Learn English's 3 tactics

EWA: Learn English · B2C · English learning app

Have the founder join every marketing meeting and write the ads himself

App reached #2 after Duolingo; link to this is loose

EWA's founder attended every marketing meeting and came up with creatives himself; after Yuliya left he took marketing back over. Advice: don't look for a CMO 'silver bullet'; founders must feel marketing hands-on.

Workedteam-processpaid-social

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-07-22

EWA: Learn English · B2C · English learning app

Win your home market first, then add languages one by one

Liked locally, then expanded; later #2 after Duolingo

EWA launched a funny, whimsical app in the founders' native language/home market, then grew into other languages. Similar pattern cited for Babbel and Blinkist in Germany. Advice: don't default to the US if you know another market better.

Workedmarket-selectionlocalization

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-07-22

EWA: Learn English · B2C · English learning app

Run paid ads from the start alongside organic growth

Organic-only apps plateau; paid added late often ate into organic

Apps with huge organic (Replika, Solid Starts) eventually saturate their niche; organic stagnates and adding paid later largely cannibalizes it. Start performance marketing early: every ad also feeds organic (EWA's Instagram grew to ~7-10M partly from ad-driven followers).

Mixedpaid-socialorganic-social

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-07-22

EWA: Learn English by the numbers

Metric	Value	Context	Said in
ad spend	USD 35K/month approximate	Ambiguous: '35K per month in traffic with a lot of spending' - likely paid traffic spend, could be revenue	Sub Club by RevenueCat 2026-07-22
rank	2 rank approximate	Category/app store ranking, second only to Duolingo	Sub Club by RevenueCat 2026-07-22
followers	7M–10M followers estimate	Instagram account, grown partly by paid ads	Sub Club by RevenueCat 2026-07-22

Topics

App localization and international growth1 TikTok ads for apps1 Growth team and hiring1 Meta ads for apps (Facebook and Instagram)1 Ad creative and creative testing1 Picking a niche and positioning an app1 Instagram marketing for apps1 TikTok marketing for apps1

Interviews

Make Ugly Ads to Grow Your App – Yuliya Lennox (Solid Starts) · Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2026-07-22