Praktika · B2C · AI English tutor app
Put the cursing characters from your viral ads inside the app
Failed: users were unhappy and confused; called the year's biggest fail
Failedfeature-development
What they did
Unhinged, cursing avatars were going viral in upper-funnel content, so the team added them to the app. Users liked the look but did not understand why their avatar was cursing. Praktika removed them and decided against cursing avatars because it sells AI coaches, not AI companions.
What happened
Users were unhappy; Adam calls it the biggest fail of the past year. The avatars still worked as top-of-funnel content.
- Stage
- scale
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How Praktika Built a Profitable $50M ARR AI Business — Adam Turaev, Praktika“There was a point where those unhinged avatars were going viral in upper funnel, but then there was a very reasonable thing like, "All right, let's add them in the app." But it didn't work out well.”
“It actually caused more people not being happy about this, and not understanding why my avatar is cursing.”
“I mean, I think we took it through with those unhinged avatars. I think that was the biggest fail, to be honest.”
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More from this episode
- Praktika: Launch everywhere, but focus marketing on one country with high needBrazil became the launch market behind early growth; founder gives no market-level numbers
- Praktika: Sell a better job, not English lessons, and compare your price to a tutorSold a $100/year plan in a low-spending market; the claim became the category standard
- Praktika: Search for creators under 5,000 followers whose videos still get huge viewsFound the creator whose video took ARR from ~$1M to $10-12M
- Praktika: Spend a month full-time messaging creators yourself, DMing those with no emailA few creators out of a long list worked out, including the breakout one
- Praktika: Let creators post the video they believe in, even if you don't like it30M views across three platforms; ARR from ~$1M to $10-12M, about a month per host
- Praktika: Copy a viral video format with creators in other countries right awayPart of the jump from ~$1M to $10-12M ARR; no split by country
- Praktika: Put a small ad budget behind a creator video that's already going viralNear-zero CPMs, CPIs and cost per trial in the first days
- Praktika: Hire the creator behind your breakout video as an employeeHe became the face of the brand and still runs its social media
- Praktika: Hire former creators to run your creator program, one coach per country100+ creators in the program and still growing
- Praktika: Pay creators a fixed fee plus a bonus based on views
- Praktika: Keep creators and paid ads separate; have the ad team remake viral creator videosCreators keep finding new angles; no numbers given
- Praktika: Write product rules on one page, but let creators make almost anything
- Praktika: Use animated avatars so learners can rehearse the stress of talking to a personFounder says users then find real conversations easier; no numbers
- Praktika: Hand-write conversation scripts to fake the AI before the technology can do it
- Praktika: Have your AI tutor offer to set the daily reminder instead of a settings screen
- Praktika: Rebuild your cross-platform app as a native iOS appConversion and engagement improved across the board; biggest win of the year