Praktika · B2C · AI English tutor app
Sell a better job, not English lessons, and compare your price to a tutor
Sold a $100/year plan in a low-spending market; the claim became the category standard
Workedpositioning-nichepricing
What they did
In Brazil, where people rarely pay for consumer subscriptions, every claim was about getting a better job rather than getting better at English. The ~$100/year subscription was justified against the cost of a human tutor; the '50X cheaper than a tutor' claim came out of this go-to-market and is now used across the category.
What happened
Subscription sold in a market with weak purchasing power; Adam says competitors now all use the '50X cheaper than a tutor' claim.
- Stage
- Scale (launch to scale)
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How Praktika Built a Profitable $50M ARR AI Business — Adam Turaev, Praktika“This 50X cheaper than a tutor claim that everybody uses now. And actually this claim is coming from our go-to-market strategy for Brazil, specifically.”
“We didn't sell English to them. We sold them an opportunity to get a better job. So it was just a bit of a different angle, but all of our claims were around this, not like, "Hey, you can get better in English."”
“What I'm saying is just a very trivial thought, sell what they need ultimately.”
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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: 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: Put the cursing characters from your viral ads inside the appFailed: users were unhappy and confused; called the year's biggest fail
- 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