Praktika · B2C · AI English tutor app
Spend a month full-time messaging creators yourself, DMing those with no email
A few creators out of a long list worked out, including the breakout one
Workedcreator-opsinfluencer
What they did
Before outreach automation tools existed, the founder spent about a month full-time sending emails and messages to a long list of creators. Where a creator had no collaboration email (as with Gustavo), he DMed them directly on TikTok: 'we're building this app and it seems like we have a good match, so do you want to work together.'
What happened
'A few of them just worked out', including Gustavo.
- Stage
- early
- Effort
- About a month of the founder's full-time work
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How Praktika Built a Profitable $50M ARR AI Business — Adam Turaev, Praktika“So yeah, I just reached out to him right in TikTok and just told him, "Hey, we're building this app and it seems like we have a good match, so do you want to work together."”
“So as founder, I think I had spent probably a month doing this. It was a full-time job. I just kept sending those emails, messages to all these influencers, and a few of them just worked out.”
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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: 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