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This video below helped Praktika, an AI language learning app, 10x its ARR to $12M in just 30 days.

The story behind this video is even crazier… 

Before we reveal their secret sauce, let’s rewind to 2017.

Origin story of Praktika

Genesis: from enterprise AI to consumer AI app

Five years before starting Praktika, three school friends—Adam, Anton, and Illya—teamed up to launch their first venture, Cleverbots.

The platform helped enterprises build voicebots and chatbots for customer support and HR automation. It turned into a solid success, hitting $2M in ARR and reaching 2 millions monthly active users.

But even with their wins in enterprise AI, the trio felt pulled toward something more personal and impactful. Something in the consumer space. Language learning quickly stood out.

As non-native English speakers, they’d struggled firsthand with English communication, especially in professional settings. And when they looked at the market, they noticed a huge gap. Most apps offered only two choices: human-to-human interaction (which can be expensive and inconvenient), or basic machine-to-human experiences with simple clicks and drag-and-drops (looking at you, Duolingo). 

They saw a clear opportunity to build something better: an immersive, AI-driven learning experience with avatars and real conversations that felt like having your own personal tutor.

With their background in conversational AI, they knew exactly how to make that happen… and Praktika was born!

And thanks to their deep expertise in conversational AI, they knew exactly how to bring that vision to life.

Product evolution: role playing to AI tutoring

Praktika’s first MVP dropped in mid-2023.

Even back then, the experience looked a lot like it does today: users chatted with an AI avatar through text or audio, diving into real-life scenarios like talking to a NYC taxi driver.

But behind the scenes, things were a bit clunky. 

Because AI avatar generation had some serious lag, all the videos had to be pre-generated and followed a branching script. It worked, but the conversations felt a little too scripted, and the learning experience was kind of stiff.

As GenAI technology matured, latency dropped from 4 seconds to about 1 second, making the experience feel way more natural. Now, users can talk to AI avatars in real-time, with open-ended conversations that actually flow like real dialogue.

One of the biggest turning points came when the team realized that just role-playing wasn’t enough. Users experienced their biggest aha moment when reaching specific learning goals. 

So the product evolved, moving from pure role-play to more of a tutoring model. They started offering personalized study plans and lessons tailored to each user’s goals.

Now, people can practice with their AI tutor on exactly what they need, and track their progress with regular tests.

Differentiation = fun + effective language learning

Praktika aims to differentiate in the language learning market by blending engaging gamification with effective learning, emphasizing real-world conversation skills.

While Duolingo uses gamification to teach vocabulary and basic phrases through quizzes, Praktika offers real-time practice with AI avatars.

The platform takes gamification even further with immersive experiences like 'Catch the Bird' (which happens to resemble a certain owl... 😂), a survival game where users practice language skills during gameplay.

0-$12M ARR playbook

Target audience:

They initially focused on Gen-Z learners who needed English to advance their careers.

While learning a language for fun has merit, career advancement provides stronger motivation. English proficiency can significantly boost earning potential, whether through working at international companies or landing remote jobs in the US.

$0-12M cheat code:

1/ Initial launch in Brazil

They launched in Brazil, a market of 210M+ people with high digital literacy but low English proficiency (only 5% of the population speaks English).

Influencer marketing aka UGC was their primary growth lever.

They targeted Brazilian IG/TikTok English language learning influencers who could consistently generate hundreds of thousands of views.

This strategy succeeded immediately, helping them reach $1K MRR with their first influencer partnership and scaling to $100K MRR within three months of launch.

2/ Failed experiments

Around the same time, they also experimented with marketing on WhatsApp and Telegram, two of Brazil's most popular social platforms.

They joined various language learning channels and groups, occasionally promoting Praktika, but these efforts failed to generate meaningful results.

3/ Big breakthrough = acquihire an influencer

The biggest breakthrough came when they discovered a rising Brazilian TikTok/IG language learning influencer called Gustavo.

Despite having only 10K followers at the time, Gustavo was consistently generating 2-3M views per video… an absolute machine. 

Praktika approached him with an exclusive content creation deal (like an acquihire), which he readily accepted since he wasn't yet monetizing his content.

This acquihire proved transformative for Praktika.

Gustavo quickly developed a winning content formula for the AI language learning app.

Secret sauce: a short video format showing Gustavo talking to Praktika's AI avatar while intentionally making ridiculous mistakes in English.

The strategy took off in a big way. 

One standout video alone pulled in 12 million views on Instagram and 10 million each on TikTok and YouTube. Seeing the momentum, the team doubled down on the format and boosted its reach even further with paid ads.

Thanks to this format, Praktika's ARR skyrocketed from $1M to $12M in just ONE MONTH 🤯.

4/ Growth today

Following their massive success in Brazil, Praktika quickly expanded to 100+ countries using the same influencer playbook. 

Today, they've reached over $20M ARR with more than 2M monthly active users. As the app has scaled, word of mouth has become their primary growth driver, with 60% of new users coming from existing users sharing the platform with friends.

🔑 In a nutshell, their growth playbook looks like this: 

Partner with influencers to find winning format → double down on successful content & amplify with ads → leverage organic word of mouth for sustainable growth

Want a detailed UGC playbook for consumer apps? Hit reply—I'll write it next if 10+ people are in. 

See you next week 🫡,

Leo

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