The Secret to Duolingo’s Growth

Below, co-founders Dylan Diamond and Max Baron share their biggest lessons on building a viral social consumer app, including:

1. Embracing single-player mode as a wedge for social products


2. Building a product that users feel was built just for them


3. Why it’s OK to be unscalable—you can make it scale later


4. Building a familiar product is much easier if you’r

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Once you know your product actually makes your service 10x better along some dimension, then grow. Don’t fall prey to temptation (or pressure from your investors) to grow before then.

Here’s what stood out:An obsession with efficiencyAlignment between product strategy and acquisition strategyA singular focus to build a magical, sticky product through rapid iteration and endless optimization