$700M From 1 App (Playbook Revealed)

March 31, 2025

Hey bro,

Your app won’t grow without retention.

Duolingo mastered retention and made $700M last year.

Let’s steal their playbook.

Here’s what you can learn from the owl to print with your app:

People don’t learn on Duolingo—they play.

Badges, leaderboards, daily goals. It’s addictive by design.

With gamification, you'll make your app stickier.

They push streaks.
They turn usage into a ritual.
They send relentless notifications.

If they open your app every day, you already won.

Duolingo is “free” but annoying AF.

After every lesson, there is an ad pushing the premium.

It pushes people to upgrade without saying “upgrade.”

Smart (annoying) freemium strategy = printing.

No fluff. No confusion.

Everything is tappable, beautiful, and fast.

Simple apps scale. Complex ones die.

They use social proof and FOMO with leaderboards.

You’re not just learning—you’re trying to beat people.

That’s powerful psychology.

Duolingo is a $700M/year beast because it nails habit + retention + upsell.

You don’t need an owl mascot to do the same.

You just need to build with intention.

If you're looking to scale your app, apply to work with me 1-on-1 inside the SaaS Accelerator:

See you in the next email.

Peace,
Steven

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