The 10,000-User Signal: Validating Utility Before Velocity
We hit our first major milestone with a Customer Acquisition Cost of zero. Here is the roadmap from validation to scale.
Figure 1: The organic baseline (blue) vs. projected velocity upon activating growth levers (orange).
Ten thousand installs is a rounding error in venture capital, but in bootstrapped EdTech, it is the ultimate currency: unadulterated proof of utility.
Word Genie passed this milestone this week. Crucially, this was achieved entirely through organic product-led growth. No paid acquisition. No influencer campaigns. Just the raw engine of users solving an immediate pain point and signaling that value to others.
Solving the "Cold Start" Problem
We ignored traditional acquisition tactics to obsess over time-to-value. For GRE and SAT students, the primary friction isn't studying; it's the *creation* of study materials. Existing tools were merely digitized index cards—functional but tedious.
By allowing users to snap a textbook photo and instantly generate a spaced-repetition deck, Word Genie solved the "Cold Start Problem." We delivered immediate utility, making retention our primary acquisition channel.
Figure 2: Global footprint of current organic user base, driven by international test-prep communities.
The "Sleeping Giant" Strategy
We built a retention engine before an acquisition engine. The 10k baseline shown in Figure 1 represents passive growth—the product selling itself. Now that the core loop is validated, we are activating growth levers. The projected trajectory reflects the upcoming layering of structured acquisition:
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Community Activation (Q4): Coordinated rollout across high-density student Subreddits and Discord servers to amplify word-of-mouth.
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B2B2C Pilots (Q1 2026): Launching the "Classroom" dashboard to convert individual tutor usage into institutional partnerships.
The Takeaway
The first 10,000 users validated the utility. The next 90,000 are about velocity.