Founders often come to me for advice. (Why? I haven’t a clue.)

Still, I take these calls, and I wanted to share some of my most frequently shared advice to *consumer* tech companies:

Don't build a startup in education. It's a regulated market where most money goes to teachers. There's limited demand for what people want to learn outside formal education. We succeeded with Duolingo, but we're the exception, not the rule.

In consumer tech, the only metric that matters is retention. How many people come back the next day matters the most. Not growth rate. Not revenue. Your success ultimately depends on this one number. Retention is the best proxy for product quality.

Start with a mission, not money. Founders who build to get rich rarely succeed at the scale of those who solve a real problem they care about. Paradoxically, the people who care least about making money often make the most.

Just build. Stop overanalyzing. Second-time founders see all the ways that things can go wrong. First-time founders who don't know better have nothing to lose - and that's an advantage.