Canva

Canva Stories won awards but failed because users wanted Canva itself. The Canva Stories spin-out won Apple awards but never cracked acquisition, retention or brand awareness. Users saw Stories as a subset of Canva, so it was folded back in.

Tanmay's lesson is to spin out a separate app only when the use case needs its own brand. ElevenLabs is different because it is a horizontal platform, so its flagship app and ElevenReader work as separate apps with their own brands and look and feel. They share a design system, tech stack, MMP and creator learnings, and two apps give roughly double or quadruple the surface area for learning, such as running paywall tests in parallel. Quote: "The product was amazing... But it just could never crack those acquisition problems."

Subversive▶ 32:30

Canva's video launch took a 12-month run-up and hinged on one day. The video product launch had a 12-month run-up, with three months spent on messaging alone. The whole launch hinged on a single launch day.

Subversive

Charge professionals more than personal users, as Canva could. Use onboarding answers such as professional versus personal use, or goal, to choose a soft or hard paywall and a higher or lower price. For example, show Canva professionals a higher price than personal users.

Uber-style pricing already works like this, and few apps do it yet. Quote: "if you're using professional you show them a higher price."

Lenny's Podcast▶ 37:10

Canva cannot chase narrow keywords, so niche apps can outrank it. A client outranked Canva on a niche keyword while earning far less than Canva.

Lenny's Podcast