Hi there,

I hope you're doing well. I wanted to reach out to you once more about the recent stability issues with our app.
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We want to treat users like friends, so in this email, I’ll share in much more detail about what exactly has been going on behind the scenes, and what will happen next…
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What's Going On? (the full story)

During the spring of last year, we started building the very first version of Teacher AI. We weren’t even sure if guys wanted it, so we built something fast to test the waters. The initial beta launch was an overwhelming success and we sold out overnight.
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At the end of last year, we launched Teacher AI to the public and reinvested our revenue to build new features, launch more languages, make the platform faster and store data more efficiently which enabled us to eventually drop the price.
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In short, we kept building on the original version.

In the meantime, our user base has grown significantly and we’ve reached a point where the platform isn’t always able to handle the traffic. That’s what has caused too much downtime recently.
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Last Friday we made changes in the code that would resolve the streaming issues that were causing the crashes. That update unfortunately broke other features which made the platform slow and very hard to use. Often even impossible to use.

We’ve now come to a point where it’s almost impossible to add new features while keeping the platform stable, especially under heavy usage.
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Building an app like Teacher AI might look simple, but making it work for thousands of people at the same time requires a very well-thought-out architecture.
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We agree that at our current scale, these issues can no longer be an excuse!

Our commitment to you

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1. Free month to our users
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​First of all, we’ve temporarily closed enrollment for new users on Friday. We’ve also offered ‘free months’ to everybody who’s on an active subscription. (If you haven’t claimed your free month yet, please reply to this email!)
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The idea is that we’ll keep paying the bill for you, as long as the platform isn’t stable.
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We could have bought a (second hand?) supercar for that amount, but hey, your trust is much more important than that!
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Remember, we’re in this for the long run.
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​2. Fixing the current model
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​I had an emergency meeting with the tech team until midnight last night so see how fast we can fix the version that’s now live.
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They expect to get the current model working again within a few days, but it’s software in the end so we can’t make any firm promises yet.
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If, in a worst-case scenario, for some reason, we can’t fix the current version, we do have a plan B as well:

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3. We’re building a completely new app!
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​We spotted the potential limitations of our current model a while ago and have already started working on a complete rebuild of the app.

We hired a brand new, extremely talented team of seasoned software engineers to build Teacher AI completely from scratch using new technology that will make it faster, more stable, and just all-around better, even under heavy usage.

80% of their work is already done, so we haven’t been able to switch to the new version yet.
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When will I be able to use the app again?

According to our developers, we should be able to debug the current version and make it work smoothly again within a few days. Things usually take longer than expected so I think one or two weeks is more realistic.
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If in a very worst case scenario we can’t get the current version to work well, we’ll have to wait until the new platform is ready, but that might take a month. We have a separate team working on this solution in parallel.
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Anyway, as mentioned before, as long as the platform isn’t working smoothly, we’ll cover the bill for you.
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We're Here for You

Our whole team is passionate about helping people like you become fluent in your target language. That's why we started this app in the first place. We're not going to stop until we get it right.

If you have any questions or just want to chat, our customer support team is always here for you. We’ve already answered many hundreds of your emails over the weekend alone and are eager for more.

We appreciate your patience and understanding more than you know.

Thanks for sticking with us.

We can't wait to continue to offer unlimited language tutoring very soon! I’ll send you more updates later this when we have more news.

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All the best,

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Jan van der Aa
CEO, Teacher AI
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​P.S.: Skimming? - We’re working around the clock to fix Teacher AI. Our tech team expects everything to work again over the next few days, but let’s say ‘a few weeks’ to be safe. For the time being we’re offering ‘free months’ to everyone on a subscription. (If you haven’t claimed your free month yet, please reply to this email!)
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Next month we’ll be launching a new version that’s built completely from scratch using new technology that will make it faster, more stable, and just all-around better, even under heavy usage.
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