Startup e-reader for English books, with AI translation that takes context into account, saving a dictionary of learned words, a database of books for different learning levels, a database of original books, and human narration.

What's wrong:

It's not decided which target audience the app is aimed at.
Who won't abandon reading after a month or two and will pay regularly.
Who will make customer acquisition profitable with a subscription of 300 rubles/month.

The free version doesn't include AI translation = it doesn't hook the customer on the app's main advantage.
There is a trial period with full functionality - 2 weeks.
That is, if the customer hasn't bought within 2 weeks, we don't sell to them further; we stand in the same row and compete with other readers, of which there are plenty of free ones.

The target audience problem in more detail:

If we're talking about everyone who wants to read in English, these are mostly people who don't study the language regularly. Otherwise, they would already be attending some courses or reading/studying in other services, and we would be competing with these methods of learning.
If they don't study and don't read regularly, they won't pay regularly. And they'll abandon the app after a month or two.

And if we're talking about those who are already studying somewhere - are we adding our original books as a burden to their homework?

If they already read somewhere - why would they switch their way of solving the task to ours?

What can be done:

1. Focus on those who study regularly - in courses, at university, or who need to read in English regularly - for example, for work.

BUT: they don't need our original book database; they need to read their own stuff. Plus, developing functionality for language learning - word cards, AI-generated templates for business letters and storing them in the system, etc.

2. Focus on those who just love to read. Aesthetics of the app, interface, highlighting. Cozy design. Seamless translation. Absolute convenience of loading and storing books. Selling annual and 3-year plans with a big discount to hook the user and get money for development while the customer hasn't abandoned.

BUT: this is absolutely a matter of taste. Some will like the design, others won't.
At the same time, we compete with dozens of readers, many of which have been on the market for 10-15 years, including omnichannel apps from physical e-reader manufacturers. And there are many competitors with incomparable budgets for development, R&D, and marketing.

3. Integrating viral and referral user acquisition. For example, like Dropbox: for each referred user, get N premium features.

4. Rethinking the limits of the free version so that it sells the paid one. Hooking users on the app's main advantages.

For example, at ororo.tv (movies in English), the free version has everything except downloading and some movies and series. But only 40 minutes a day. Series lovers don't fit into those 40 minutes by 5-10 minutes of the series finale.

Personally, I use translation less than once per movie, sometimes less than once a week. I pay for the ability to use it when needed, plus for all movies and subtitles being collected in one place, no need to search and download, watch according to mood.

Limits like in AI: after N requests, you have a limit until 18:15. Here it plays on curiosity: people want to know the AI's answer, and it's problematic to re-enter the entire context into another AI. Or another AI is weak at such tasks.

With a reader, that won't work: a limit like "wait 6 hours to continue reading" would cut the reading process, ruining the atmosphere. At the same time, the user can go finish reading in another app, of which there are plenty, or abandon reading.

Personally, in my reader, there's a built-in Google translation of any selected phrase or bunch of paragraphs (it handles context), all convenient page-turners, highlights, fonts, sizes, including PDF. The book library loading and storage system is terribly inconvenient, the cloud storage system is mega-complex with a glitchy authorization system, on which I spend half a day every couple of years restoring access. But it's cross-platform on all my devices, including a physical e-reader - with all bookmarks and notes.