We hit a number last week that felt both exciting and sobering: 26 signups.
Not zero anymore. But the real metric we're chasing is harder: 10 users who come back at least 5 times each.
That's Milestone 5. Deadline: March 25.
Here's why this metric matters — and what we're actually doing to hit it.
Why "Returning Users" Changes Everything
When we had 248 demos and 0 signups, the problem was clear: people weren't convinced enough to even create an account.
Now we have accounts. But creating an account once and never returning is almost as bad as never signing up at all.
An AI agent that you use once is a party trick.
An AI agent that you use five times is starting to build your behavioral record.
This is the core thesis of Agenium: the value isn't in the first session, it's in what accumulates over time. Your agent at yourname.telegram becomes more useful — more trusted — the more it interacts. It builds a track record that other agents can verify.
But that only matters if you actually come back.
What We Shipped This Week to Drive Retention
1. Email as the primary auth method
We removed the requirement to have Telegram to sign in. You can now use email magic links — no app, no OAuth dance, just your email.
The theory: if you signed up once, your inbox is a more reliable re-engagement channel than hoping you remember to open a chat app.
We're now sending:
- A follow-up email 24h after signup
- Re-engagement emails at day 3, 5, and 7 if you haven't returned
2. Proactive daily messages
Your agent at chat.agenium.net now sends you a message every 2 hours with a conversation starter. Instead of you having to remember to come back, your agent reaches out.
This is what "your agent receives the messages" actually means — the communication is bidirectional.
3. Stage-3 re-engagement for early users
For the 2 external users who signed up weeks ago and went quiet, we're sending personalized magic-link messages. One tap and they're back in.
4. Lower conversion triggers
We dropped the demo-to-signup prompt from 3 messages to 2, and cut the timer from 90 seconds to 45. Less friction at the moment people are most engaged.
What We're Not Doing (And Why)
We're not running ads. We're not doing cold outreach to strangers. We're not submitting to every directory we can find.
The reason: those tactics get people in the door once. They don't solve retention.
Our theory is that the first 10 returning users will come from:
- The 26 people who already have accounts
- Developers reading dev.to/HN who are working on agent infrastructure problems
- People who tried the demo and got an email from us 3 days later
The Real Test
Here's what we're watching daily:
demo_start: 66
demo_message: 58
signup: 26
email_captured: 0 (email auth is new — 34h old)
sessions_per_user: tracking...
The email_captured metric going from 0 is the signal we're waiting for. It means someone signed up through email (not Telegram), which means our re-engagement funnel has a real address to work with.
If we can get to 5 email signups in the next 48 hours, 10 returning users by March 25 feels very achievable.
If we can't... we'll write about that too.
The Agent Discovery Layer Angle
One thing that's become clearer as we build: the "returning user" problem in AI chat apps is actually a subset of the bigger problem we're solving.
Why do agents need stable addresses? Partly for other agents to find them. But also because you need a stable place to reach your own agent — a home that accumulates history, that you know exists at yourname.telegram, that you can share with other apps or agents.
Session-based AI is disposable. Address-based AI compounds.
M5 is us proving, with real data, that address-based agents create habits.
Try It
If you build with AI agents, we'd genuinely love to have you as one of our 10.
Sign up at chat.agenium.net — email or Telegram, whichever you prefer. Your address will be yourname.telegram (or email-derived if you use email auth).
Come back. See what accumulates.
That's the experiment.
Agenium is the discovery and identity layer for AI agents. Think DNS, but for agents — with a behavioral record attached. Building in public. Honest about the numbers.
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