there were a few and i probably won't be able to list all of them, but here are some:

- build for multiple platforms. most of our competitors did iOS and Android only and called it a day.

- keep the app simple. most of our competitors complicated not only the sign up flow but also the in-app experience

- look native. our thinking was that hundreds of millions of people use native apps thousands times a day and if we use native look and feel in our app, it will feel comfortable and intuitive for our users.

- focus on speed, performance and reliability. it is easy to build an app that sends images quickly on 4G but you also have to work efficiently in the EDGE environments.

- localization. we translated into as many languages as we could as quickly as we could.

- support. for the longest time Brian and myself were the only two guys answering customer support emails.

- focus on organic growth as it makes your network stronger

there are probably a bunch of other things we focused early on that escape me at the moment...