If scalling your product is ultimately dependent on having a large group of users, then you have a chicken or egg dilemma. You fell like the magic feature just can’t come to fruition until you have a large userbase.This is a cold start problem, on network effect consumer products (eg. LinkedIn)

Problem Scale - Chicken Or Egg Dilemma

Work on batches. Find a small group of users who got a lot of value and use it as bootstrap to create value for others, even if they are not what you want to target. They will fill the gap until the product gets to the critical mass.Then find another small group of users and repeat. Use different growth hacks.

Solution For Chicken Or Egg Dilemma

On the early days, when the userbase of LinkedIn was small, the goal was for a recruiter to say: “I’m looking for an accountant, based on Mississippi, who has an engineering history, has 10 years of experience and capabilities to lead team” (smthing very picky for a job, impossible before LinkedIn)

When LinkedIn Encountered Chicken Or Egg Dilemma

Better to have 100 users who love you than 1 million who kinda like you. The true seed of scale is love, and you can't buy it, hack it or game it. Ask Sam Altman, the head of Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's legendary startup accelerator. He knows that a product that's deeply loved — even by a tiny base of users — is one that can scale. We also hear an epic story of customer love from chef Dominique Ansel, the inventor of the Cronut. Plus cameos from Sara Blakely of Spanx and Aubrie Pagano of fashion line Bow & Drape.Read a transcript of this interview at: hhttps://mastersofscale.com/sam-altman-why-customer-love-is-all-you-need/Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dlirtXSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

Better to have 100 users who love you than 1 million who kinda like you. The true seed of scale is love, and you can't buy it, hack it or game it. Ask Sam Altman, the head of Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's legendary startup accelerator. He knows that a product that's deeply loved — even by a tiny base of users — is one that can scale. We also hear an epic story of customer love from chef Dominique Ansel, the inventor of the Cronut. Plus cameos from Sara Blakely of Spanx and Aubrie Pagano of fashion line Bow & Drape.Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com/sam-altman-why-customer-love-is-all-you-need/Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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