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ASK HN: Startup the chicken and the egg problem

2 points by grif-fin ↗ HN
We are implementing an idea that the users are the content providers, for this reason the more the active users the better the quality and the value of the product hence better chance for more users to use the product hence the better quality and the loop!

It is always easier to get funding with a prototype ready with active number of users than selling the concept/idea to the investor with nothing to back it up that it would work but with the above chicken and egg problem described what approaches would you take to deal with it?

3 comments

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brudgers
My understanding is, it's not just active users, but their level of engagement and evidence that the engagement is in a direction that will drive growth. To use a tired example, Facebook at Harvard didn't have a lot of active users from an absolute standpoint, but the people who used it were actively engaged and because the proportion of the target community was so high it suggested a model for growth -- expanding to similar communities.

At first there wasn't a numbers game, there was just something that people used and loved because it made their life more interesting.

Good luck.