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The key takeaways from Andrew Chen's 'The Cold Start Problem' that can be applied to launching a new product include the importance of initial momentum and user base. Strategies such as market subsidization, invite-only strategies, and bootstrapping a product can be used to ensure that products relying on communities don't dry up. For instance, Reddit's founders used bot accounts to post on the site's front page manually, which was crucial for building momentum and gaining a core user base. Once organic users began to post their own content, the bot accounts became surplus to requirements.
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When a networked product launches, it faces a chicken-and-egg problem: people need to use it for it to be worth anything. So how do you start the very...
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Besides things like market subsidization and invite-only strategies, other methods, like bootstrapping a product, can ensure products that rely on communities don't dry up, à la Reddit (the founders would post on the site's front page manually with dozens of bot accounts). This was necessary for Reddit to build momentum and gain a core user base. Organic users soon began to post their own content, which rendered the founders' bot accounts surplus to requirements. But that kickstart was crucial.
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