Ask HN: When has “build it and they will come” worked in the startup world?

#1

Post by arjunb023 » Fri, Apr 01, 2022, 8:29 PM UTC

The most fundamental tenet of building a startup is to understand a customer problem before building. Talk to users, find a problem, and build for that solution.

What are some unicorn startups founded in the last decade that didn't do that and found product-market fit?

Re: Ask HN: When has “build it and they will come” worked in the startup world?

#2

Post by onion2k » Fri, Apr 01, 2022, 8:45 PM UTC

There aren't any. You can't grow a unicorn without understanding your customers.

Re: Ask HN: When has “build it and they will come” worked in the startup world?

#3

Post by petercooper » Fri, Apr 01, 2022, 9:01 PM UTC

Not a unicorn, but the Basecamp folks have spoken before on how they focus on building a product their way and with entirely their own vision first, without getting customer feedback, and then see if it flies or not.

Re: Ask HN: When has “build it and they will come” worked in the startup world?

#4

Post by Graffur » Fri, Apr 01, 2022, 11:30 PM UTC

Ignoring the last decade part and the unicorn part.. and just looking at successful companies:

Google, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, AWS, Apple/iPhone, Steam, Microsoft/Windows/Office, Revolut, Dropbox, lots of web hosting companies like DigitalOcean etc., lots of cryptocurrency companies like Cardano etc.

One notable exception that pivoted a lot is Twitter. It started as a podcast service iirc. Netflix is an interesting one too. They switched from DVDs to streaming which paid off for them.

Of course all have changed and added features as they have grown but they're all close to their original ideas which, imo, matches "build and they will come"

Re: Ask HN: When has “build it and they will come” worked in the startup world?

#5

Post by webmaven » Fri, Apr 01, 2022, 11:42 PM UTC

Graffur wrote: post #4

Ignoring the last decade part and the unicorn part.. and just looking at successful companies: Google, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, AWS, Apple/iPhone, Steam, Microsoft/Windows/Office, Revolut, Dropbox, lots of web hosting companies like DigitalOcean etc., lots of cryptocurrency companies like Cardano etc. One notable exception that pivoted a lot is Twitter. It started as a podcast service iirc. Netflix…

> One notable exception that pivoted a lot is Twitter. It started as a podcast service iirc. Netflix is an interesting one too. They switched from DVDs to streaming which paid off for them.

Another notable pivot was Flickr, which started as a backend feature of an MMO called Game Neverending (which was never released IIRC).

Re: Ask HN: When has “build it and they will come” worked in the startup world?

#6

Post by akshatmittal108 » Sat, Apr 02, 2022, 7:03 AM UTC

Graffur wrote: post #4

Ignoring the last decade part and the unicorn part.. and just looking at successful companies: Google, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, AWS, Apple/iPhone, Steam, Microsoft/Windows/Office, Revolut, Dropbox, lots of web hosting companies like DigitalOcean etc., lots of cryptocurrency companies like Cardano etc. One notable exception that pivoted a lot is Twitter. It started as a podcast service iirc. Netflix…

Well, to be fair many of them had some kind of prototyping to see if customers like the product or not before building the complete product and releasing it. AWS was first developed internally to solve their own developers problem. Dropbox had a very viral successful video to gauze customer interest. For Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg did develop many side projects (like gathering opinions about some historical art for class project etc) during his time in college before combining all the best features to release Facebook (which didn't have photo gallery feature at the time of release). One overlooked part I think is the network. I remember listening to interview of Stripe founder and he mentioned how that network helped in getting initial traction to the product, so it's not all about building in silos for months and hoping customers would come when the product is launched.

Re: Ask HN: When has “build it and they will come” worked in the startup world?

#7

Post by Graffur » Sat, Apr 02, 2022, 10:36 AM UTC

akshatmittal108 wrote: post #6

Graffur wrote: post #4

Ignoring the last decade part and the unicorn part.. and just looking at successful companies: Google, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, AWS, Apple/iPhone, Steam, Microsoft/Windows/Office, Revolut, Dropbox, lots of web hosting companies like DigitalOcean etc., lots of cryptocurrency companies like Cardano etc. One notable exception that pivoted a lot is Twitter. It started as a podcast service iirc. Netflix…

Well, to be fair many of them had some kind of prototyping to see if customers like the product or not before building the complete product and releasing it. AWS was first developed internally to solve their own developers problem. Dropbox had a very viral successful video to gauze customer interest. For Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg did develop many side projects (like gathering opinions about some historical art for cl…

Good points. Network is so, so important. It's how apps like TeamBlind, "Yo!" or the anonymous posting one (I can't remember the name) became popular even though there was no substance.

Re: Ask HN: When has “build it and they will come” worked in the startup world?

#8

Post by Dracophoenix » Sat, Apr 02, 2022, 11:11 AM UTC

Graffur wrote: post #7

akshatmittal108 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to be fair many of them had some kind of prototyping to see if customers like the product or not before building the complete product and releasing it. AWS was first developed internally to solve their own developers problem. Dropbox had a very viral successful video to gauze customer interest. For Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg did develop many side projects (like gathering opinions about some historical art for cl…

Good points. Network is so, so important. It's how apps like TeamBlind, "Yo!" or the anonymous posting one (I can't remember the name) became popular even though there was no substance.

>anonymous posting one

Yik Yak