The 53,651 meme • Hacker News Board

Re: The 53,651 meme

#11

Post by greendestiny » Wed, Mar 14, 2007, 10:29 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #3

I think it's reasonable to design for the 53,651. What they use, others will later. The Apple II was designed for the 53,651.

As long as the 53,651 are actually interested in using it, not just having a look or thinking about the startup behind it. I imagine thats the problem with traffic from places like techcrunch.

Re: The 53,651 meme

#12

Post by benatkin » Thu, Mar 15, 2007, 12:11 AM UTC

I think it's a good idea to target the early adopters. If you don't, you risk basing your product on old technology.

Re: The 53,651 meme

#13

Post by r0b » Thu, Mar 15, 2007, 2:49 AM UTC

e1ven wrote: post #8

python_kiss wrote: post #5

TechCrunch has 351k feed subscribers not 53,651. I remember when Mashable covered mainstream startups but, in face of competition, positioned itself towards a smaller niche (covering social networks). Today Mashable has close to 80k subscribers. There is nothing wrong with aiming small.

They had 53K at the time of writing ;) That article is from nearly a year ago.. I think that that is part of the key to understanding why the 53K are targetted- Because anything they're talking about now has a good chance of making it big later on. It's a risk, and it doesn't always (seldom?) pays out, but if I were to infer into the minds ofany dozens of developers, I'd think they're looking at the Techcrunch reader…

Yes, they had 53K a year ago, and now they have over 300K

Doesn't that prove the post wrong? Clearly those 53K were a very powerful group...

Re: The 53,651 meme

#14

Post by r0b » Thu, Mar 15, 2007, 2:53 AM UTC

Check out this graph in an old post by Seth Godin: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/12/squid_soup_part_2.html His point is that in order for a new idea or product to catch on, it first needs to be adopted by the "innovators" -- the "geeks". Then, and only then, can it spread to the broader population. If you try to skip the geeks and go straight to the mass market, you will fail.

I'm not sure I buy that as a hard and fast rule, but I think the concept is generally solid. If a company makes it on TC, it will subsequently and consequently grow beyond TC.

Re: The 53,651 meme

#15

Post by davidw » Thu, Mar 15, 2007, 2:06 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #3

I think it's reasonable to design for the 53,651. What they use, others will later. The Apple II was designed for the 53,651.

Yes - if you can "cross the chasm" at some later date.

Re: The 53,651 meme

#16

Post by zkinion » Thu, Mar 15, 2007, 7:33 PM UTC

I think the main point in this posting is not how bad it is to start off with the first adopters, but instead to think how they will be alot different than mainstream users, and what you learn from them (click through, advertising, new users, etc...) might not be exactly how things will work with the mainstream crowd.

Re: The 53,651 meme

#17

Post by jwecker » Fri, Mar 16, 2007, 12:43 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #3

I think it's reasonable to design for the 53,651. What they use, others will later. The Apple II was designed for the 53,651.

I agree, but it seems you need to be trying to cross that chasm. I was just reading http://www.height1percent.com/articles/2006/08/18/actual-lessons-from-kiko (near the bottom of the main entry- "You must have a plan for escaping the Technosphere" )

Re: The 53,651 meme

#18

Post by nurall » Wed, Mar 28, 2007, 9:41 AM UTC

Another way of looking at this is to realize that beta testers are hard to come by, and one could leverage from the already existing pool of beta testers (53,651). Most startups want to improve their pre-money valuation before going to the VC, the most important ingredient for achieving that is a stable system that is a result of successive relevant iterations of the features. This could as well be part of any Web 2.0 company's road map for the first few months upon going live. It is needless to say that for a VC to be convinced, it is important to have the right kind of users. If there is even a little bit of overlap between the 53,651 web savvy users and the ideal end-user, it is safe to assume that viral marketing will take care of itself. An example that glares in the face is Google. Their systems are the way they are, thanks to their #1 beta testers, their employees. And one could argue that there are other beta testers at various levels, namely the actual end users. This statistic seems to do more good than harm, if regarded positively. The eventual end users of the system could just be an extension of the 53,651 initial users. Go Techcrunch!!!