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How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

lennyrachitsky.com

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Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#101

Post by alixanderwang »

GrumpyNl wrote: post #100
sweeneyrod wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is that it's easier than you might expect if you're doing things right (you have an interesting product and low-friction signup process). I recently started a university-specific dating app and had no trouble getting the first few hundred users, even with the actual matching functionality turned off.

Free users for a dating is no problem, monetizing them is another ball game.

https://www.failory.com/interview/cuddli

Interview from someone who had a problem with the way dating apps monetize, created a competing dating app with all features free, and then shut down because he couldn't monetize.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#102

Post by akrymski »

lennysan wrote: post #30
blueside wrote: post #16

This article fails to include how Airbnb really got their first users - creating several accounts and mass emailing all the landlords on Craigslist

That's how they (allegedly) got supply, not demand, which is what I focused on in the post

Posting fake homes on Craigslist is the common strategy to get demand.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#103

Post by sweeneyrod »

GrumpyNl wrote: post #100
sweeneyrod wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is that it's easier than you might expect if you're doing things right (you have an interesting product and low-friction signup process). I recently started a university-specific dating app and had no trouble getting the first few hundred users, even with the actual matching functionality turned off.

Free users for a dating is no problem, monetizing them is another ball game.

Yes definitely, it's just a side project that I don't plan on monetising. I don't think there's a good way of doing it, the incentives are just misaligned.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#104

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Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#105

Post by redis_mlc »

bemmu wrote: post #95
redis_mlc wrote: post #52

I've been following these techniques for decades: 1) PG and Viaweb had no traction until they hired a PR firm. Back in the day, those were $5k to $15k/month. "It took a painfully long time for word of mouth to get going, and we did not start to get a lot of press coverage until we hired a PR firm (admittedly the best in the business) for $16,000 per month." https://www.you-books.com/book/P-Graham/Essays YC now has "B…

As for 4), it looks like it was indeed very important for Facebook. Here's a quote from Steven Levy's book "Facebook": For months, the two companies had been feuding over the way Facebook was scraping data from Hotmail and MSN Messenger products. Facebook had its own complaint—as retaliation, Hotmail had begun labeling invitations to join Facebook as spam. According to The Facebook Effect, Moskovitz said that this ca…

I hadn't read that spam pass statistic before.

IIRC, FB also got MS Messenger chat access for FB messenger for a period of time after MS' investment, then that abruptly ended (likely the day the initial agreement expired.)

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#106

Post by mohsinhaider »

egfx wrote: post #91
mohsinhaider wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have utilized this approach, but on Reddit instead of HN. I launched a tool I was working on and got my very first users from Reddit who were passionate about the topic. Now, those users are evangelists and they've helped spread the word to their communities which has lead recent numbers hovering around 2k WAU.

Do you have any sample of a thread that you used for this strategy? I have a content generator app and have been using reddit on my own and having fun entering photoshop contests but I want to branch out and get evangelists of people in other ways on Reddit.

The posts I made were simply a description of what I had built and a link to my app. There are two things to focus on in your post: 1) do not use marketing speak and 2) talk about the features in the app that would be the most valuable to those users and why.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#107

Post by jacobobryant »

busymom0 wrote: post #70
jacobobryant wrote: post #28

A strategy I've been thinking of for my startup (10-20 WAU currently ) is going through old HN discussions that are relevant to my product, finding people who I think would be interested in it based on their comments, and emailing them with a quote from their comment and an explanation of why I think they specifically would be interested. (and then ask them to try it out & give feedback). I thought of this since I wa…

How do you find their emails on HN? Just by clicking on the username?

Yep. Not everyone includes a public email but some do.
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