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How to get your first 100k active users

blog.winnie.com

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Re: How to get your first 100k active users

#121

Post by amelius »

amitmathew wrote: post #38

"Grow even before you launch" and "Go big or go home" really resonate with me. We were able to sign up a few thousand people to our new product waitlist through two main channels: exhibiting at conferences and answering questions on Quora. In the past, I would have just done a small beta with friends, but I guess I'm getting a little wiser over the years :) Going big from the beginning is really a tough one. I alread…

> "Grow even before you launch" and "Go big or go home" really resonate with me.

What is wrong with building the functionality first, get paying customers, and from there scale? At least that way, you'll have the money to scale.

Re: How to get your first 100k active users

#122

Post by LoSboccacc »

amelius wrote: post #121
amitmathew wrote: post #38

"Grow even before you launch" and "Go big or go home" really resonate with me. We were able to sign up a few thousand people to our new product waitlist through two main channels: exhibiting at conferences and answering questions on Quora. In the past, I would have just done a small beta with friends, but I guess I'm getting a little wiser over the years :) Going big from the beginning is really a tough one. I alread…

> "Grow even before you launch" and "Go big or go home" really resonate with me. What is wrong with building the functionality first, get paying customers, and from there scale? At least that way, you'll have the money to scale.

even to maintain a single dev of a bootstrapped app one needs to recoup its costs, and for that you need users, so there's that. more users is always better especially if users themselves drive your growth since server and development both cost so you start up pretty well in debt.

you have also to consider that solution don't grow in a vacuum. the moment you build something, you can count of having ten competitors out there doing the same or similar thing, akin to convergent evolution someone else is experiencing the same need you're solving right now and among those someone is building a solution. if you want to monetize your solution, unless it's a physical thing, you need to be the first out there and the faster growing.

additionally, if the strategy involves financing at some point, a big cache of user waiting/registered is good leverage and something you can build without having a product if you have the resources to do both - more financing, more money to grow and outgrow competitors.

people sometime demonize growth but unless your startup is something that inherently doesn't scale growth and lock-in are practically the first filter to weed the competition.

Re: How to get your first 100k active users

#123

Post by nudpiedo »

jonas21 wrote: post #41
danielskogly wrote: post #23

This evening we got our 171st user for our wishlist-service. When we launched it 1 year ago we tried to get it out on different channels like Reddit and HN without much success, while we _did_ see success in just talking about it to friends and family, and had just over 100 users in January this year. Since then, we've done close to zero marketing, and it's been amazing to see new signups, wishlists and items being c…

In case anyone is wondering (like I was), I think this is the site: https://wishy.gift

On the landing page the images within the gray circles are not loading... assuming that there were images (I only see grey big circles).

Using chromium (desktop)

Re: How to get your first 100k active users

#124

Post by fbr »

amelius wrote: post #121
amitmathew wrote: post #38

"Grow even before you launch" and "Go big or go home" really resonate with me. We were able to sign up a few thousand people to our new product waitlist through two main channels: exhibiting at conferences and answering questions on Quora. In the past, I would have just done a small beta with friends, but I guess I'm getting a little wiser over the years :) Going big from the beginning is really a tough one. I alread…

> "Grow even before you launch" and "Go big or go home" really resonate with me. What is wrong with building the functionality first, get paying customers, and from there scale? At least that way, you'll have the money to scale.

You may simply build a product that nobody wants.

Re: How to get your first 100k active users

#125

Post by amitmathew »

amelius wrote: post #121
amitmathew wrote: post #38

"Grow even before you launch" and "Go big or go home" really resonate with me. We were able to sign up a few thousand people to our new product waitlist through two main channels: exhibiting at conferences and answering questions on Quora. In the past, I would have just done a small beta with friends, but I guess I'm getting a little wiser over the years :) Going big from the beginning is really a tough one. I alread…

> "Grow even before you launch" and "Go big or go home" really resonate with me. What is wrong with building the functionality first, get paying customers, and from there scale? At least that way, you'll have the money to scale.

It’s not wrong, but if you have the opportunity, why not generate interest and get customers as early as possible? We’ve had success convincing institutional customers to agree to purchase even before we've built the product. You get validation and revenue, and it's a great story for investors and partners.

Re: How to get your first 100k active users

#126

Post by samastur »

annekate wrote: post #58
fpisfun wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds absurd to me, go hybrid first then go native once it takes off, you can write your app in JavaScript and have an app that runs in all major mobile devices and a website, I'm not sure how can be beat unless money isn't a problem, such as massive initial funding.

Or you can write a native app and get 10-20k installs for free from a feature on the app store. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Most native apps are not featured. Polish isn't cheap.

Re: How to get your first 100k active users

#127

Post by amelius »

fbr wrote: post #124
amelius wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Grow even before you launch" and "Go big or go home" really resonate with me. What is wrong with building the functionality first, get paying customers, and from there scale? At least that way, you'll have the money to scale.

You may simply build a product that nobody wants.

As opposed to building a product that lots of people want, but can't use because it didn't scale? (Scaling costs money)

Re: How to get your first 100k active users

#128

Post by danielskogly »

nudpiedo wrote: post #123
jonas21 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case anyone is wondering (like I was), I think this is the site: https://wishy.gift

On the landing page the images within the gray circles are not loading... assuming that there were images (I only see grey big circles). Using chromium (desktop)

How strange! These are autoplaying, muted videos, which has worked on every platform and browser I've tried so far. What OS and which version of chromium are you on?

Re: How to get your first 100k active users

#129

Post by annekate »

mherdeg wrote: post #101
annekate wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's in the article. Provide the supply yourself (content) while you build demand (users). Do things that don't scale. One specific example is that we saw a lot of demand for information on child care, so we researched over 5000 local daycares & preschools and created very comprehensive pages for all of them. This sounds like a lot of work but it actually wasn't that bad. Once we had done that we were instantly the b…

Cool, when do you expect to gather daycare data outside the Bay Area? I see one total daycare listed in my ZIP code (in the Boston area) and the search results page doesn't say anything like "we know this is a tiny number of listings, sign up here to be notified when we reach your area" (at https://winnie.com/search?category=childcare&near=[zip] ).

Childcare data in 50 states is coming early in 2018.
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