The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen

Before we dive in, let’s revisit the cold start problem — a well-known challenge for products with network effects (or “networks”), including Snapchat or Airbnb. On these products, the addition of a user makes the product more useful for all users. But on day 0, they have no users and, therefore, no utility to offer new users. This forces them to f... See more

Every company faces some version of the “cold start problem”: How do you get started from nothing? How do you acquire customers? How do you create network effects — where your product or service becomes more valuable to its users as more people use it — that create incentives for even more customers to sign up?