3️⃣ Get your users to do your marketing for you. How did Coinbase grow from its first hundred users to the first thousand? The company created financial incentives for users to share the product. Coinbase’s first few cohorts received a referral link to give friends 0.10 BTC for signing up. For each friend that verified an account, the referrer also... See more
When I first learned from trademark filings that Hiki was to be a deodorant brand, I was admittedly confused. The natural deodorant space is crowded and hard to keep up with. Differentiation seemed like an uphill battle. But after browsing Hiki’s universe (and buying products out of curiosity), I get it. Hiki makes products for bodies that sweat, n... See more
Optimizing for drinkability/usability increases your TAM, but the opportunity cost is significant. You will lose consumers who want craft, who want to express their tastes, who want to understand something about the world — beyond their capacity to consume — through use of your product. Setting usability as the design standard keeps your product fr... See more
These Data Content Loops help the companies reach the scale where other loops like SEO, brand, and network effects can kick in. Barton’s companies then use this content to own search for their market. This gives them a durable and strong source of free user acquisition, which enables them to own demand.
But we still think somehow that meeting virtually can’t be as good as meeting physically, but I actually believe that the virtual meeting might even supersede the physical meeting in the future and we will have even better experiences virtually than we are having physically, which is kind of insane to think.
Some inequality is inherent in the nature of the passion economy: supply is heterogeneous and non-substitutable, and the trust and affinity that creators build with their audiences should be celebrated. But platforms—from established to brand new—can do more to strengthen the creator middle class and broaden the path to success.