The Cold Start Problem
Using Network Effects to Scale Your Product
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The Cold Start Problem
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Narrated by:
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Andrew Chen
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By:
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Andrew Chen
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
A transformative guide to growing any business, from one of Silicon Valley's most esteemed investors.
Why do some products take off? And what can we learn from them?
The hardest part of launching a product is getting started. When you have just an idea and a handful of customers, growth can feel impossible. This is the cold start problem.
Andrew Chen has a solution. As a partner at the pre-eminent VC firm Andreesen Horowitz, he has invested in some of the world's fastest-growing companies. Along the way, he's become one of the most renowned bloggers in tech - hailed by Wired as a 'true Silicon Valley insider'.
Now, Chen reveals how any organisation can surmount the cold start problem. His solution lies in the network effect: the way a service improves as more people sign up. It means that today's leading products - from Wikipedia to to WhatsApp - get more powerful with every additional user.
Drawing on interviews with the founders of LinkedIn, Zoom, Uber, Dropbox, Tinder, Airbnb and more, Chen unpicks how to start and scale these network effects. He reveals how to build an 'atomic network' that is just big enough to sustain itself. He uncovers how to spot the tipping point after which growth takes care of itself. And he explores why some big companies manage to sustain viral network effects for years (while others quickly stop growing).
The result is a one-stop guide to scaling a product, road-tested at some of the world's most valuable companies.
©2021 Andrew Chen (P)2021 Penguin AudioWhat listeners say about The Cold Start Problem
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- led Cohen
- 08-05-2022
I've learnt a lot from hearing this book.
as a co-founder of Katalyst.Earth, a blockchain-based climate-tech startup, I've learnt a bunch of good concepts and ideas for growing our community.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Peter
- 27-08-2022
must listen for founders
real life examples.made the difference to this awesome book
author voice perfect for narration
thank you for penning this book Andrew
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Niall
- 24-01-2022
Quality
Great listen. Plenty of good examples. Must listen if you’re building products at the start or any stage.
Will listen again in the next 3 months to refresh.
Thanks Andrew.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mitch Bayliss
- 10-03-2022
Must listen
An engaging listen, Andrew provides a detailed exploration of all things related to building network based business.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Evan
- 01-06-2023
Fantastic book. Highly recommended
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. A must read for anyone with a business or job role which relies upon the network effect.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Braden
- 02-06-2022
Few insights, plenty of self-congratulation
Though there are some relevant insights, you'll have to get past the well-worn anecdotes, the name dropping, and the pervasive self-congratulation to find them.
Chen writes effusive praise for Uber, yet in 2021 still fails to provide any mention of its damaging culture and abysmal treatment of its gig workers. He gives us a case study on the success of Clubhouse, a social app that seems to have lost most of its initial relevance, seemingly by virtue of him investing millions of dollars of VC money into it. There's more to business than balance sheets and high valuations, but you wouldn't know it from reading this.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Tessa Button
- 02-01-2023
SAS is the only muse
This book is not a holistic perspective on a product startup; it’s for building software networks.
I was hopeful in the opening language in discussing a “product” that it would cover any new startup or product, from hardware, medical, industry, business and so on… Although, the content focuses heavily and only on the cold start problems of Software as A Service (SAS) platforms. Software is king, and no other product startup operations were covered.
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