How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don't Scale

Posted by joelle on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @12:06PM
from the fastcolabs.com dept.

http://www.fastcolabs.com/3024472/how-we-got-our-first-2000-users-doing-things-that-dont-scale?utm_source=Product+Hunt&utm_campaign=af88ca3153-daily-email-01-06-2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2cd7d34185-af88ca3153-104053773

( 9 comments | 81 points | on HN )

Re:How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don't ... by 3stripe on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @12:29PM (#7018467)

Really interesting to see behind the scenes in terms of connecting with the press.

But this seems more like a minimum viable community than a minimum viable product to me.

  "No matter how useful your product might be, it isn't a business without users"

I think that should read: "without customers".

Is there a plan regarding monetization? There was no mention of this under 'The Uncertain Future' section...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don't ... by rrhoover on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @05:01PM (#7020302)

Glad you enjoyed it. WRT to monetization, our focus is engagement/retention, then growth, then monetization (maybe). We have some ideas on how we might monetize (hint: http://jonathan-kim.com/2014/starting-fires/) but that's not our focus at this time.

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Re:How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don't ... by joelle on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @02:41PM (#7019376)

Very good point. But I'd argue that most customers start off as "users". Sure - some people show up for the first time and whip out their credit cards - but when you're starting that small your best (early) customers will be ones you convert to paid out of the beta.

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Re:How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don't ... by eps on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @05:26PM (#7020453)

Just looked at ProductHunt - it's not really in a generally usable state, is it? There's no way to comment, no way to submit new products (even of it'd go through moderators first). It seems that the only thing one can do is to Logout :-/

What gives? What am I missing?

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Re:How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don't ... by 3stripe on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @05:48PM (#7020552)

On the about page:

To seed the community with thoughtful discussion and quality content, Product Hunt is limited to a few select contributors while in beta. Invites will become available as the product and community mature.

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Re:How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don't ... by rrhoover on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @05:49PM (#7020569)

Sorry it's not incredibly clear. We have some changes to make to the product before we open it to a broader audience. In the meantime, we're slowing whitelisting people, giving them access to post and comment.

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Re:How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don't ... by esdailycom on Wednesday January 08, 2014 @01:28AM (#7022066)

So is this limited just to commenters or to people submitting new products as well? I just noticed you do not have a submit product option either.

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Re:How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don't ... by rrhoover on Wednesday January 08, 2014 @09:57AM (#7023814)

It's limited to both comments and submissions at the moment.

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Re:How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don't ... by VLM on Tuesday January 07, 2014 @12:12PM (#7018357)

A smoothly implemented marketing roadmap.

It is an interesting historical narrative of what happened. Probably needs a second post of analysis, comparison/contrast, if I had to do it again I'd... but for what it is, its a good post.

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