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Just a quick note to say congrats to Garry and Alexis. Garry helped us out a ton at 7 cups. He said a startup is like a magnet. The more users you attract, the

Just a quick note to say congrats to Garry and Alexis. Garry helped us out a ton at 7 cups. He said a startup is like a magnet. The more users you attract, the more powerful your magnet becomes. Alexis has also always been very encouraging and helpful in figuring out things that are not obvious. I highly recommend Initialized!

Angostura 10y ago
> He said a startup is like a magnet. The more users you attract, the more powerful your magnet becomes. It doesn't matter what I swap out for 'users' in this analogy, I can't make it make sense. It sounds impressive though.
- vadym909 10y ago
  network effects. If you are a marketplace or service you need both sides ramping up fast- the more users you get the more valuable it becomes and easier to attract more and so on.
  - Angostura 10y ago
    ...and this is like a magnet.... how?
    - cyphar 10y ago
      Might be something like adding an iron core to your magnet? Not sure, the analogy is sketchy at best.
      - garry 10y ago
        One talk I like to give at college campuses is such: A startup is like the obscure 1990's Playstation game Katamari Damacy. You start off with a small magic ball about the size of a pencil eraser. You can pick up anything smaller than you, but if you try to pick up something too big, you bounce off and get smaller. You start picking up paperclips and chess pieces, and then by the end of the game (spoiler alert) you end up picking up skyscrapers and continents and such. It's like that. You start with bringing your cofounders together. Then you add your first customers. Then maybe you raise a little bit of friends and family money, and that lets you put more money into customer acquisition, which gets you more cofounders, which lets you get more revenue to hire a few more people, and raise more money, and so on. So startups are like katamari damacy, and if you win, you end up picking up an entire industry.
        BillionaireBear 10y ago
        Upvoting this because of the Katamari Damacy shout out! Unrelated, but did you ever play Nobi Nobi Boy from the same creator?
        garry 10y ago
        Yes, a long time ago — I forgot what it was called but thanks for the reminder! My 15 mo old at home will love it!
        BillionaireBear 10y ago
        Hahah! Yes he will. Happy to help.

Angostura 10y ago

> He said a startup is like a magnet. The more users you attract, the more powerful your magnet becomes. It doesn't matter what I swap out for 'users' in this analogy, I can't make it make sense. It sounds impressive though.

vadym909 10y ago
network effects. If you are a marketplace or service you need both sides ramping up fast- the more users you get the more valuable it becomes and easier to attract more and so on.
- Angostura 10y ago
  ...and this is like a magnet.... how?
  - cyphar 10y ago
    Might be something like adding an iron core to your magnet? Not sure, the analogy is sketchy at best.
    - garry 10y ago
      One talk I like to give at college campuses is such: A startup is like the obscure 1990's Playstation game Katamari Damacy. You start off with a small magic ball about the size of a pencil eraser. You can pick up anything smaller than you, but if you try to pick up something too big, you bounce off and get smaller. You start picking up paperclips and chess pieces, and then by the end of the game (spoiler alert) you end up picking up skyscrapers and continents and such. It's like that. You start with bringing your cofounders together. Then you add your first customers. Then maybe you raise a little bit of friends and family money, and that lets you put more money into customer acquisition, which gets you more cofounders, which lets you get more revenue to hire a few more people, and raise more money, and so on. So startups are like katamari damacy, and if you win, you end up picking up an entire industry.
      - BillionaireBear 10y ago
        Upvoting this because of the Katamari Damacy shout out! Unrelated, but did you ever play Nobi Nobi Boy from the same creator?
        garry 10y ago
        Yes, a long time ago — I forgot what it was called but thanks for the reminder! My 15 mo old at home will love it!
        BillionaireBear 10y ago
        Hahah! Yes he will. Happy to help.