I agree that network growth is essential in this case, but burning investor money is not THE solution to this need. There are better solutions to achieve that l

I agree that network growth is essential in this case, but burning investor money is not THE solution to this need. There are better solutions to achieve that level of patronage and exposure. They'd have to innovate for such ways though. For example, Let the early users generate badges that they can list on current social networks so that they can brings their friends in. Incentivise quality content by directly adding up to one's storage/other limits. Example, if 1000 users like your post, then you get extra MB for your photos or some other benefit. Let the influential/early users(who bring many of their contacts into the network) have first dibs at new features that makes them feel cool. or any other marketing strategy that people write books about :-)