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I've sold products. I didn't spam. I talked with customers before the product was even finished to make sure we were solving a real problem, to make sure they

by kwis 15y ago

I've sold products. I didn't spam. I talked with customers before the product was even finished to make sure we were solving a real problem, to make sure they understood our marketing message, and to make sure we really understood the space. This led naturally to a situation where I had paying beta customers, and even more customers who signed up and started paying as soon as we launched.

mover 15y ago
There's a fundamental difference between building a product that doesn't depend on others for its functioning, and a marketplace, where the core function is access to other users. It is about impossible to get a marketplace going from a standing start. I've commented on it before elsewhere: picking off Craigslist users was always critical for Airbnb to get going. There are dozens of startups trying to build companies off the back of what Craigslist doesn't provide. I'm sure the Airbnb guys probably started with the honest approach, realized it got them nothing but cease and desist notes, so switched to the craftier fake emails from girls interested in the well-being of vacation renters everywhere. I bet it felt icky at the time, but here they are. And "you know what's cool....?"
- kwis 15y ago
  There are two-sided networks that have launched without spam, or deceit. The standard approach would be to pick a city like NYC, and pound the pavement selling the site to every high-influence group you can possibly identify, do that to get a decent inventory built up and then launch with that inventory and start proving the model. Then, pound the pavement in other high-influence cities, work to get inches in the media, do biz-dev deals with travel/vacation sites, get yourself interviewed on local radio and tv, find every possible way to insert AirBNB into the news stories of the day And frankly, with the real estate crash, there were a lot of possible ways to insert themselves into the news. Or they could just spam craigslist. That said, my big question continues to be 'did they disclose this behavior to their investors'.

by kwis 15y ago

mover 15y ago

There's a fundamental difference between building a product that doesn't depend on others for its functioning, and a marketplace, where the core function is access to other users. It is about impossible to get a marketplace going from a standing start. I've commented on it before elsewhere: picking off Craigslist users was always critical for Airbnb to get going. There are dozens of startups trying to build companies off the back of what Craigslist doesn't provide. I'm sure the Airbnb guys probably started with the honest approach, realized it got them nothing but cease and desist notes, so switched to the craftier fake emails from girls interested in the well-being of vacation renters everywhere. I bet it felt icky at the time, but here they are. And "you know what's cool....?"

kwis 15y ago
There are two-sided networks that have launched without spam, or deceit. The standard approach would be to pick a city like NYC, and pound the pavement selling the site to every high-influence group you can possibly identify, do that to get a decent inventory built up and then launch with that inventory and start proving the model. Then, pound the pavement in other high-influence cities, work to get inches in the media, do biz-dev deals with travel/vacation sites, get yourself interviewed on local radio and tv, find every possible way to insert AirBNB into the news stories of the day And frankly, with the real estate crash, there were a lot of possible ways to insert themselves into the news. Or they could just spam craigslist. That said, my big question continues to be 'did they disclose this behavior to their investors'.