Even large apps like Snapchat or Instagram seem like they started out targeting a specific market first. Usually for tech startups that market is simply early a

Even large apps like Snapchat or Instagram seem like they started out targeting a specific market first. Usually for tech startups that market is simply early adopters (or HN readers), but it could also be teenagers, photo enthusiasts, etc. My point is that thinking of your audience as "everybody" isn't very helpful, so it can be a good idea to artificially restrict it to a particular segment even if (like Tumblr, Twitter, etc. did) you intend to eventually conquer the whole planet :) So if I was building Tumblr today, I would first try building an audience in communities that I'm already familiar with, such as designers or the HN crowd.