On the Patience Required to Build Social

The honest version of "network effects" goes like this: for the first six months, you have a product nobody talks about; for the next six months, you have a product some people use because they like the founder; and somewhere in year two, if you are very lucky and very persistent, the thing starts pulling its own weight.

This is not a bug. It is the only way social platforms have ever worked. The platforms that look like overnight successes were already three years old when you noticed them.

What this means in practice: you have to fall in love with the version of the product where almost nobody is around. You have to find the work itself satisfying — the writing of code, the conversations with the first hundred users, the small UX decisions that nobody else will appreciate yet.

I am writing this on day 42 of Froodl being live. There are about 90 active writers. Most of them I have spoken to personally. The platform feels intimate in a way it will not feel in two years. I am trying to enjoy that.