The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects

by Andrew Chen

So how do you prevent context collapse? Products like iMessage or WhatsApp give us a clue. Messaging apps are resistant to context collapse. You talk to your dozen or so friends and family, and even if the network adds millions more people, it doesn’t change your experience. Slack channels offer a different model—as more and more people within a company join, people set up smaller spaces to interact with their close teammates. This allows people to split the company-wide network into team-wide networks, or even project-based networks. If one of these channels get too big, then people can just reconstitute an even smaller one. In other words, not all networked products experience context collapse as rapidly as others. When users are able to group themselves, they prove particularly resilient.