Ask HN: How do you promote a new platform and reach critical mass?
1 comments
One thing I’ve noticed building things is that tools and platforms grow very differently.
Tools can start with just a few people because they solve a specific problem. Platforms are harder because they need activity from both sides before they’re useful.
What I’ve seen work is starting with something that behaves more like a tool first, even if the long-term goal is a platform. If a small group gets value right away, they create the first bit of activity that makes the platform useful later.
I ran into this while building a product recently — feature requests coming from email, support chats, random messages, etc. It got messy fast, so I ended up building a simple system to collect feedback and share a roadmap.
Curious how other people here have dealt with the early chicken-and-egg phase.
Tools can start with just a few people because they solve a specific problem. Platforms are harder because they need activity from both sides before they’re useful.
What I’ve seen work is starting with something that behaves more like a tool first, even if the long-term goal is a platform. If a small group gets value right away, they create the first bit of activity that makes the platform useful later.
I ran into this while building a product recently — feature requests coming from email, support chats, random messages, etc. It got messy fast, so I ended up building a simple system to collect feedback and share a roadmap.
Curious how other people here have dealt with the early chicken-and-egg phase.
From Reddit, Indie Hackers, Hacker News, and even people around me, I can clearly see that many indie builders are building free tools and want to show them to others. Many also hope to turn them into businesses later. So I believe the demand definitely exists.
However, a platform is very different from a tool.
I’ve built many tools before, and some of them have reached millions of users. Tools often grow naturally over time. A few people start using them, word spreads, and gradually more users arrive.
Platforms are different because network effects matter much more, and reaching critical mass is extremely difficult. Before that point, the classic chicken-and-egg problem appears: without content, people don’t come; without people, content doesn’t appear.
So while improving the system itself, I’ve been putting a lot of effort into promotion. For example:
- I regularly introduce the platform on Hacker News, Indie Hackers, and Reddit.
- Every day I curate a few free tools and contact their developers, inviting them to claim ownership.
- I submit the site to directories and exchange links to improve domain authority (currently around DR 30).
- I translate the content into multiple languages to improve indexing and keep optimizing SEO. (We already get visitors from places like Brazil and Japan.)
Despite this, crossing the critical mass threshold is still difficult because of the chicken-and-egg problem.
If anyone here has experience promoting or growing platforms, I would really appreciate any advice.