The Cold Start Problem

'A true Silicon Valley insider' Wired Why do some products take off? And what can we learn from them? The hardest part of launching a product is getting started. When you have just an idea and a handful of customers, growth can feel impossible. This is the cold start problem. Now, one of Silicon Valley's most esteemed investors uncovers how any product can surmount the cold start problem - by harnessing the hidden power of network effects. Drawing on interviews with the founders of Uber, LinkedIn, Airbnb and Zoom, Andrew Chen reveals how any start-up can launch, scale and thrive. _ 'Chen walks readers through interviews with 30 world-class teams and founders, including from Twitch, Airbnb and Slack, to paint a picture of what it takes to turn a start-up into a massive brand' TechCrunch 'Articulates the stages that every product must go through to be successful . . . and illustrates what companies need to do to achieve them' Forbes

Andrew Chen is best known for his newsletter on tech and business, whose 200,000 followers include many of the most notable founders in Silicon Valley. He is currently a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, the startup investor behind Twitter, Airbnb, Github, Lyft, Reddit and Skype. He was formerly head of rider growth at Uber, where he oversaw an increase from 15 million to 100 million active users of the platform.