If You Build It, They Might Come.

A slower, perhaps more sustainable approach to product growth.

Matt Kandler
9 min readJun 19, 2019
Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash

I’m a stubborn person, possibly to a fault. I believe in quality and creating things that are built to last (forever, if I could have it my way). I enjoy the beauty of efficient systems and clever solutions.

In short, I’m an engineer.

As an engineer, I like the idea that “if you build it, they will come.” Great products should create their own audience. The work should speak for itself. Everyone is going to love this.

Unfortunately, this is seldom the case. Many of our “amazing” products never reach the exposure we hoped for. We blame marketing, competitors, and poor luck. But maybe we just aren’t doing it right.

There are plenty of articles that tell you why you need to market and why no one will care about your product, but I’m here to argue a case for the hopeful engineer. It requires smart product decisions and lots (and lots) of patience.

The Concept

The origin of the phrase “if you build it, they will come” is somewhat debated but it either came from the 1980’s movie Field of Dreams, or The Bible. I pulled this from Quora:

building something, like an automobile highway/expressway, tends to…

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Matt Kandler

Builder of many internet things & founder of @happyfeed — an app to help you appreciate the little things. http://happyfeed.co