The Sermon:

Your friends are gatekeepers

What is a gatekeeper? The simple definition is someone who controls access to something. In this sense, your friends are the gatekeepers to their own personal network(ie their friends). Though many don’t realise it, they control how successful a friend’s product becomes. They might think that they aren't interested in whatever a friend is producing, so they aren't going to promote it, but at the same time they make a judgement call for their entire network that their friends will not want to see it the product also.

Friends can also give you critical upvotes on news sites like Reddit or Hacker News, giving your product the much needed exposure. But, guess what? Your friends are not signed up to those sites and neither do they care to participate enough to not be flagged as upvoting ring. So, what you need are friends with similar goals and interests as you. And you don’t just need a few friends, you need a ton of friends.

What you need my friend is a community. A community is a social unit that shares common values. What I’m suggesting is that you set for yourself your own gatekeepers and this is a community. Being a part of a community ensures that your ideas spread faster and also it can be the first testing grounds for your ideas.