Surround and Conquer (Your Biggest Dreams)

When Facebook was first expanding, they used a timeless military strategy to win their most-crucial first users. You can use this strategy to attack your toughest projects, by leveraging hidden complexity to lend devastating power to simple actions.

Facebook faced tough competitors

When Facebook was starting, in the mid-aughts, it was only available at colleges. It wasn’t easy to win new users on campuses that had their own social networks. Who wants to join the network nobody is on? That’s not where you find the big parties. That’s not how you spy on your crush.

There was no point in promoting to students who already had better alternatives. Facebook would waste their limited resources, driving themselves out of business. There were plenty of competitors they needed to outlast.

An established network at a college was a barrier to winning over any user at that college — a “defense,” if you will. Facebook needed to break through those barriers.

The surround strategy: Attack from the flanks

So they used what they called a “surround strategy”. Instead of directly trying to get users on a given campus, they got them indirectly.

The strategy that decimated the Roman army 1800 years ago

Facebook’s surround strategy was borrowed from the “pincer” military strategy. When you’re up…