Platform Thinking

The case against the Sharing Economy: It takes more than a platform

A whole slew of labor platforms have come up over the last couple of years, powering what is widely referred to as the Gig Economy or (rather inappropriately) the Sharing Economy. Remote freelancing (Freelancer…

How to design the Airbnb for X, the Uber for Y or the Twitter for Z

Are you building the Airbnb for X…

Building the next Instagram or WhatsApp: The Network Effect Playbook

How to build social products when network effects are easily copied

The Startup Revenue Model Smell Test

Why Path may be in trouble

The Economics of Anti-Viral Anti-Social Networks

How Network Clusters inhibit Growth and Traction

We often associate social networks with hyper-growth, a perception largely fostered by growth infographics of Facebook, Twitter and…

Stealing Traction: How Youtube, Paypal, StumbleUpon and AirBnB Grew Through Piggybacking

Design patterns in viral growth

One of the key challenges of creating a two-sided network is deciding how to get both sides on…

Why Online Business Models Fail

Why internet startups are building it all wrong!

Why do most social networks never take off?

Why are marketplaces such difficult businesses?

How Paypal and Reddit faked their way to traction

When “faking it before making it” actually works

There were several factors that contributed to YouTube becoming the #1 video sharing service on the web. But a lot of initial adoption…