I have been a PM focused on growth at a couple of tech/gaming companies for a few years and recently just raised money for a new startup so I have been collecting tons of growth strategies (and just other good product features) and just started sharing them on Twitter but figured this would be a great place to share and get feedback as well!
FBs Early Growth
1/ Harvard Launch
Marky Z spends one month writing the initial code for FB. It requires a Harvard email to sign up and they announced it on an email list or two. It gets 1200 installs the first night and has 50% of Harvard signed up in the first month.
2/ First Non-Harvard Colleges
They repeated the same strategy at a few other colleges where they told some friends they knew at that college and got a few of the email lists at the college to announce that FB was opening up to their college.
3/ College Growth
After opening at a few colleges, they realized that word of FB was spreading organically throughout colleges, so they let users from other colleges sign up and be placed on a waitlist to get notified when FB opened at their college.
4/ High Schools
* This is super smart *
FB then decided to branch out to high schools but since high schools don’t have custom emails, the only way a high schooler could join was to be invited by a college student already on FB.
5/ Workplaces
FB tried to run the same college growth strategy at companies but quickly learned that your friend group generally is not mostly contained to your workplace (unlike in high school and college) and it didn’t work.
6/ Sale to Yahoo
When opening up to workplaces didn’t work, it shook Mark’s confidence in FBs ability to grow beyond students and he seriously considered selling to Yahoo for $1B (this is the second time they offered. He immediately shut it down the first time).
7/ One Last Try
Marky Z had one last idea he wanted to try: opening to everyone. They built a tool where they could scrape your email contact list when you signed up and see who on the platform you should friend and suggest you invite your contacts not on the platform.
This worked. FB then added photos and the news feed and took over the world
FBs Early Growth
1/ Harvard Launch
Marky Z spends one month writing the initial code for FB. It requires a Harvard email to sign up and they announced it on an email list or two. It gets 1200 installs the first night and has 50% of Harvard signed up in the first month.
2/ First Non-Harvard Colleges
They repeated the same strategy at a few other colleges where they told some friends they knew at that college and got a few of the email lists at the college to announce that FB was opening up to their college.
3/ College Growth
After opening at a few colleges, they realized that word of FB was spreading organically throughout colleges, so they let users from other colleges sign up and be placed on a waitlist to get notified when FB opened at their college.
4/ High Schools
* This is super smart *
FB then decided to branch out to high schools but since high schools don’t have custom emails, the only way a high schooler could join was to be invited by a college student already on FB.
5/ Workplaces
FB tried to run the same college growth strategy at companies but quickly learned that your friend group generally is not mostly contained to your workplace (unlike in high school and college) and it didn’t work.
6/ Sale to Yahoo
When opening up to workplaces didn’t work, it shook Mark’s confidence in FBs ability to grow beyond students and he seriously considered selling to Yahoo for $1B (this is the second time they offered. He immediately shut it down the first time).
7/ One Last Try
Marky Z had one last idea he wanted to try: opening to everyone. They built a tool where they could scrape your email contact list when you signed up and see who on the platform you should friend and suggest you invite your contacts not on the platform.
This worked. FB then added photos and the news feed and took over the world