Late Checkout - What kind of startup are you building?
Welcome back to Greg Isenberg’s weekly newsletter where I give you high-quality insights on building businesses powered by community. Free ideas that get you thinking. There are no ads on this newsletter or my podcast to make this an A+ experience for you. All I ask is you enjoy and share. Seems reasonable, right? New podcast is live with Phil Toronto who is Gary Vaynerchuk’s investing partner. They’ve invested in We talked about why networking events are a waste of time and why hosting your own small events is the ultimate unlock. Now let’s dive into this week’s post What kind of startup are you building?I had a realization yesterday over coffee with a friend. The topic? The age-old debate: product vs. distribution - what’s more important? But as we delved deeper, it became clear—there's a seismic shift in the startup playbook that many aren't noticing. I described to him the two classic schools of thought:
Legendary companies have been born from these paths. But, lean in... because they're yesterday's playbook. The game's changed while we were picking teams. The New Blueprint: Symbiotic GrowthThe heavy-hitters of the last few years? They shattered the traditional dichotomy. They embedded distribution into the very fabric of their product. It isn’t one at a time. It isn’t product then distribution. It isn’t distribution then product. It’s both. How I’ve been thinking about it: Symbiotic Growth—A concept where your product's value proposition and its distribution channel are not just connected; they're conjoined twins. One can't breathe without the other. Examples:
Frameworks to internalize
So the next time you’re hunched over your laptop, the coffee’s gone cold, and you’re plugging away, ask yourself: "Is my product serving its current user, or is it built to also attract the next 1000?" This is not 1+1=2; this is 1+1=11. Symbiotic Growth changes the game. A different state of mind. It's a viral loop that doesn’t rely on network effects for scale—it creates its own network effect. As CEOs, product mangers, product designers…thinking about symbiotic growth is a worthwhile endeavor. Definitely something I’m doing more of especially to reduce dependency on ad platforms and paying Zuckerberg the big bucks. A product isn't great because it’s great. It's great because people can't help but bring others to it. That's when you know you’ve got something. That's when you're not just playing the game, but changing it. Small mindset shift, big difference. ❤️ Greg’s bookmarks:
👋 Ways to work together?
See you next week! Be well, Greg |
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Welcome back to Greg Isenberg's weekly newsletter where I give you high-quality insights on building community-based businesses. There are no ads on this newsletter or my podcast to make this an A+
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