Founder School

Start a Contained Fire

Deliberately narrow your initial market so you can reach critical mass inside it, like Facebook launching for Harvard students only, then school by school, complete with per-school course lists so it felt native.

Marketplaces basically require this, but it works broadly. For B2B, the ideal early market is often other startups: they're open to new things, haven't locked in their vendor choices, and they grow fast.

Key idea

Dominate a deliberately small pond first. Critical mass in a narrow market beats invisibility in a big one.

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