https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1mjz8cl/how_saas_products_solve_the_cold_start_problem/

If you’re building a SaaS product, chances are you’ve hit this wall:

You’ve launched, but no one’s using it.

Or worse—users come, poke around, and leave.

You’ve got a great product. But nothing moves. That’s the cold start problem.

Andrew Chen’s The Cold Start Problem breaks down why this happens—and how the most successful networked products (like Airbnb, Uber, Slack) managed to escape it.

This isn’t another “growth hacks” book. It’s a playbook for network-driven SaaS products—where the product becomes more valuable as more people use it.

What’s Really Going Wrong?

As Chen explains, early SaaS products suffer because value doesn’t exist until users interact with each other. Your product needs a critical mass—a functioning network—to become useful.

This is true whether you're building a community tool, a marketplace, or even an internal collaboration app. You’re not just solving a product problem. You’re solving a chicken-and-egg problem.

The 5 Stages of Solving the Cold Start Problem

1. The Cold Start Start with your Atomic Network—the smallest group where your product is useful. Think: one office using Slack, not the whole industry.
2. Tipping Point Once the network works for a small segment, expansion becomes easier. Think local dominance before global ambition.
3. Escape Velocity Three forces drive growth:
   • Acquisition Effect (users bring users)
   • Engagement Effect (value increases)
   • Economic Effect (revenue improves)
4. Hitting the Ceiling Growth stalls if spam, churn, or low-quality interactions rise. Here, network quality matters more than quantity.
5. The Moat At scale, your network becomes your biggest defense. Features can be copied—networks can’t.

Real SaaS Strategies That Worked

1. Partnerships – Ride the Shoulders of Giants