Andrew Chen+

BRAINDUMP ON VIRAL LOOPS

Everything we learned (and forgot) about viral loops from Web 2.0

The Anti-Pitch: When haters hate your startup idea

Every product category has a skeptical meme against it

Why retention is so hard for new tech products

And how to apply these lessons to the current gen of AI apps

AI will change how we build startups -- but how?

We still don't know a lot. A list of the questions.

Lies per Second, Meetings per Decision Ratio, and other important biz metrics

And yes, please add your own

Corpospeak: Why you still sound like a faceless corporate entity

The structural reasons why trad marketing can’t evolve

Updates: 7 years at a16z, NYC tour, Speedrun deadline, etc

Lots of quick hit news from my work and personal life

Every marketing channel sucks right now

Yes, I'm about to roast every tactic you're betting on

Why a16z is investing up to $1M in very early stage startups

Come work with me 1:1, or refer folks please!

DoorDash's v1 was 8 PDF menus on a static HTML website

Revisiting the Minimum Viable Product strategy and its strengths/weaknesses

Vibe coding, some thoughts and predictions

Amazing things are happening in AI code gen

The 30 min interview for people with busy calendars

What I've learned interviewing critical hires over the past decade

Where will the AI Horde strike next? AI video, social media, and Hollywood

1000s of AI startups ride into entertainment, among dozens of industries

The Growth Maze vs The Idea Maze

Why the next wave of AI will shift the race towards distribution and growth

Revenge of the GPT Wrappers: Defensibility in a world of commoditized AI models

Why network effects and distribution will be king, once more

My product went viral on social media but all I got were these shitty users

Looky-loos, quality vs quantity of traction, and easy come easy go users

My top essays from 2024

AI, marketing, data-driven decisionmaking, and more

Why your product idea sounds too complicated

The "simple" to "WTF" scale of product complexity

Always Be Launching

Because tbh no one gives a shit about your new product, anyway

Bureaucrat mode

The road to hell is paved via collaboration, consensus, inclusiveness, stability

How to break into Silicon Valley

(Above: No, it doesn’t really look like this — and yes it’s mostly office parks and tech billboards. But I like to pretend) You’ll never regret spending time in SF If you work in tech, you’ll never regret spending 3-5 years in the Bay Area. This is advice I’ve been giving to people for years, and […]

The “Dinner Party Jerk” test — why founders need to pitch themselves harder and more futuristically

The “Dinner Party Jerk” test is a solution to a common problem: Startups often struggle at pitching their team, even though for the earliest stage companies, it’s incredibly important to do it well to raise capital — as I’ve described it below: Pre-seed- Bet on the team ‍ Seed- Bet on the product Series A- […]

Startups need dual theories on distribution and product/market fit. One is not enough

It’s hard to be a product without a strong theory of distribution Here’s a common startup situation. A team busts their ass for months building the first version of their product. It’s almost done. Now a big question emerges — how do you get the first people to use your product? Hmm… If you find […]

Every time you ask the user to click you lose half

Every time you ask the user click you lose half of them. (And this why tutorials, splash screens, and lengthy signup flows are a bad idea) If you’ve been building apps for a long time and have seen the results of a lot of A/B tests, you quickly realize that people are a flighty bunch. […]

Why the worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons, and gamification

Above: Many small business figured out the hard way why coupon sites generate worse users Incentive programs often don’t perform The people you attract with referral programs, free trials, coupons, and gamification — folks who are “incentivized” as a broad umbrella category — are usually MUCH WORSE than organic ones. Worse LTVs, worse conversion, less […]

The most expensive game cost over $1B, and how AI will transform it

Grand Theft Auto 6 and the future of AI If you happened to miss it, a few weeks back, here is the game trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6. It’s worth watching, and is amazing on multiple levels. But GTA 6 might be the peak of the open world category, untouched by the next wave […]

How to write more

Dear readers, As we enter a new year, many of us are setting goals to write more and create more content. As someone who has been writing consistently for the past decade, I wanted to share some strategies that have helped me in my writing journey, particularly in a professional context. Collecting ideas First and […]

How to write a business book — behind the scenes from THE COLD START PROBLEM

(above: Me in Sep 2023, a happy author, finding the Japanese translated version of my book at the wonderful Daikanyama Tsutaya Books in Tokyo) Dear readers, As many of you know, 2 years ago I published my first book THE COLD START PROBLEM. It aims to tell the story of why some products — […]

Fun graph from Peter Attia’s book Outlive

Hey readers, This is a small deviation from my usual topics, but wanted to share. This is one of the most important graphs that I saw in 2023 that has led to behavioral change for me. This is in Peter Attia’s book Outlive. Here’s the graph: tldr: if you want to be able to briskly […]

Reforge Podcast: 2024 predictions, AI apps, the future of PM, what we can learn from gaming, and more

Dear readers, I was recently interviewed by the great Brian Balfour (CEO/cofounder of Reforge) and Fareed Mosavat (ex-Reforge/Slack/Zynga) which turned into a lively discussion — I think we could have gone longer! — which we just published in two parts. You can listen to both parts below, and the kind folks at Reforge also typed […]

Heading into 2024 – Life update, books, links, and more

Hi readers, Doing a short round up on various links, books, a quick life update, and other stuff going on. First, I did not write much in 2023 (I was busy!!) but am proud of what I published… Blog posts from 2023 How to design a referral program. I headed up Uber’s driver and rider […]

When AI is too verbose, full of repetition and says sorry for being an AI…

Dear readers, I was triggered to write this post because ChatGPT apologies way too much, takes too long to get into the meat of an answer, and I wanted to fix that. This came up because like many of you, I’ve been trying to incorporate ChatGPT into my workflows — both at my job, and […]

How I use AI when blogging and writing

Hi readers, Over the years, I’ve shared lessons and tips from writing a professional blog — previously 10 years of professional blogging – what I’ve learned. Recently, I’ve had some major changes in my workflow, and wanted to share more. Pre-AI blogging workflow My pre-AI workflow for blogging — what I’ve been doing for over […]

Creator Economy 2.0: What we’ve learned, why it’s hard, and what’s next

There’s been a big wave of Creator Economy startups over the past few years, as the rise of social media platforms has empowered content creators to become a focal point for consumer engagement. This wave of startups promised creators that they could help them better monetize their audience on social media if they only promoted […]

The Next Next Job, a framework for making big career decisions

A simple question The last few years have been crazy, and no wonder there’s a ton of folks thinking about making job changes right now. I know this since I’ve been getting the calls. Often the conversations open with a laundry list of different companies, roles, and compensation packages. Every opportunity is completely different and […]