Are you building a marketplace, social network or a platform?
Do you ever describe what you’re doing as the Uber for X, Airbnb for Y or the Twitter for Z?1
Do you want to understand why certain startups scale and others fail?1
Over the last few years, I’ve been obsessed with platform business models and their ability to scale. Unlike traditional enterprises, platforms do not scale by scaling internal employees and resources. Instagram gets to a billion dollars with 13 employees while Uber doesn’t own any of the taxis it dispatches. They scale through network effects. As more producers use the platform, consumers find greater value, and vice versa.
Announcing Platform Scale – The Book
I’ve written about this topic extensively on the blog. And now, I’m bringing it all together as a book meant specifically for entrepreneurs and innovators.
Platform Scale is a maker’s manual, a guide, for entrepreneurs, innovators and makers looking to build platforms and benefit from this new form of scale. The book provides codified, actionable steps to design and implement platform-based businesses. Platform Scale is a book about unlocking the scale advantages that are possible in today’s connected world.
If you’s building a marketplace social network or a platform, you need to understand Platform Scale. Click to tweet
Why did I write this book?
I wrote this book because the rules of achieving scale are fundamentally changing but they aren’t understood very well. Platforms need to focus on interactions between users, not simply growth. They need to invest in building feedback loops that keep re-engaging users. The traditional metrics of user growth and active usage do not apply anymore, tracking actual interactions between users is far more critical to scale. We need a new playbook to achieve scale in a world of platforms.
Platform Scale – The Book Trailer
To learn more about the book, watch the trailer below:
If you’d like to pre-order your copy of Platform Scale, just click on the link below to get to the pre-orders campaign:
Platforms may be more important than you think
Platform Scale lays out the new rules for scale in today’s connected world. Even if you are not building a platform, you can benefit form the same principles that powered the growth of successful platforms like the ones in the image below.
If you’ve ever wondered how to solve the chicken and egg problem for a platform or wondered which metrics best show success of a platform, you’ve seen the need for a structured approach to building platforms. That’s what Platform Scale aims to provide.
This article was originally published on Sangeet Paul Choudary’s personal blog Platform Thinking – A blog about building early stage ventures from an idea to a business, and mitigating execution risk.
