The Cold Start Problem (Network Effects Playbook)

Turns Andrew Chen's Cold Start Problem into an operating framework for launching and scaling marketplaces, social apps, and collaboration tools network by network.

Marketing & SEOIntermediate★ 2,181⑂ 225AI score 8/10Last updated: Sep 10, 2026

What it does

Distills The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen into decision-ready guidance for products that are worthless until other users show up.

Five-stage map: cold start → tipping point → escape velocity → hitting the ceiling → the moat
Atomic network design: define the smallest self-sustaining network instead of a market, plus a template for defining and instrumenting the magic moment
Hard-side strategy: map money / status / utility motivations for sellers, creators, drivers, organizers and build for them first
Tipping playbooks: invite-only mechanics, paying up for launch liquidity, influencer and community seeding so network #2 costs less than #1
0-10 scoring rubric: rates your launch or growth plan and lists the exact changes needed to reach 10/10
Anti-pattern catalog: big-bang launches, vanity signups, fake scarcity, cloning before network #1 is stable — with fixes

Who it's for

Founders and PMs building marketplaces, social, messaging, or collaboration products
Teams stuck on their first 100 users, or seeing signups rise while engagement stays dead
Growth leads sequencing expansion across cities, segments, or use cases
Anyone stress-testing a GTM plan or pitch narrative through a network-effects lens

Examples

Scoping the first launch: "Where should my local services marketplace start?" → get a one-neighborhood, one-category atomic network plus an instrumented magic moment.
Diagnosing a stall: "100k signups but almost no transactions" → metrics shift from totals to density, fill rate, and time-to-match, with a breakdown of which ceiling hit first.
Opening city #2: "Are we ready to replicate?" → expansion gates, hard-side pre-commitments, and a published subsidy taper schedule.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wondelai/skills/HEAD/cold-start-problem/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)

Download the ZIP with the button below.
In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.

↓ Download ZIP

Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the cold-start-problem folder from the GitHub repo wondelai/skills into my ~/.claude/skills/cold-start-problem/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/wondelai/skills.git && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r skills/cold-start-problem ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

Open a terminal (Terminal on macOS/Linux, Git Bash on Windows).
Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/wondelai/skills.git
Create the skills directory if needed: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
Copy this skill: cp -r skills/cold-start-problem ~/.claude/skills/
Confirm the references/ files (case-studies.md, atomic-networks.md, hard-side.md, tipping-playbooks.md, scale-ceiling-moat.md) came along — copying the whole folder includes them.
Restart Claude Code and ask something like "pick the atomic network for my marketplace launch" to trigger the skill.

View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT