Agent skill · wondelai
cold-start-problem
Start and scale networked products using Andrew Chen''s "The Cold Start Problem" framework for network effects. Use when the user mentions "network effects", "chicken and egg", "cold start", "two-sided marketplace", "atomic network", "hard side", "liquidity", "critical mass", "invite-only launch", "how do I get my first users", or "the marketplace has no buyers or sellers". Also trigger when launching a marketplace, social, or collaboration product that is worthless without other users, deciding launch sequencing and seeding tactics, or diagnosing stalled network growth at scale. Covers the five stages: cold start, tipping point, escape velocity, hitting the ceiling, and the moat. For word-of-mouth virality, see contagious. For habit-driven retention, see hooked-ux.
What it needs
About 11k tokens when loaded.
What this skill does
The Cold Start Problem A framework for starting and scaling products that live or die by network effects — marketplaces, social apps, messaging, and collaboration tools — distilled from Andrew Chen's The Cold Start Problem. Use it to launch products that are worthless until other users show up, to sequence growth network by network, and to navigate the five stages: the cold start, the tipping point, escape velocity, hitting the ceiling, and the moat. Core Principle Network effects start as a liability, not an asset. Value lives in connections between users, and on day one there are none — the same force that makes a dense network unstoppable makes an empty one useless. You don't escape by launching to a market; you escape by building one tiny, complete, self-sustaining network at a time, solving its hard side first, then tipping adjacent networks with a repeatable playbook until the market follows. Scoring Goal: 10/10. Rate launch plans and growth strategies for networked products 0-10 against the principles below. Report the current score and the specific changes needed to reach 10/10. 9-10: Named atomic network with an instrumented magic moment, hard side solved first, repeatable tipping playbook, density/liquidity metrics, explicit ceiling and moat plan 7-8: Clear atomic network and hard-side focus, but tipping tactics are ad hoc or metrics still track totals over density 5-6: Network effects acknowledged, but the launch targets a broad market and both sides are treated equally 3-4: Generic user-acquisition plan; network thinking limited to "add invites and hope it spreads" 0-2: Big-bang launch to everyone at once, vanity signups, no hard-side strategy, no liquidity measures Framework 1. Network Effects Fundamentals Core concept: A networked product connects people with each other — buyers with sellers, creators with audiences, coworkers with coworkers — and becomes more valuable as the right people join. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills wondelai/cold-start-problem--b32b05