When I see a web-based startup hit a period of “traction” and being “it,” I think back over the past 12 or so years and realize I’ve seen this pattern before:
- Geeky friends of the geek who created it start using it
- Geeks in some NICHE* use it
- It’s described as a site used by NICHE-ers to do a specific NICHE thing
- Non-geek cool, young, influential NICHE-ers use it
- Every NICHE-er uses it
- A series of funding rounds
- People in other NICHES use it and it’s redefined as something that can be used no matter what NICHE you are in.
- More funding rounds
- The geek who created it leaves to pursue other opportunities (in St Barts)
- People’s parents start using it
- People’s grandparents use it
- Something just like it becomes a feature on Facebook, a plug-in on WordPress and aggregated by the Huffington Post.
- The only people who use it live in Brazil.
*NICHE – Any gender, race, religion, profession, passion, nationality, sexual preference, et al.