Essay · ~15 min read

On Startups, Platforms, and Innovation

Scott Kupor · Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Free Intermediate

This piece names the exact trap you are worried about: it uses Zynga, which rode Facebook's platform to a huge business and then got squeezed when Facebook changed the rules, as the cautionary case. Kupor's honest framing is that platforms are a great way to bootstrap early distribution, but you have to use that head start to build a direct relationship with your own customers before the platform's interests diverge from yours. Read it as a starting point for deciding which parts of your business must not stay platform dependent.

• A platform is fine as a launchpad for cheap early distribution, but treating it as your permanent, only channel is what gets you wiped out.
• Zynga's core mistake was never owning the direct relationship with its players, so when Facebook shifted policy it had no independent way to reach them.
• The hedge is to spend your platform honeymoon building things you control: your own audience, data, and a second path to your customer.