Video · ~20 min

Solving the Chicken or Egg Problem

James Currier · NFX (YouTube) Free Intermediate

Solving the Chicken or Egg Problem

If you would rather hear the marketplace tactics than read them, this is James Currier walking through the same framework on stage. He is direct about which side to attack first and how founders manufacture liquidity before it exists naturally. Good to watch once, then keep the written 19 tactics piece open as a checklist.

  • Start with the side that is harder to get, not the easy one
  • Early liquidity is manufactured by founders, it is not organic
  • Pick a small enough market that it can actually feel full
Watch on YouTube ↗

The question it answers

  1. I run a two-sided marketplace. Do I get my first customers by starting with supply or demand, and how do I avoid the empty-restaurant problem?

Read with it

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  3. The definitive playbook for network and community-led products, drawn from Andrew Chen's a16z experience and interviews with... Harper Business Book · Book (~368 pages) The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects Andrew Chen
  4. Andrew Chen ran rider growth at Uber and now invests at a16z, so this is the canonical breakdown of how marketplaces get off... andrewchen.com Essay · ~20 min read Required reading for marketplace startups: The 20 best essays Andrew Chen
  5. For a two-sided marketplace, the first real decision is which side to define and win first, and this essay makes the case... NFX Essay · Long read (about 25 minutes) 19 Tactics to Solve the Chicken-or-Egg Problem and Grow Your Marketplace James Currier
  6. This is the most concrete answer to which of your two customers to define first, built from interviews with 17 major... Lenny's Newsletter Article · Long read (about 20 minutes) How to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace Business, Part 2: Cracking the Chicken-and-Egg Problem (Supply vs. Demand) Lenny Rachitsky
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