[Originally tweetstormed at @andrewchen, Follow me for more!]| andrewchen
A few weeks ago, I read this tweet, and found myself nodding my head in vigorous agreement.| andrewchen
Hi readers,| andrewchen
(Above: No, it doesn’t really look like this — and yes it’s mostly office parks and tech billboards. But I like to pretend) You’ll never regret spending time in SF If you work in tech, you’ll never regret spending 3-5 years in the Bay Area. This is advice I’ve been giving to people for years, and […]| andrewchen
The “Dinner Party Jerk” test is a solution to a common problem: Startups often struggle at pitching their team, even though for the earliest stage companies, it’s incredibly important to do it well to raise capital — as I’ve described it below: Pre-seed- Bet on the team Seed- Bet on the product Series A- […]| andrewchen
It’s hard to be a product without a strong theory of distribution Here’s a common startup situation. A team busts their ass for months building the first version of their product. It’s almost done. Now a big question emerges — how do you get the first people to use your product? Hmm… If you find […]| andrewchen
Every time you ask the user click you lose half of them. (And this why tutorials, splash screens, and lengthy signup flows are a bad idea) If you’ve been building apps for a long time and have seen the results of a lot of A/B tests, you quickly realize that people are a flighty bunch. […]| andrewchen
Above: Many small business figured out the hard way why coupon sites generate worse users Incentive programs often don’t perform The people you attract with referral programs, free trials, coupons, and gamification — folks who are “incentivized” as a broad umbrella category — are usually MUCH WORSE than organic ones. Worse LTVs, worse conversion, less […]| andrewchen
Grand Theft Auto 6 and the future of AI If you happened to miss it, a few weeks back, here is the game trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6. It’s worth watching, and is amazing on multiple levels. But GTA 6 might be the peak of the open world category, untouched by the next wave […]| andrewchen
Dear readers, As we enter a new year, many of us are setting goals to write more and create more content. As someone who has been writing consistently for the past decade, I wanted to share some strategies that have helped me in my writing journey, particularly in a professional context. Collecting ideas First and […]| andrewchen
(above: Me in Sep 2023, a happy author, finding the Japanese translated version of my book at the wonderful Daikanyama Tsutaya Books in Tokyo) Dear readers, As many of you know, 2 years ago I published my first book THE COLD START PROBLEM. It aims to tell the story of why some products — […]| andrewchen
Hey readers, This is a small deviation from my usual topics, but wanted to share. This is one of the most important graphs that I saw in 2023 that has led to behavioral change for me. This is in Peter Attia’s book Outlive. Here’s the graph: tldr: if you want to be able to briskly […]| andrewchen
Dear readers, I was recently interviewed by the great Brian Balfour (CEO/cofounder of Reforge) and Fareed Mosavat (ex-Reforge/Slack/Zynga) which turned into a lively discussion — I think we could have gone longer! — which we just published in two parts. You can listen to both parts below, and the kind folks at Reforge also typed […]| andrewchen
Hi readers, Doing a short round up on various links, books, a quick life update, and other stuff going on. First, I did not write much in 2023 (I was busy!!) but am proud of what I published… Blog posts from 2023 How to design a referral program. I headed up Uber’s driver and rider […]| andrewchen
Dear readers, I was triggered to write this post because ChatGPT apologies way too much, takes too long to get into the meat of an answer, and I wanted to fix that. This came up because like many of you, I’ve been trying to incorporate ChatGPT into my workflows — both at my job, and […]| andrewchen
Hi readers, First, the big personal news — I’m married! Emma and I had a very small ceremony in the desert town of Moab, Utah, where we enjoyed a week of hiking, UTVing, eating, and dancing with our immediate family, and we’re back for a few weeks before heading out to our honeymoon in Japan. […]| andrewchen
There’s been a big wave of Creator Economy startups over the past few years, as the rise of social media platforms has empowered content creators to become a focal point for consumer engagement. This wave of startups promised creators that they could help them better monetize their audience on social media if they only promoted their products. We’ve all seen these — creators promote a startup’s new offering via a link in bio, or mentions in video or via links — and drive their follo...| andrewchen
The first banner ad ever, on HotWired in 1994, debuted with a clickthrough rate of 78% (thanks @ottotimmons)| andrewchen
Hi readers,| andrewchen
The crisis arrives slowly, then all at once| andrewchen
Guest Post by Bangaly Kaba (EIR @ Reforge, Former VP Growth @ Instacart, Instagram) | andrewchen