There Are Always More Users

Something I hear often when talking to people and also find myself thinking occasionally is that there are only so many users that your startup can acquire… isn’t there a market limit? won’t they eventually stop signing up? If I release a feature too soon and some users drop off how will I ever win them back?

But the truth is, unless you have the most incredibly niche product (think time-tracking software for ostrich farmers with a penchant for gymnastics) there really are always so many potential users out there that by the time you get anywhere near saturating the market your product will likely be completely different!

Think of the biggest sites and apps you know like Facebook, Evernote and Twitter, they have millions (perhaps billions!) of users and yet still every single minute someone, somewhere that has never used the service before signs up for the first time.

Don’t be afraid to ship early, if the first impression isn’t perfect and users don’t sign up or quit your app then you can treat it as valuable learning, iterate and try again - there are always more users!

Photo by James Cridland