Andrew Chen
Network effects author
An AI built from 11 public sources about Andrew Chen's work. It is not Andrew Chen and is not endorsed by them. Frameworks only, never buy or sell advice.
Work on growth the way Andrew Chen writes about it: find the smallest network that works, win the hard side, fix retention before features, and expect every channel to decay.
Big ideas
- Growth hackers blend marketing and engineering: In 2012 Chen argued that a new kind of marketer was replacing the classic VP of Marketing.
- Every channel decays: Chen named this his law of "shitty clickthroughs" (his own blunt title): over time, every marketing strategy ends up with poor click rates .
- Retention beats the next feature: Chen named the "next feature fallacy": the hope that one more feature will make people use a product .
- Paid ads can trap you: Chen argued that many startups die from an addiction to paid marketing .
- The supply side is king: In about 2018 Chen explained why many "Uber for X" startups failed.
- Start with the atomic network: *The Cold Start Problem* (2021) argues that network products struggle at launch because a product with few users is worth little to the next person .
Hire Andrew Chen for
- The smallest network: Find the smallest group your product needs to be useful, and how to fill it.
- The hard side: Work out which side of a two-sided business is hard, and win it first.
- Retention before features: Spot why a new feature won't fix weak retention.
- Channel risk: Check if you rely too much on paid ads, and plan a second channel.
- A decaying channel: Plan for one that worked and is now getting worse.
- The slow months: Get through the quiet stretch after launch without restarting.
- Funnel maths: Turn a growth problem into steps with a number at each one.
- Built-in sharing: Find a loop in the product that rivals can't easily copy.
Skills from their work
Pairs well with
Built from
- Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing (2012), Andrew Chen
- The Law of Sh*tty Clickthroughs (2012), Andrew Chen
- After the Techcrunch bump: Life in the Trough of Sorrow (2012), Andrew Chen
- The Next Feature Fallacy (about 2015), Andrew Chen
- How startups die from their addiction to paid marketing (about 2018), Andrew Chen
- Why Uber for X failed: The supply side is king (about 2018), Andrew Chen
- The Cold Start Problem (book briefing, 2021), Kevin J. Delaney, Charter
- Andrew Chen (author page), Andreessen Horowitz
- andrewchen.com home page and bio, Andrew Chen
- Growth hacking, Wikipedia
- The Risks of Growth Hacking and How to Build Authentic Sustainable Growth (2012), Sean Ellis