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Life & fun · December 8, 2021

The Cold Start Problem

A book about how to start and scale network effects

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In plain words

The Cold Start Problem is a book by Andrew Chen that examines how successful technology companies overcome the challenge of launching products that rely on network effects. Drawing on interviews with founding teams from companies including Twitch, Tinder, Uber, Airbnb, and Pinterest, the book explores strategies these companies used to build initial user bases and scale their platforms. It focuses on the practical approaches to solving the cold start problem that founders encounter when building network-dependent businesses.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Based on 100s of interviews with founding teams at Twitch, Tinder, Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, and many more, Andrew Chen explores how tech’s most successful companies solved the dreaded "cold start problem” using network effects to launch and scale.

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