The Power of Network Effects

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

You had a fascinating story around selling to monster. In realizing that monster was maybe not ideal in terms of how it was being run, but it was a powerful, profitable, growing company because of network effects. Do you still do the accelerator? And if not, i guess wold you learn from that phase of an effect? We don't do the accelerator. It's just more scalable to do it as a venture firm. I think both worked out quite well.

In Episode #57, we explore network effects and investing in network effect businesses. We’re joined by James Currier, co-founder and general partner of NfX. We cover virality vs. network effects, tweaking rules and systems to take advantage of network effects, and network effects as a business strategy.

“Every company is its own work of art, and the founder is the artist.” – James Currier

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/james-currier1-outlier-academy-show-notes

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/james-currier-outlier-academy-transcript

CHAPTERS

This episode is our definitive guide to network effects and investing in network effect businesses. In it we cover:

(00:00:00) – Introduction
(00:01:58) – James’ background and journey to NfX
(00:07:50) – Defining network effects and why they are so powerful
(00:11:20) – Virality vs. network effects
(00:14:46) – Examples of businesses with network effects
(00:24:57) – Tweaking rules and systems to take advantage of network effects
(00:31:07) – Networks effects as a business strategy
(00:33:58) – Investing in network effects businesses
(00:40:26) – Advice for founders

ABOUT NFX

The name NfX is actually short for Network Effects, and James with his founding partner, Pete Flint, founded NfX after seeing the power of network effects, partially by doing research that confirms that 70% of all unicorns are companies with proven network effects driving their businesses. While NFX has become one of the world's leading thinkers on network effects, having published incredibly salient posts from 13 different network effects and counting, where they've now identified 16 different types of network effects, to their very popular self-help article titled Your Life is Driven by Network Effects, and their strategy is clearly working.

💌 FREE NEWSLETTER

https://www.outlieracademy.com/newsletter

🎙 LISTEN ON

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/outlier-academy/id1523851182

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/58edVNgqaPNaCSGSxM6pef?si=88f37a5d20434775

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1523851182

ABOUT OUTLIER ACADEMY

Learn timeless lessons on work and life from iconic founders, world-renown investors, and bestselling authors. Outlier Academy is the forever school for those chasing greatness. Past guests include Gokul Rajaram of DoorDash, Scott Belsky of Benchmark and Adobe, Joey Krug of Pantera Capital, Mark Sisson of Primal Kitchen, Luke Gromen of The Forest for the Trees, and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Website: https://www.outlieracademy.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/outlieracademy

ABOUT DANIEL SCRIVNER

Outlier Academy is hosted by Daniel Scrivner. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has led design teams at Square and Apple, turned around a $3M+ ARR SaaS business, and invested in more than 100 companies. He launched Outlier Academy in 2020 to learn from the world’s best founders, investors, authors, and peak performance experts.

Website: https://www.danielscrivner.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices