The Version One website now has a bot, powered by Ada
A few weeks ago, we quietly launched a really cool bot on the Version One website. Its goal is to help you navigate our content in a more interactive, and hopefully, faster way. Look for and click the red help button in the bottom right corner and a chat panel pops out. What can you do […]
Network Effects in Marketplace, Communities and Social Platforms
These days, we’re hyper-focused on marketplaces, communities and social platforms. We love these platforms for many reasons, but the primary one is the power of their network effects and how they create a high degree of defensibility for startups. What are network effects? “Network effects” is a frequently used term and it is sometimes confused […]
Growing a marketplace: how to spark the virtuous cycle
The virtuous cycle is the holy grail for online marketplaces. In this positive feedback loop, a high number of quality suppliers attract more customers; then more customers attract more suppliers to join. This cycle continues as a self-sustaining growth engine until both supply and demand reach critical mass to be “winner takes all.” But how […]
New investment: Wattpad, the world’s most popular ebook community
For the past decade the book industry has been pretty sheltered from the disruption the music and the film verticals have seen. But this is about to change dramatically. The distribution of books is rapidly moving digital as eReaders have gone mainstream. And now we can see for the first time how social is impacting […]