How Indie Hackers Can Overcome the SaaS Cold Start Problem
If you’re building a SaaS product, you've likely faced this frustrating wall: you launch, but no one sticks around. Users visit briefly, then leave. You have a solid product, but no momentum. This is the cold start problem.
Andrew Chen’s book The Cold Start Problem explains why early SaaS products struggle — they need a critical mass of users interacting to create value. Without that network effect, your product’s value stays invisible.
This isn’t just a product or marketing problem. It’s a chicken-and-egg situation: “Users need others to create value, but nobody joins without value.”
The 5 Stages of Solving the Cold Start
The Cold Start: Focus on your Atomic Network — the smallest group where your product is useful. For example, Slack started with individual teams, not entire companies.
Tipping Point: Once that network works, expand carefully. Think local before going global.
Escape Velocity: Growth happens when acquisition (users bring users), engagement (value grows), and economics (revenue improves) all kick in.
Hitting the Ceiling: Growth may stall due to spam, churn, or poor user experience. Here, network quality beats quantity.
The Moat: At scale, your network becomes your biggest competitive advantage. Features can be copied, but your connected users can’t.
Proven SaaS Strategies to Beat the Cold Start
Partnerships: Microsoft bundled MS-DOS with IBM PCs, tapping into an existing audience for instant scale.
Bundling: Facebook’s Instagram integration helped boost content sharing and network strength.
Fake It Till You Make It: Airbnb seeded listings by scraping Craigslist; Doordash manually fulfilled early orders from unsigned restaurants to simulate activity.
Invite-Only Launch: Slack focused on tight-knit, early tech teams to build a high-quality initial network.
Come for the Tool, Stay for the Network: Dropbox started as solo file backup, then added collaboration features to turn users into a network.
Real-World Examples
Uber: Launched hyperlocal, focusing on busy train stations before citywide rollouts.
Dropbox: Started with a solo-user tool, then unlocked network collaboration later.
If you’re struggling to get traction, it might not be your UI or onboarding — it could be your network design. The cold start problem isn’t about quick hacks; it’s about building a network that grows naturally.
Indie Hackers, have you battled the cold start? What worked or didn’t for you in building your early networks? Share your experience — let’s learn from each other.
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We totally relate to that cold start struggle. When we first launched Accio, our procurement AI platform, users would try it but walk away underwhelmed because we weren't solving a specific pain point clearly enough. The game-changer came when we stopped making users assemble information piece by piece, and instead let them type requests in plain English like: "Show me 5 vetted suppliers for sustainable packaging with short lead times, plus market insights" - and get complete, ready-to-use results instantly.
What worked for us mirrors several strategies from the article:
Delivering solo value first: Even with limited initial supplier data, we made sure every query returned actionable, complete outputs
Faking the network effect: Our team manually curated early matches to make the AI appear more robust than it was
Creating habitual use: When users realized they could save 3 hours of manual work per query, retention improved organically
The real breakthrough was identifying that "atomic pain point" - for us, it was procurement professionals drowning in spreadsheets. Once we solved that single use case exceptionally well, the network effects started building naturally.
Fellow builders - how have you hacked the chicken-and-egg problem in your products? Would love to exchange war stories.
That’s a textbook pivot from 'nice to have' to 'must have.'
Manually curating early results might feel scrappy, but it’s probably the fastest way to prove value before scale kicks in. Curious >>> how long did you keep that manual layer before you felt the AI could fully take over?
A solid 3 months of human-in-the-loop training!
Great...real growth comes from patient..... no shortcuts here.
The Classic Cold Start Problem. Can't agree more.
Thanks!
Great tips, thank you!
Thanks!
Sonu, this is a sharp breakdown of a challenge every early-stage SaaS founder eventually faces. The cold start problem is real — but solvable with smart execution.
🔥 Here are 3 SaaS Coaching tips I share with founders tackling this:
1️⃣ Anchor Product-Market Fit in Atomic Networks – Instead of chasing vanity growth, focus on micro-communities where your solution delivers immediate value. (💡 PMF Advisor)
2️⃣ Design for Early Network Effects – Build features that encourage collaboration or sharing from day one. Even minimal interaction can start the flywheel. (🔁 SaaS Scaling)
3️⃣ Engineer Go-to-Market Entry Points – Bundle with existing tools, use manual onboarding, or form strategic partnerships to simulate traction and validate demand. (📈 Go-to-Market Strategy)
This is a must-read for anyone serious about becoming a scaling expert in SaaS.
#SaaSCoaching #SaaSScaling #GoToMarketStrategy #ProductMarketFit #PMFAdvisor #ColdStartProblem #IndieHackers #SaaSLaunch
thanks for sharing these sharp coaching tips..... i especially like the “engineer go-to-market entry points” point. i’ve seen founders skip this step and struggle for months before realizing partnerships or manual onboarding could have kickstarted momentum. wondering —.....have you found one gtm entry strategy that works consistently across different saas niches, or is it always case-by-case?
Andrew Chen has a great book on this called the Cold Start Problem
For sure. The come for the tool, stay for the network......part hit home—Dropbox nailed that playbook. Underrated gem in the book.