go where your users already are and bring them over

the play

Your future users already gather somewhere, like a marketplace or an incumbent app. Plug your product into that place so it’s the better way to do the thing people are already doing there. Every use inside their platform recruits for yours.

what happened

company	where the users were	the move	result
Airbnb	Craigslist, where people already listed and searched for rooms	a “post to Craigslist” button that cross-posted Airbnb listings with a link back, built with no public Craigslist API	no public numbers. Andrew Chen used it as the case study in his essay “Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing”
PayPal	eBay, where buyers and sellers needed a way to pay each other	sellers added PayPal as a payment option on their eBay auctions	PayPal estimated that 72.4% of eBay auctions accepted it in Q1 2002, against 27.2% for eBay’s own Billpoint. E-Commerce Times put it at about 75% the next quarter

So eBay bought it. In July 2002 eBay agreed to pay $1.5 billion in stock for PayPal and phase out Billpoint. About 60% of PayPal’s business was taking place on eBay at the time.

why it works

lever	what it does
the audience is already there	you skip the hardest part, getting people to show up
the intent is already there	people on Craigslist want a room. people on eBay want to pay. you meet them mid-task
every use is an ad	each PayPal button on an auction showed the next buyer the product
you win on the incumbent’s weak spot	PayPal beat eBay’s own payment product on eBay’s own site

from my calls

really stealing users is actually the way best products grow. so where can you steal your users from?

A sports-betting team let users connect the sportsbooks they already used and earn a rank from their past betting history. A new user arrives with a reputation on day one, and the old sportsbook becomes the onboarding.

I point every team at the community of the biggest incumbent in their category. That’s where your users are today. Go find the Telegram groups and X accounts built around that incumbent, and give people there a reason to move.

cost vs payoff

	what
cost	building the integration or import, often without official support
cost	platform risk. the incumbent can shut the door
payoff	users with intent, at the moment they need you
payoff	your product is seen by everyone on the incumbent’s platform
payoff	in PayPal’s case, an acquisition by the incumbent

how to steal it

	crypto app	consumer app
where they gather	the incumbent’s Telegram and Discord, its top wallets, its leaderboard	the incumbent marketplace, forum or app
the bridge	import wallet history, positions or points from the incumbent so users arrive with status	import contacts, history or listings from the incumbent
the hook	a rank or reward based on what they did on the incumbent	a better way to do the same task, one click from where they are
measure	users who connected an incumbent account, their 30-day retention	imported users, their 30-day retention

Run it like this:

Name the incumbent your users use today.
List where its users gather: groups, accounts, marketplaces.
Build the bridge so moving over costs one click and carries their history.
Give them a reason to stay once they arrive.

watch-outs

watch-out	what to do
the platform shuts you out	assume the door closes. move users onto your own product and list fast
crossing into spam	in 2011 a blogger showed that contractors working for Airbnb had emailed Craigslist posters. Airbnb said those contract salespeople were “apparently aggressive with their outreach”. do the bridge openly
imported users who never come back	measure retention of the imported cohort separately
fake history (crypto)	verify imported wallets and accounts belong to the user