This post originally appeared on Hinnovates, a Harvard student initiative; published here with slight modification. 

One of the most exciting initiatives at Harvard this year is the launch of Harvard Innovation Lab (i-Lab), a space designed to foster innovation and entrepreneurial activities and deepen interactions across the University as well as with the broader Boston community. Harvard Startup Weekend Scramble, an ambitious 48-hour “startup building” event this past weekend, demonstrated the untapped entrepreneurial energy among students and how i-Lab could take a major role in facilitating collaboration in innovation and entrepreneurship across school boundaries.

Startup Weekend Scramble was designed to be intense yet fun, packing pitching, community building, rapid prototyping, and demo-ing in one weekend. On Friday night, students from Harvard and MIT pitched their startup ideas to the crowd and teams were formed around the top voted ideas. Over the next day and half, teams worked inside the i-Lab intensively towards a working prototype/demo, with the goal of forming  the basis of a credible business by the end of the weekend. Mentors (VCs, entrepreneurs, and industry practitioners) from the Boston startup community also made themselves available at the i-Lab to provide guidance and feedback during the weekend.

Although I wasn’t able to  join a team as a  ”builder” this past weekend, I caught the final pitches/demos on Sunday evening - 16 startup pitches in 2.5 hours. Overall, I was very impressed with the progress each team had made over the weekend, with a few teams showcasing functional prototypes. Townhall140 even held its first live virtual town hall during the final presentation. Equally impressive was the diversity of the teams - most teams consisted of students from 3-4 different schools (including HBS, HKS, HES, HMS, Dept. of Economics, College, Harvard Extension, and MIT). 

This Startup Weekend Scramble was a great learning experience for student participants, as most had never launched a business with strangers from different backgrounds. The energy and enthusiasm students built up during Startup Weekend Scramble made it the perfect event leading to the official launch of the i-Lab today. As an aspiring entrepreneur working on building something while at HBS, I am excited to tap into the resources i-Lab brings to help launch new ventures and be part of the innovation movement at Harvard.

One of the key factors contributing to the value of a product/service is the “network effect” - the value to one user is dependent on the number of others using it. Since Twitter first launched in July 2006, people have been paying close attention to the growth trajectory of its user base. On the surface, it seems logical that the more users Twitter has, the more valuable Twitter is as a service…or is it?

A few months ago (ok I admit…this post is long overdue) Chris Kurdziel and I had an interesting conversation on Twitter:

@melodykoh: Does Twitter lose its value as a “broadcast platform” as it grows? More users->each follows more ppl on avg->less attention per tweet?

@ckurdziel: I agree, though I try and keep my # of following below 500. Wonder what the avg # of users people follow is?

@melodykoh: me too, tho this presents a new problem- new twitter users not getting followed by “early/experienced” users, getting less value?

@ckurdziel: interesting point. i think my 500 tends to cycle (not all veterans). definite possibility of closed feedback loop/filter bubble

Given Twitter’s reverse chronological, real-time single stream information presentation, there is inevitably a natural limitation on how many people you can follow effectively - e.g. capture every single piece of content that you aim to capture from a particular user when you first hit the “+ Follow” button (unless you stare at your Twitter stream 24/7).

As Twitter’s user base grows, a “reverse network effect” starts to emerge:

• Assuming the natural limitation of following count is relatively low (lets assume 500) and that on average Twitter users’ following counts grow as a function of # of new users, then the early adopters will hit the following capacity before others do.
• When users reach the 500 following count, they will either: 1) realize that they cannot follow any more accounts effectively and will raise the following standard dramatically, or 2) continue following new accounts and the user experience will start to deteriorate due to information overload (especially if they use Twitter as a real-time news/RSS platform).
• If the above is true, the later a user joins Twitter, the worse the user experience becomes - both the likelihood of receiving a “following back” (from earlier/more experienced users) and the attention he/she receives per tweet decrease as the platform grows.
• The inability of new users to receive followings from “Twitter veterans” (relatively speaking) potentially decreases Twitter’s value to new users.

I just checked my Twitter profile and it says that I’m currently following 699 accounts. While I constantly discover new interesting people to follow, I am hesitant to do so because every additional following increases the odds of “missing something important” from those I currently follow. 

A few thoughts on how Twitter might be able to fix this problem: 

• An algorithm-driven tweet stream (maybe in addition to its current single timeline) surfacing “what’s important/top news” tailored to individual users.
• A tool that helps users “cycle through” accounts following based on the level of interaction/engagement they have with those they follow (e.g. CTR on links in tweets, # of RTs, depth/frequency of conversations, etc.) - essentially identifying accounts that are bringing value to users. 

Is this reverse network effect (if not addressed) Twitter’s next growth bottleneck? Thoughts?

Besides being “hip & cool”, why would you ever want to commit yourself as an “early adopter/beta tester” to another website/app/social network when you have no idea whether it’s going to be around 3 months from now?

I have always enjoyed trying stuff out early on, and here are a few thoughts on what I learned from being an early adopter, from the perspective of an investor:

• It helped me stay on top of emerging trends and gain unique perspectives on the target market as it develops. The observations were valuable even though my ex-employer, Time Warner Investments, is more of a mid-stage venture investor (typically invests in Series B round or later) - I was able to develop my domain knowledge as the market develops, not overnight.  
• As the product/service evolves (e.g. new features, new business models/monetization schemes, complete “pivots”), I was better positioned to infer the reasons behind those changes and the challenges/opportunities faced by the company as well as the broader market.
• My learning as a user gave me credibility in front of the entrepreneur and allowed me to provide constructive feedback, making the first meeting productive and mutually beneficial.   
• It was a great way to draw “lines” of an entrepreneur and his/her company. As Mark Suster once wrote, investors prefer to invest in lines, not dots. By staying close to the product/service as an early user, I was able to observe how the entrepreneur executed against his/her plan and vision. 
• The more I used, the more I saw, the more lessons I could extract from my experiences as a user when evaluating a potential investment in a similar or adjacent market.  
• Side benefit: reserve an awesome username. 

How is any of these relevant to you if you’re not an investor (e.g. students, entrepreneurs, developers, business people in the tech ecosystem)? I believe a lot of them still apply - it helps you stay abreast of the latest product/UX/UI/business model innovations, get early looks into emerging trends/markets, draw lessons from roadmap changes & pivots, and even some serendipitous business development leads. Plus, it’s just fun.

So now you buy in the benefits of being an early user of new tech products/services, how do you practically keep up with hundreds (if not more) of them popping up every day? It can get quite daunting but here are a few tips to help you efficiently engage:

• Prioritize those where you have a personal connection with the companies/entrepreneurs/employees. This might seem obvious but being able to share your thoughts and engage in discussions with “insiders” makes it a much more intellectually stimulating and rewarding learning process.
• Focus on a vertical or theme of interest. It might be mobile wellness (e.g. fitness mobile apps such as Runkeeper or CardioTrainer), or it could be “read later” content management tools such as Instapaper or Read It Later. You’re more likely to develop thoughtful insights when you can compare your own user experiences side by side.  
• Observe what’s “blowing up” at the moment. A larger early-adopter user base provides more opportunities for thoughtful discussions with others who might have complete different perspectives.
• Not to further contribute to everyone’s email bankruptcy problem, but subscribing to email newsletter is a great way to keep up with products/services on your “watch list”. 

Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Hello world!

I decided to start blogging when I knew that I was about to leave Time Warner Investments, the strategic VC arm of Time Warner Inc., to become a student again. Being part of an investment team at a public company created some complications around maintaining a blog/public voice, but I’ve always wanted to have a platform to articulate my thoughts and reflections.

If this blog has a “mission statement”, it will look something like this:

To share with the world my thoughts and chronicle my journey in tech, digital media, venture capital, and entrepreneurship.  

Here you have it - thanks for reading!