Andrew Chen Archives

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Dear readers, I have moved to Substack and I will be writing here from now on:
👉 andrewchen.substack.com
In the meantime, I will leave andrewchen.com up for posterity. Enjoy!

Quick update: Quoted in WSJ on dating apps, recent podcast interview, plus recent essays

Screenshot 2015-06-10 18.13.50

Couple quick things that I wanted to batch up in a single post.

A quote from me in the Wall Street Journal today
First, there’s a quote from me in the Wall Street Journal today, for an article covering the opportunities/challenges of dating apps. I’ve been told the story will be on page B1 of the paper edition, but here’s the link for everyone who loves trees: The Dating Business: Love on the Rocks by Georgia Wells. The quote was pulled from a recent essay of mine on why investors are often skeptical of dating startups, which you can read: Why investors don’t fund dating.

Podcast interview with Codenewbies
Last week, I did a fun, casual interview with Codenewbies, a podcast targeted at people learning to code. In the interview, I talk about how taking a year of Computer Science in college, plus internships as a Software Engineer, helped me break into my first post-college job, at venture capital Mohr Davidow Ventures. And I also have a short story about the first real program I ever wrote, in GW-BASIC back in fifth grade, where I managed to blow up one of the Mac Plus computers in class.

Let’s meet up in person (San Francisco)
I’m kicking off a series of small-group gatherings to grab drinks/food in SF – something like ten people, in SOMA. If you’re based in the area, I’d love to catch up and meet. I plan to include friends/guests from top startups and tech companies in the Bay Area to join us- here’s how to register.

Follow me on Twitter
Just a reminder- if you’re not already following me, here I am: @andrewchen

Recent essays, if you missed them
Finally, I wanted to include a list of some of my recent essays in case you missed them. I’m pretty happy with how the last couple have turned out, so I hope you enjoy.

Thanks for reading!

PS. Get new updates/analysis on tech and startups

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New data shows losing 80% of mobile users is normal, and why the best apps do better

Photos of the women who programmed the ENIAC, wrote the code for Apollo 11, and designed the Mac

The Next Feature Fallacy: The fallacy that the next new feature will suddenly make people use your product

Why investors don’t fund dating

Why we should aim to build a forever company, not just a unicorn

Ten classic books that define tech

How I first met Eric Ries and also why I’ve ordered his new Kickstarter-exclusive book The Leader’s Guide

This is what free, ad-supported Uber rides might look like. Mockups, economics, and analysis.

Personal update: I’ve moved to Oakland! Here’s why.

The most common mistake when forecasting growth for new products (and how to fix it)

The race for Apple Watch’s killer app

My top essays in 2014 about mobile, growth, and tech

Why messaging apps are so addictive (Guest Post)

IAC’s HowAboutWe co-founder: How to Avoid Delusional Thinking in Start-up Growth Strategy (Guest Post)

Mobile retention benchmarks for 2014 vs 2013 show a 50% drop in D1 retention (Guest post)

New data on push notifications show up to 40% CTRs, the best perform 4X better than the worst (Guest post)

Why Android desperately needs a billion dollar success story: The best new apps are all going iPhone-first

Early Traction: How to go from zero to 150,000 email subscribers (Guest Post)

New data shows up to 60% of users opt-out of push notifications (Guest Post)

Why aren’t App Constellations working? (Guest Post)

There’s only a few ways to scale user growth, and here’s the list

Lessons learned adding messaging to a notes app (Guest Post)

Retention is King (Guest Post)

Why consumer product metrics are all terrible

How to solve the cold-start problem for social products

How to design successful social products with 3 habit-forming feedback loops

Congrats to my sis Ada Chen, who’s joining SurveyMonkey as VP Marketing

How to make content creation easy: Short-form, ephemeral, mobile, and now, anonymous

My 2013 essays on mobile, startups, and tech

When a great product hits the funding crunch

A clever way to buy Facebook ads based on what your users like (Guest post)

Use this spreadsheet for churn, MRR, and cohort analysis (Guest Post)

Zero to Product/Market Fit (Presentation)

The Rise of Fat Venture Capital

How Google and Zynga set & achieve meaningful OKRs (Guest Post)

Case studies from “Why you can’t find a technical co-founder”

Easter Egg Marketing: How Snapchat, Apple, and Google Hook You

How is Yahoo really doing? Here’s the Google Trends data (Guest Post)

Ignore PR and buzz, use Google Trends to assess traction instead