july

I used to think that product matters more than marketing. An obviously dev-centric view.

I had the "if you build it they will come" mentality. 

I'm now realizing that marketing matters as much, if not more than the product itself. This is because the concept of dependent events.  Before somebody can gain value from your product, they first have to use it. Before that they have to purchase it, and before that they have to hear about it. Somebody gaining value from your product/service is purely dependent on that chain. For the next step to happen, the previous has to have happened.

If you had the cure for cancer but couldn't tell anyone, it's meaningless. 

The value is stored and can't be leveraged. I believe that this is the case for most products. But Jake, what about word of mouth and referral? These are valuable concepts, and part of any successful product. But the initial marketing starts the flywheel, it lets you improve the product to GET TO word of mouth and referral.

I write code and sometimes stories. jakeacasey.com

it’s very much a network of mindshare, each person is a node. marketing gets you a certain number of nodes to use it, but then you have to keep them, and for truly great ones, love it so much they share it.