if distribution was the only moat, it would contradict the origin story of some of the most successful products of our generation.
dropbox didn't grow because they bought ads. they did something super simple: invite a friend, get more storage. zoom grew because every meeting link was an invitation to try the product, no marketing required. loom turns every video into a demo. figma's collaborative links meant designers pulled in their entire team just by sharing work.
these companies didn't treat distribution as separate from product. the product was the distribution. that's the difference.
virality vs. media bumps
virality is reproducible product-led growth. what most people describe when they talk about distribution is a media bump.
the former has compounding benefits to a product. the latter is just short-term spurts of attention that need to be remanufactured every time.
the alleged idea that distribution will magically solve long-term acquisition and product sickness is completely wrong.
the cost of attention
distribution comes at the cost of acquiring attention. the ramifications: you draw in 1 million eyeballs, and the moment you fail to deliver on the promise, the moment you've cost 1 million eyes their attention.
it is extremely hard to win back attention. drawing unnecessary attention to yourself will do worse for your brand than help it.
distribution is like having a set of nukes in your pocket. you should strike once ready, or hold strong until you're ready to deliver on moments of delight and quality product.
the national enquirer problem
when i think of acquiring attention, i think about when I was growing up, checking out at the grocery store, and always noticing the latest headlines on the magazine called national enquirer.
i always vividly remember noticing the headline for each new issue of the magazine.
every time i check out, the national enquirer got my attention. but to be clear, i have never read the national enquirer.
i think of building products in a similar lens. distribution is exceptionally important. ultimately, at least in consumer, if you can't reach over a million impressions, if you don't have a means to get hundreds of thousands of clicks, simply put your idea can't succeed.
but you also have to think about what actually happens when you acquire attention. how that converts downstream into your product. because if your product isn't there yet, all you're doing is drawing unnecessary attention to yourself.
cultural relevance
the key to being culturally relevant is having a strong sense of relatability.
it's almost being strongly aware of how people would talk about you at the dinner table. not just whether they know your name—but what they say when they bring it up.
distribution gets you mentioned. product determines whether the mention is good.
this is all fairly intuitive but seems typically forgotten nowadays, when attention & distrbution is seemingly "all that matters."