# andrewchen.com

> AI-optimized mirror of andrewchen.com containing 50 pages totalling 296,172 words of clean markdown content, structured data, and semantic HTML. Original source: https://andrewchen.com/. Last updated: 2026-03-25T00:51:45.246Z.

Each page is available as HTML (with JSON-LD structured data) and Markdown (text-only, ideal for LLMs and RAG).

## Homepage

- [andrewchen](/site-root.html): Hello there! I’m a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, investing in brand new startups as part of a16z Speedrun. (332 words)

## Articles & Blog Posts

- [   “Is your startup idea taken?” — and why we love X for Y startups at andrewchen](/x-for-y-startup-ideas/index.html) (1,679 words)
- [   50+ essays on viral marketing, social network monetization, product design and more at andrewchen](/50-essays-on-viral-marketing-social-network-monetization-product-design-and-more.html): I finally decided to make a page listing all the reasonable essays I’ve written over the last 2 years on one page, which you can find here. (601 words)
- [   7 ideas for billion dollar companies in the online ads at andrewchen](/7-ideas-for-billion-dollar-companies-in-the-online-ads.html) (1,316 words)
- [   a16z Podcast: Why paid marketing sucks, Network effects, Viral Growth, and more at andrewchen](/a16z-podcast/index.html): 0 comments (12,647 words)
- [   After the Techcrunch bump: Life in the “Trough of Sorrow” at andrewchen](/after-the-techcrunch-bump-life-in-the-trough-of-sorrow.html) (2,014 words)
- [   Building the initial team for seed stage startups at andrewchen](/building-the-initial-team-for-seed-stage-startups/index.html): Seed funding and building out the initial team (2,087 words)
- [   Conservation of Intent: The hidden reason why A/B tests aren’t as effective as they look at andrewchen](/conservation-of-intent/index.html) (1,363 words)
- [   DAU/MAU is an important metric to measure engagement, but here’s where it fails at andrewchen](/dau-mau-is-an-important-metric-but-heres-where-it-fails.html) (1,669 words)
- [   Experiment: Will adding @andrew_null to my blog title lead to more Twitter traffic? at andrewchen](/experiment-will-adding-andrew_null-to-my-blog-title-lead-to-more-twitter-traffic.html): I’ve gotten more active on Twitter recently – you can find my profile here. (677 words)
- [   Freemium business model case study: AdultFriendFinder ARPU, churn, and conversion rates at andrewchen](/freemium-business-model-case-study-adultfriendfinder-arpu-churn-and-conversion-rates.html): A case study for the Freemium business model There’s been a lot written about the Freemium model over the years, particularly from Fred Wilson at AVC. Here’a couple articles I’ll recommend on the t... (1,786 words)
- [   Get updates at andrewchen](/subscribe/index.html): 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! (103 words)
- [   Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing at andrewchen](/how-to-be-a-growth-hacker-an-airbnbcraigslist-case-study.html): The rise of the Growth Hacker The new job title of “Growth Hacker” is integrating itself into Silicon Valley’s culture, emphasizing that coding and technical chops are now an essential part of bein... (2,240 words)
- [   Growth Interview Questions from Atlassian, SurveyMonkey, Gusto and Hubspot (Guest Post) at andrewchen](/growth-interview-questions-atlassian-surveymonkey-gusto-hubspot.html): [Andrew: Excited about today’s guest post! I was recently interviewed by the folks at Reforge, a new company started by my friends Brian Balfour and Susan Su focused on advanced professional educat... (3,725 words)
- [   Hello world! (from Disqus) at andrewchen](/hello-world-from-disqus/index.html): Hello all from Seattle! (738 words)
- [   How I use AI when blogging and writing at andrewchen](/ai-blogging/index.html) (2,429 words)
- [   How startups die from their addiction to paid marketing at andrewchen](/paid-marketing-addiction/index.html) (1,717 words)
- [   How To (Actually) Calculate CAC at andrewchen](/how-to-actually-calculate-cac/index.html): [Andrew: Paid marketing remains an integral part of many products’ acquisition channels, and one of the key metrics is Cost of Customer Acquisition, which is a nuanced calculation with lots of gotc... (2,875 words)
- [   How to build a growth team – lessons from Uber, Hubspot, and others (50 slides) at andrewchen](/how-to-build-a-growth-team/index.html): Dear readers, (4,795 words)
- [   How to design successful social products with 3 habit-forming feedback loops at andrewchen](/how-to-design-successful-social-products-with-3-habit-forming-feedback-loops.html) (2,968 words)
- [   How to solve the cold-start problem for social products at andrewchen](/how-to-solve-the-cold-start-problem-for-social-products.html) (1,881 words)
- [   IAC’s HowAboutWe co-founder: How to Avoid Delusional Thinking in Start-up Growth Strategy (Guest Post) at andrewchen](/iacs-howaboutwe-co-founder-how-to-avoid-delusional-thinking-in-start-up-growth-strategy-guest-post.html): [Andrew: Trying to build and launch dating apps is a favorite pastime of 20-something tech entrepreneurs. However, dating products are notoriously hard to grow because it requires people to be “in-... (2,695 words)
- [   Lessons from the casino industry on engagement metrics and lifetime value at andrewchen](/lessons-from-the-casino-industry-on-engagement-metrics-and-lifetime-value.html) (1,578 words)
- [   omg I’m just a startup, I can’t do those fancy analytics! at andrewchen](/omg-im-just-a-startup-i-cant-do-those-fancy-analytics.html) (1,761 words)
- [   Previewing a full chapter of The Cold Start Problem — my upcoming book dropping in December at andrewchen](/chapter-one-cold-start/index.html): Hi readers, (5,869 words)
- [   Recency Frequency and Monetization (RFM): Optimizing your notifications strategy at andrewchen](/recency-frequency-and-monetization-rfm-optimizing-your-notifications-strategy.html) (1,177 words)
- [   Recent at andrewchen](/recent/index.html) (1,896 words)
- [   Required reading for marketplace startups: The 20 best essays at andrewchen](/marketplace-startups-best-essays/index.html) (1,637 words)
- [   Virtual goods: Who will be the Amazon.com of virtual item sales? at andrewchen](/virtual-goods-who-will-be-the-amazoncom-of-virtual-item-sales.html) (964 words)
- [   Weekend links from my Twitter at andrewchen](/weekend-links-from-my-twitter/index.html): Just an update to the random links I've been posting to my Twitter account over the last week or two – no guarantee that they have anything to do with work! Mostly a grab bag of nerdy/biz/news stuff. (680 words)
- [   What makes Sequoia Capital successful? “Target big markets” at andrewchen](/what-makes-sequoia-capital-successful-target-big-markets.html): Don Valentine, who founded Sequoia Capital, talks about what makes Sequoia Capital effective. It’s one of my favorite talks, and I find myself watching and re-watching it from time to time, and I’d... (798 words)
- [   What to look for when you’re hiring a Head of Growth at andrewchen](/hiring-head-of-growth/index.html) (5,466 words)
- [   YouTube vs Webkinz: Case studies for new product adoption at andrewchen](/youtube-vs-webkinz-case-studies-for-new-product-adoption.html) (1,417 words)

## Listings & Categories

- [   Consumer startups are awesome, and here’s what I’m looking for at a16z (70 slide deck) at andrewchen](/consumer-startups-at-a16z/index.html) (31 words)
- [   What’s your viral loop? Understanding the engine of adoption at andrewchen](/whats-your-viral-loop-understanding-the-engine-of-adoption.html): 0 comments (1,771 words)
- [   Aaron Schildkrout at andrewchen](/author/aschildkrout/index.html): [Andrew: Trying to build and launch dating apps is a favorite pastime of 20-something tech entrepreneurs. However, dating products are notoriously hard to grow because it requires people to be “in-... (2,149 words)
- [   Alex Schiff at andrewchen](/author/alexschiff/index.html): A more detailed overview of that product, featured to the left, can be found here. To summarize, we wanted to create an organized feed for the things you’re keeping track of as well as the things o... (1,487 words)
- [   Alli Brian at andrewchen](/author/allibrian/index.html): [Andrew: A few weeks ago, the folks at Kahuna released some great data showing that up to 60% of users opt-out of push notifications. Now they’re releasing some new data on the click-through rates ... (1,315 words)
- [   Andrew Chen at andrewchen](/author/andrew_null/index.html) (83,280 words)
- [   Andrew Chen at andrewchen](/author/andrew-chen/index.html): [Hi readers, my good friend Darius Contractor (currently growth eng at Dropbox) has a brilliant new framework how user psychology has driven growth at companies like B... (24,417 words)
- [   Jamie Quint at andrewchen](/author/jamiequint/index.html): This is a guest post by a friend of mine on retention. Jamie Quint is Managing Partner of Quint Growth, a full-service growth consultancy that works with companies like Twitch and Hipmunk. Previous... (1,685 words)
- [   Mack Flavelle at andrewchen](/author/mackflavelle/index.html): [Andrew: There’s very little data out there on mobile, and so in the last few weeks, I’ve had guest posts on the % of users who opt-in to push notifications, as well as clickthrough rates of push. ... (1,125 words)
- [   Matt Gierl at andrewchen](/author/mattgierl/index.html): Note from Andrew: I recently wrote an essay on the virtues of using Google Trends to analyze the underlying traction of products instead of focusing on PR. I mentioned offhand that it wou... (1,167 words)
- [   Matt Groff at andrewchen](/author/mgroff/index.html): Guest Post by Bangaly Kaba (EIR @ Reforge, Former VP Growth @ Instacart, Instagram) (5,721 words)
- [   Noah Kagan at andrewchen](/author/noahkagan/index.html): [Andrew: Starting up from zero is one of the hardest things you can do with a new product. Especially in the age of SaaS and content marketing, building up to the first 150k users is a key mileston... (921 words)
- [   Ryan Hoover at andrewchen](/author/ryanhoover/index.html): This is a guest post by Ryan Hoover, the Director of Product at PlayHaven and creator of Startup Edition. Follow him Twitter at @rrhoover or visit his blog to read more on product design. (993 words)
- [   Shannon Levis at andrewchen](/author/shannonlevis/index.html): [Andrew: There’s a real shortage of information about push notifications, CTRs, response rates, etc. Partly this is due to the immaturity of mobile as a marketing platform, but it’s also because of... (1,165 words)
- [   Susan Su at andrewchen](/author/susan/index.html): [Andrew: Paid marketing remains an integral part of many products’ acquisition channels, and one of the key metrics is Cost of Customer Acquisition, which is a nuanced calculation with lots of gotc... (5,761 words)
- [   Uncategorized at andrewchen](/category/uncategorized/index.html) (87,475 words)

## About Pages

- [   About at andrewchen](/about/index.html): Receive my newsletter, usually once a week – it features long-form essays on what’s going on here in Silicon Valley. (129 words)

## Resources

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