For startup founders X is actually a good place to be for initial customer acquisition. It’s one of the reasons people will put up with a lot of abuse without leaving. It’s easier to get customers on those platforms than something like running ads. They go where the prospective customer hangs out - a lot of times it software for developers for example. Some people stay to hustle for the network and not necessarily the customer. The connections they form there can open up doors. 

Others go to LinkedIn because that’s where a lot of business happens. I’ve seen solo founder companies go from nothing to hundreds of millions in revenue just from spending a lot of their time on LinkedIn. Some also start on X and then move to LinkedIn. It all depends on what type of product you sell. Of course, those platforms are much bigger than one type of user, but I imagine everyone is trying to monetize their audience somehow. The common way to do that is to guide your followers from the earned marketing channel  (x, LinkedIn; YouTube etc..) to owned (mailing list, community, groups etc..) most people know that when you rely on other’s platform, you’re at their mercy. But when you own the connection to your audience, nobody can take that away. This is why you see so much funneling happening, self promotion, shilling to get people away from the rented platforms to their own marketing channels. It’s just how the game is played. 

The thing with nostr though, is that you own the relationship without needing to funnel people to your own marketing channels. As long as people are following you, that’ll remain the case if you’re de-cliented. 😉 the only piece that’s missing is being able to reach people on demand with a high “delivery rate”. On rented platforms your reach is limited by timing of the post and by the algo. On nostr, if we have no algo, your piece of content is limited by timing. Only the people who are online at that time, and maybe later if you trend, will see your note. If we had a way to get 100% delivery (ie notification and a dedicated place to check if subscribed), that would complete the owned channel so to speak. You’d be able to reach everyone who wants your updates (beyond standard notes) and that’s pretty powerful in the eyes of people who create content and rely on the funneling described earlier. 

I am curious to see how things develop and what sorts of mechanisms we can create to empower creators and how we can make sure nostr makers don’t need to shill 24/7. 

/ end random thought 💭