Inside Summit Recap: The Future of Platforms
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Founder Intros, In Their Own Words
Diamond (DD): Founder of Saturn, “ the calendar for young people”.
Thelen (JT): Founder of Beli, “social restaurant list keeping app”.
Buckland (MB): Founder of Landing, “gen-z pinterest”.
Bates (EB): Founder of Diem, the “reddit meets perplexity but for women”.
Moderator Alexandra York (Forbes) kicked off the conversation by asking our panelists for their thoughts on the future of platform. Across the board, panelists agreed that platforms must continue to be focused on the ‘utility of a platform’, ‘solving a single player problem’, and focusing on the social and community aspects of the user journey.
Diving deeper, each founder shared the gaps they saw in their [crowded] industries, and why they chose to enter.
EB: Bates shared that, while search appears dominated by incumbents (Hi, Google!), the reality is that search is “not one size fits all”. What demographic is chronically underserved? Women. Bates pointed out that because girls and women are dissatisfied by the search results they are given, they often turn to social spaces to fill those gaps. As such, Bates saw an opportunity to build “social search for women”.
MB: Buckland fondly credited users with “leading” Landing from its original form as an interior design site into the creative platform it is today. She noted that following what users were showing (sometimes even when that differed than what they were telling) showed her and her team that the unique utility of Landing was the way it empowers user creativity.
DD: In Diamond’s case, the earliest version of Saturn was built for a very specific customer — himself. As a high schooler, Diamond sought a way to sync with his classmates’ class schedules. From there, Saturn was born as the calendar tool for the next generation because Diamond himself is the customer.
JT: Thelen, similar to Diamond, co founded Beli out of a personal need for the utility. As she recalls, her and her husband loved trying new restaurants and exploring, but had no way to organize the lists and recommendations. They noted that everyone had a system for this recommendation and rating system, but there was no centralized platform to share socially. From there, Beli was born.
York then asked the panelists about the role of user feedback in shaping their product roadmaps, and interestingly, the founders’ responses varied.
DD: Diamond shared that Saturn utilizes user feedback, balanced with research and DS to inform the product roadmap.
JT: Conversely, user feedback is “all we care about” at Beli. For the Beli product, user feedback is a key driver in the product development.
MB/EB: Buckland and Bates were aligned in that their user feedback is highly informative, but they are also careful to not lose sight of the “north star”.
When asked to share decisions that they would like to backtrack, our panelists were forthcoming in sharing their biggest mistakes.
JT/EB: Thelen pointed out that any mistake she has made could be attributed to not putting out a V0 product/feature early enough. In her words, investing in building before knowing it was something that the customer wanted has typically led her to backtrack. In the same vein as Thelen, Bates shared that Diem had done experimentation with voice noting, without accounting for the moderation and compliance issues that would arise.
MB/DD: MB: For Buckland and Diamond, a key lesson was the importance of staying aligned with the core utility of their products. Buckland shared that Saturn over-prioritized messaging when users primarily valued it as a calendar tool. Similarly, she reflected on how her team’s mobile version of Landing focused on messaging, leaving the creative aspects on the web. This separation, she noted, was a misstep, as creation and socialization work best when they function together symbiotically.
A key decision for any founder is deciding whether/when to raise outside capital. Our panelists offered their insights on the decision to raise and what to spend on.
DD: Diamond and his co-founder avoided raising outside capital until they felt “pulled” into it. Diamond stressed the importance of selecting the right partner, which they found in General Catalyst.
JT: Thelen and the Beli team run “as lean as possible”, and she stressed that the company spends their money on enhancing the product (she noted minimal spending in marketing). In Thelen’s words, “Beli doesn’t work if it isn’t viral”, therefore, dollars are best spent enhancing product led growth.
MB: When taking money, Buckland’s framework is highly intentional. If there is “a reason to move a lot quicker and to scale”, then founders should “go for it”.
Finally, the panelists shared the key metrics they track (outside of revenue and profit) to help understand their traction in the market. All four founders agreed that key metrics for success range between: active users, K factor, user sessions and frequency, engagement and retention.
