---
title: "The Cold Start Problem - Air Market"
description: "You are launching something that is useless until other people are on it: a marketplace with no sellers, a social app with nobody to talk to. This uses Andrew Chen's Cold Start framework to work out…"
canonical: "https://airmarket.ai/app/cold-start-problem"
---

[Air Market](/) / [Marketing](/category/marketing) / The Cold Start Problem

Skill by [wondelai](/@wondelai)

# The Cold Start Problem

Get the first users onto a product that is empty without them

## What this does

You are launching something that is useless until other people are on it: a marketplace with no sellers, a social app with nobody to talk to. This uses Andrew Chen's Cold Start framework to work out where to start small, who to seed first, and what to do when growth flattens later. Reach for it at launch or when a network stops growing.

### Top 3 things it does for you

- Find your first small network of users
- Sequence a launch so one side shows up first
- Work out which side is the hard one

## Information

**The Cold Start Problem at a glance**

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Kind | Skill |
| Publisher | [wondelai](/@wondelai) |
| Category | [Marketing](/category/marketing) |
| Works with | Agent Skills - an open standard supported by 40+ agents |
| Version | 1.2.0 |
| Size | 75 KB |
| Licence | MIT |
| Repository | [wondelai/skills](https://github.com/wondelai/skills/tree/326b3801223ad277ae7082ff85435ba1d36e1903/cold-start-problem) |
| GitHub stars | 2,004 (as of Nov 2026) |
| Installs | 3,287, counted by skills.sh (Nov 2026) |

## Security report

**Verified.** AIR scanned this exact version of The Cold Start Problem and recorded 0 findings and 2 flagged items. AIR's verdict: **safe**.

**What The Cold Start Problem's check was run against**

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Commit | 326b3801223ad277ae7082ff85435ba1d36e1903 |
| Content hash | 7966a993ef901eef8eed30a445aeb456c522be439f3ff5253d948034befedc33 |
| Files read | [Browse the files at this exact commit](https://github.com/wondelai/skills/blob/326b3801223ad277ae7082ff85435ba1d36e1903/cold-start-problem/SKILL.md) |

A scan is named by the exact content it read, not by a version number. A different version is a different artifact, and nothing here applies to a version AIR has not scanned.

[Read the full security report for The Cold Start Problem](/security/cold-start-problem)

## About The Cold Start Problem

Starts and scales networked products using Andrew Chen's The Cold Start Problem framework for network effects. It walks the five stages: cold start, tipping point, escape velocity, hitting the ceiling, and the moat.

It fits the chicken-and-egg situation, atomic networks, the hard side, liquidity and critical mass, and invite-only launches. Reach for it when launching a marketplace, social, or collaboration product that is worthless without other users, when deciding launch sequencing and seeding tactics, or when diagnosing growth that stalled at scale.

For word-of-mouth virality, see contagious; for habit-driven retention, hooked-ux.

## What's inside

- SKILL.md - instructions
- references/atomic-networks.md - reference
- references/case-studies.md - reference
- references/hard-side.md - reference
- references/scale-ceiling-moat.md - reference
- references/tipping-playbooks.md - reference

## Questions

### Is The Cold Start Problem safe to install?

AIR scanned this exact version of The Cold Start Problem and recorded 0 findings and 2 flagged items. AIR's verdict: safe. The verdict is named by the content that was read, at commit 326b3801223a, so it cannot drift onto a version nobody scanned. The full report is at https://airmarket.ai/security/cold-start-problem.

### How do I install The Cold Start Problem?

Open https://airmarket.ai/app/cold-start-problem on Air Market and use the install action: Air Market hands Claude a prompt naming this exact skill, and Claude sets it up. Source, pinned to the exact commit this listing describes: https://github.com/wondelai/skills/tree/326b3801223ad277ae7082ff85435ba1d36e1903/cold-start-problem. Install from that link, not the branch.

## Related on Air Market

- [More Marketing listings](/category/marketing)
- [Everything by wondelai](/@wondelai)

---

Canonical URL: <https://airmarket.ai/app/cold-start-problem>