Reverse Funnel Growth

A strategy for building passionate communities and products by starting small with super-users and expanding outward, rather than trying to grow quickly with mass appeal.

Core Concept of Reverse Funnel Building

• Start with 10 extremely passionate users who love your product/content
• These users should be so passionate they annoy you with feedback
• They'll tell all their friends (even if friends don't listen)
• Expand to 100 people who care a lot (but less than the first 10)
• Continue expanding to 1000, 10000, 100000 users
• Build from bottom-up instead of top-down traditional funnel

Why This Approach Works

• Creates strong foundation with highly engaged users
• Gets best product feedback from most passionate users
• Builds genuine community rather than artificial growth
• More enduring than trying to appeal to everyone immediately
• Creates strong moats through community loyalty
• Harder to kill businesses built this way

Real World Examples

• Rebrickable (Lego community)

  • Started small with passionate LEGO fans
  • Grew to 11M users by 2023
  • 160M annual page views
  • Built entirely around community needs
  • Users extremely loyal to platform

• Build-A-Bear

  • 40% revenue now comes from adults
  • Created "Build-A-Bear After Dark" for adult customers
  • Found passionate niche within broader market

Key Principles

• Don't try to grow too fast
• Let passionate users guide product development
• Be willing to seem "silly" or niche at first
• Focus on authentic community building
• Act as a steward of the community rather than dictator
• Avoid diluting core appeal to chase faster growth
• Find people who are passionate about specific interests but can't find others like them

Warning Signs of Wrong Approach

• Chasing views over authenticity
• Making "cringey" content for mass appeal
• Talking about mainstream topics vs niche interests
• Trying to appeal to everyone instead of core fans
• Growing too fast and losing community feel