

Ask YC: Would you rather have 1,000 True Fans, or 1,000,000 casual users? - tomh

So we've probably all read over Kevin Kelly's idea of 1,000 True Fans - I'm putting up a link to one of his posts on the subject here:<p>http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/04/the_reality_of.php<p>So, the question to you all: would you like to have only 1,000 'True Fans' of 1,000,000 'casual users'?<p>I'm calling the fans those who would pay to use your site, maybe once a year or once every couple of years, and communicate directly with you about your business.  The more passive 'casual users' would use your service for free and communicate very little with you, if at all, about your business.
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rms
I think it would be tough to get 1M casual users without getting a lot of true
fans.

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randombit
True fans, without a doubt. People who are interested in and care about your
product will send you comments and ideas, and will evangelize for you.

That is, assuming you care about making the best possible product. If you're
just looking for something to monetize and/or flip to a VC, a million idiots
is great.

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quellhorst
1M users... If you have their email, you could really leverage that on any
future products/sites you make.

