The Nature of Consumer Apps & Investor Behavior

A key thing with the type of venture [a consumer app to help people with their social lives] that you're working on is that it tends to be all or nothing -- e.g., SnapChat, Instagram, etc. or a slow painful sideways burn / fizzle.

Because of this, investors in consumer apps take a wait and see approach. The main investors are big funds. Their strategy is to get to know people once they see a breakout hit building and then pile in money and ride it all the way [adding money at each round], preserving their ownership percentage.

Branding as a formal endeavor usually comes after traction (like AirBNB did) because then the startup has the substantial capital to invest in that [brand marketing] and, just as important, the startup has enough traction that they reasonably know the message / point [value prop, brand theme] that they "just" need to convey / market at a bigger scale [in new markets / to a wider audience].

The main thing to know about what you're working on is that many many people have tried and are working on similar things. I've seen people pour lots of money and years into the concept. [This doesn't mean someone won't create a network-effect successful business in a given space.] Their main mistake was not pulling the plug when organic traction didn't occur. I've also met plenty of new entrepreneurs pursuing similar concepts.

Your time capital is super valuable so my main piece of advice is to be brutal and disciplined in stress testing your concept, and if it doesn't naturally take steam, then look at re-evaluating [try the next thing]. And get straightforward feedback with experienced consumer apps entrepreneurs -- some who have failed and some who have succeeded.