🚀 3.2.1. Network Effect ::: Atomic Scaling
Dec 16, 2025
The most valuable products don't just grow user base. They build daily habits, compound value with each usage, and intelligence with each additional member added to the network over time.
3 IDEAS:
I. Virality ≠ Network Effects (Stop Confusing Them)
Virality = how fast your rocket accelerates
Network effects = whether you're building a rocket or a firework
Real network effects happen when (a) each new node increases value for every existing node, and (b) without increasing your costs linearly.
If you need more support per user, you don't have a network. You have an expensive crowd.
II. The LinkedIn Test: Does Growth Make You Stronger?
When a user has a vested interest in getting their entire network to use the product, this is the network effect.
LinkedIn: A user invites another user because they want to expand their professional network, which increases value for all users (job opportunities, introductions, professional reach).
Skype: A user invites another user because they want free calls with that person, which increases value for both users (network connectivity).
Fast growth with flat value is just acceleration toward irrelevance.
Ask yourself: Are users creating value for each other, or just consuming it?
III. Elite Networks Have Bouncers
The strongest products don't try to go viral to everyone. They go viral to the right people (use Dream100 tool in Atomic Scaling).
Quality filters turn growth into compounding. Without them, you get entropy.
Great communities feel magnetic. Bad ones feel exhausting.
2 QUOTES:
I.
“It costs us virtually nothing for a new user to join the Skype network.”- Niklas Zennstrom, founder of Skype (see Skype use case in Atomic Scaling, chapter 4)
II.
“Your product isn’t what you ship. It’s what your users create with each other.” - Ludovic Bodin, Founder of BOBIC and author of Atomic Scaling
1 ACTION:
Fill this in: "A user invites another user because _____, which increases value for _____." Can't answer? Build value compounding first, add quality constraints second, then add virality. That's the atomic unit.
Let's go Atomic,
Ludovic Bodin
3x Entrepreneur, 2x Unicorn Investor, 1x IPO
Founder of BOBIC Generational Wealth and Author of Atomic Scaling
P.S. The best viral loops don't say "share this." They say "this gets better when others join."
Take BOBIC: Each new member is a data point that trains the AI, a dollar that unlocks institutional pricing, and a diversifier that improves vault performance. Your wealth compounds because they joined.
Reply "sheet" to get my cheat sheet on product designs that scale exponentially.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:
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