10 Million in 10 Weeks What Stanford Learned Building Facebook Apps A Stanford Course during Fall 2007 Dave McClure Rob Fan Graphing Social Patterns: March 2008 Contact: BJ Fogg -

10 Million in 10 Weeks Total Installed Users: 20M+ 5 1M+ users k users 20 5k users Total Daily Active Users (DAU): 925k 6 apps with ~ 100k DAU 10 apps with > 10k DAU 19 apps with > 500 DAU 6 Apps in Facebook Top 100 Top Apps (according to Adonomics): ~ $10M Contact: BJ Fogg -

Curriculum (Alpha Version) 3 Apps (!) 1. Virality 2. Engagement 3. Education-focused Hoping to leverage... Huge reading list Metrics-based grading Psychology of technology Expecting students... Contact: BJ Fogg -

showed up Contact: BJ Fogg -

...So we scared some students off. Contact: BJ Fogg -

7 person teaching team 73 students Contact: BJ Fogg -

Every class was exciting and surprising Contact: BJ Fogg -

Students drove us forward Contact: BJ Fogg -

Initial Success!!! Contact: BJ Fogg -

Success Stories Contact: BJ Fogg -

Students come together outside of class... Contact: BJ Fogg -

10 Million in 10 Weeks Total Installed Users: 20M+ 5 1M+ users k users 20 5k users Total Daily Active Users (DAU): 925k 6 apps with ~ 100k DAU 10 apps with > 10k DAU 19 apps with > 500 DAU 5 Apps in Facebook Top 100 Top Apps (according to Adonomics): ~ $10M Contact: BJ Fogg -

Final Expo in December people show up Contact: BJ Fogg -

BayCHI Student Presentation Contact: BJ Fogg -

Aftermath $500,000 - $1,000,000+ revenue generated since September At least 3 companies formed At least 2 companies acquired More job offers than students can handle Dan drops out of school to work with Rob and 3 other students from the class Teach the class again soon Contact: BJ Fogg -

More Successes Contact: BJ Fogg -

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #1. It's never too late to create a winning app When we launched course, over 6000 Facebook apps existed. 10 weeks later, our students had 6 apps in the top 100 Contact: BJ Fogg -

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #2. Simplicity & clarity are key to app success Apps need to be easily understood (value prop) Apps need to be easy to use The wrong direction: Clever names Lots of features Contact: BJ Fogg -

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #3. Speed & flexibility in launch & iterations Many crummy trials beat deep thinking Flexibility beats quality Deadly: Getting too attached to one app idea. Contact: BJ Fogg -

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #4. Community cooperation leads to success Students helped others a lot Sharing code, tips, insights... all were present in course. Contact: BJ Fogg -

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #5. Individual opinions about app are worthless Don't be swayed by one person's opinion. Just get the app out there and see what happens... Despite everyone's supposed "brilliance"... Often what seemed like a killer idea didn't work. Sometimes what seemed stupid worked very well. Contact: BJ Fogg -

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #6. Copying success is a cheap/fast way to succeed Novelty isn't the best approach to apps If you're desperate for a win, just copy something that's working Flipside: If your app is doing well, expect imitators. Contact: BJ Fogg -

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #7. Metrics do matter, but today's tools are too weak Of course, instrument your apps to track viral aspects No one offers a winning metrics package (yet) -- not even GA Our experience: Students often had to tweak GA and also create their own metrics tools. Contact: BJ Fogg -

Learnings from Stanford's FB Course #8. You CAN learn to create a winning app Success with FB apps isn't luck or magic Many Stanford teams succeeded Teams who failed at first later created excellent apps (like Oregon Trail) Contact: BJ Fogg -

10 Million in 10 Weeks What Stanford Learned Building Facebook Apps A Stanford Course during Fall 2007 Dave McClure Rob Fan Contact: BJ Fogg -