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Discord Got Its First 50 Users From One Reddit Post

By Jason Citron · Startup Growth · 2 min read

Everyone said a group chat app for gaming was the dumbest idea ever. Citron sat around for weeks thinking — we like this, but maybe no one else does. Then one Reddit post changed everything.

Key Points

They rebuilt the voice chat engine three times before it was right
The unlock: inviting people to give feedback, not saying 'try this thing we're selling you'
One Reddit post in the Final Fantasy 14 subreddit got them 50 users. Then 100. Then it snowballed.

The unlock was inviting people to give feedback on the app — as opposed to saying 'try this thing out, like we're selling it to you.'

20 Daily Active Users

Citron: We started working on it January 2015. Within two months, some of our friends were very excited about it. But we didn't really have any users. It wasn't exactly correct — we rebuilt the voice chat engine three times.

Within three or four months we had 20 daily active users that weren't us. Everyone was very skeptical about a group chat app for gaming. People would say — this is the dumbest idea ever. Even people who played games were like — why would I want this?

We had 20 daily active users. People said this was the dumbest idea ever.

Maybe No One Else Wants This

Citron: There was a period of three or four weeks where I remember we were sitting around thinking — well, we like this, but maybe no one else does. We had built the product but hadn't figured out how to get the word out.

We were sitting around thinking — we like this, but maybe no one else does.

The Reddit Post

Citron: The unlock was inviting people to give feedback on the app — as opposed to saying 'try this thing out, like we're selling it to you.'

We went to the Final Fantasy 14 subreddit where a new expansion was coming out. We got one of our friends to make a post — hey, I'm trying out this new voice app, what do you all think? They basically said — I found this thing called Discord, what does anyone think?

We posted a link to a server where me and my co-founder were hanging out. People found it on Reddit, clicked the link, went into the server, and they were talking to us. They went back to the subreddit and said — hey, this is pretty cool, I met the devs, they seemed pretty cool.

We got a friend to post — I found this thing called Discord, what does anyone think? People clicked, met us, and said — this is pretty cool.

50 Users, Then Snowball

Citron: We got 50 users that day from that post. That 50 turned into 100 the next day. It started to snowball. We did this playbook for about six months — and that was basically the beginning of how it started growing.

50 users that day. 100 the next. It started to snowball. We did that playbook for six months.