Rob Walling

Now, what's interesting is this is separate from the third factor, which is I'm saying lead flow or customer flow. That's on an ongoing basis receiving new customers, say, from an app store listing or a marketplace listing. And that's different. It's related, but it's different than customer concentration. Because in theory, I could go build a Twitter client.

I could be getting zero lead flow from Twitter, but 100% of my customers could be concentrated on Twitter. or on Facebook's API. You know, again, if I'm an app that, like Postpone, for example, that helps you post to Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and all those, Grant, he's a TinySeed founder, started Postpone, and it was just for Reddit.

I could be getting zero lead flow from Twitter, but 100% of my customers could be concentrated on Twitter. or on Facebook's API. You know, again, if I'm an app that, like Postpone, for example, that helps you post to Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and all those, Grant, he's a TinySeed founder, started Postpone, and it was just for Reddit.

And so when we funded him, we said, your customer concentration is basically 100% Reddit. We think you should diversify into other platforms, and he was already on board with that. So now he has a little more diversity, you know, across the different platforms. Now, Great example with Postpone. Does Postpone receive any lead flow from being in a Reddit app marketplace? No.

And so when we funded him, we said, your customer concentration is basically 100% Reddit. We think you should diversify into other platforms, and he was already on board with that. So now he has a little more diversity, you know, across the different platforms. Now, Great example with Postpone. Does Postpone receive any lead flow from being in a Reddit app marketplace? No.

So you can have concentration and you can have the risk of that concentration without the lead flow and you can have the lead flow. I guess in theory you could have, let's say I was on four platforms. I was like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Magento. And I had, you know, 90% of my customers on Shopify and, you know, only 10% across the other three.

So you can have concentration and you can have the risk of that concentration without the lead flow and you can have the lead flow. I guess in theory you could have, let's say I was on four platforms. I was like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Magento. And I had, you know, 90% of my customers on Shopify and, you know, only 10% across the other three.

But let's say the other three were sending me a lot of leads because I just branched into them. And usually this is not the case. Usually actually branching into other platforms is a lot harder than you think. We've seen tiny, I've seen tiny seed companies and non-tiny seed companies try to do it. And It can work, but in the majority of cases I've seen, it hasn't worked.

But let's say the other three were sending me a lot of leads because I just branched into them. And usually this is not the case. Usually actually branching into other platforms is a lot harder than you think. We've seen tiny, I've seen tiny seed companies and non-tiny seed companies try to do it. And It can work, but in the majority of cases I've seen, it hasn't worked.

So the example there, though, was to say you could have lead flow in those three smaller non-Shopify apps, but not very much customer concentration because you're kind of still early, right? So these three of is there a replacement, customer concentration, and lead flow are the three factors that I think of when I try to rank order these levels of platform risk.

So the example there, though, was to say you could have lead flow in those three smaller non-Shopify apps, but not very much customer concentration because you're kind of still early, right? So these three of is there a replacement, customer concentration, and lead flow are the three factors that I think of when I try to rank order these levels of platform risk.

Okay, so now that I've defined these three factors, the contributing factors of platform risk, I want to walk through the eight levels of platform risk. And I will talk through the contributing factors and how they relate to each of them. Interesting data point, as of a week or two ago, I had seven levels of platform risk.

Okay, so now that I've defined these three factors, the contributing factors of platform risk, I want to walk through the eight levels of platform risk. And I will talk through the contributing factors and how they relate to each of them. Interesting data point, as of a week or two ago, I had seven levels of platform risk.

And the WordPress WP Engine kerfuffle basically begged the question of, let's say you are built on WordPress, what's the platform risk of that? And there's different things. WP Engine uses WordPress, and they're a web host. But what if you had a B2B SaaS company that was built on WordPress as the core? So it was kind of a no-code thing hacked together with plugins.

And the WordPress WP Engine kerfuffle basically begged the question of, let's say you are built on WordPress, what's the platform risk of that? And there's different things. WP Engine uses WordPress, and they're a web host. But what if you had a B2B SaaS company that was built on WordPress as the core? So it was kind of a no-code thing hacked together with plugins.

It's a related but a different question. And so I added that as another layer. The answer, of course, is always yes. Well, it depends on a lot on the specifics of how you rank these. All of these are valid levels. It's just, you know, comparing being built on WordPress versus being hosted on AWS.

It's a related but a different question. And so I added that as another layer. The answer, of course, is always yes. Well, it depends on a lot on the specifics of how you rank these. All of these are valid levels. It's just, you know, comparing being built on WordPress versus being hosted on AWS.

I have ordered those in a certain way and I think in different situations they could be swapped a little bit. But to me, this list is directionally correct and it takes those three factors and applies it to a bunch of different scenarios that I'll give examples of.

I have ordered those in a certain way and I think in different situations they could be swapped a little bit. But to me, this list is directionally correct and it takes those three factors and applies it to a bunch of different scenarios that I'll give examples of.

So moving from least amount of platform risk, what I consider the least amount up to the most amount of platform risk, basically, you have the most exposure and the most risk of your business being killed. And so I'm going to go one through eight, again, where one is the lowest eight is the highest, the most dangerous. Level one is almost no platform risk.