I have written a bit about our portfolio company Blackbird but in case you didn't read any of those posts, Blackbird is a loyalty and payment network for the hospitality sector. You earn Fly and you pay with Fly. The more you pay with Fly, the more Fly you earn. Pretty simple and pretty awesome. Blackbird is currently available in NYC, SF, and Charleston South Carolina. If you live in or visit these cities, you can download Blackbird here.
I was using the Blackbird app this week and took a look at the "Where to Blackbird" map in the app and saw this:
When you are building a network, density matters a lot. Whether it is a social network, a real world network (like Blackbird), or some other kind, the value of the network goes up massively as density increases.
Metcalf's Law says that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users on it. Whether that is exactly right or just directionally right, it is clear that network value is non-linear and that more is better. In a real world network, it is not just more, but more in the right places. Which is why density matters so much.
The Blackbird team launched the network in lower Manhattan and have been building it out in ever larger circles since launch. The result is a very dense network where they launched and increasing density in adjacent neighborhoods.
The wrong thing would have been to launch Blackbird globally all at once. Having one venue in NYC, one in Paris, one in Dubai, and one in Singapore would have been useless. But four on the same block in the Manhattan's West Village created initial utility for everyone on and around that block.
If you are building a network, you need to be intentional and strategic about where you launch it and how you grow it. More is better. But density is key. So get some density and go from there.
