Building A Bridge

So – I recently had a very fun conversation with Ryan Murtaugh and Nathan Brickman, two recent Cal Poly grads who have founded Bridge. Bridge is essentially a secure, vetted community for mental health professionals to connect, share referrals, access resources, etc.

Our initial chat focused on how best to proceed – as there is always a “chicken or the egg” challenge with building any kind of network or community. How do you initially seed the community with enough activity, resources, or whatever it is you need to create value? Because, if people come to join and there is not sufficient reason to stay, they will leave – probably for good.

And while the first challenge is a successful launch – following right behind are the related issues associated with sustaining the community. The same chickens and eggs are involved. Even if you manage to pre-load your community and successfully kick-start the launch, what about next week and next month? To keep our early adopters coming back, and to add new members, we need to continue to add value. How?

Ryan, Nathan and I kicked around a number of ideas both to launch and sustain the community. And while many things may add some value, our working theory is that the highest value item will be referrals. This is both because solving the lack of a secure, vetted platform for giving and getting referrals is the unique value of the Bridge concept – and presumably – the most desired benefit of the community for relatively small, isolated practitioners. And the guys have lots of good ideas as to how they might kick start this process.

But after launch, how do we sustain a virtuous cycle?

Or phased another way, what might Bridge’s Flywheel look like?

Here is my initial stab at it. It is certainly incomplete, and over time, Ryan and Nathan will modify it based on actual experience. But it could service as an initial roadmap to help prioritize activity.

Bridge Flywheel

As you see, I have postulated two flywheels. (Similar to the legendary Amazon Flywheel.)

The primary flywheel centers on the giving and getting of referrals. If we can successfully seed the site with desired referrals, then in theory practitioners have a reason to join, over time they will also make referrals, which reinforce the value of institutional members participating, etc.

A second, subsidiary flywheel also could evolve. It is more about making connections, sharing other resources, and building community. While by itself, w/ out an economic driver, it might be difficult to sustain the community – over time – the connections themselves could be a driver of participation.

What do you think? Is this a useful tool? Are these the right drivers for Ryan and Nathan?

Other suggestions for Ryan and Nathan as they embark on the grand adventure of launching their own company?

Building a Bridge,

Joel