So many founders have warped expectations of overnight success, myself included. This probably comes from all the Techcrunch style articles we read about viral product launches and massive raises. 10 weeks is not a lot of time, especially if you are bootstrapping a social network. I've been doing it for about two years and only now am I starting to see some traction and figure out how it all works. I don't mind though because it's a labour of love that I fund thorugh my day job.

One thing I've realised though is that the barrier to entry for creating a social network has gone up significantly, because when users come to your network they expect the same experience that they get from other networks like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Quora, Github, LinkedIn, Medium and so on. Things like:

- A highly relevant, non-repetitive newsfeed of fresh stimulating content.

- Customizable and respectful notifications

- Super tight privacy

- Rich UIs for creating content and comments

- Openness (RSS, ActivityPub etc.)

If you aren't able to deliver the same experience as venture funded social networks as a bootstrapped 2 person team, users typically bail. This in turn stops the network from growing and becoming more useful. Many companies like Quora, LinkedIn and Medium also pay people full-time salaries to produce content that brings people in.