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Sinful Startups

Sinful Startups: How Modern Apps Exploit Human Nature for Rapid Growth

In the world of entrepreneurship, understanding human psychology is key to creating products that resonate with users. Interestingly, some of the most successful startups have tapped into aspects of human nature that align with the seven deadly sins from Christian tradition.

Before we dive into how modern apps exploit these tendencies, let's quickly review the seven vices:

Now, let's explore how some of today's most popular apps have leveraged these human tendencies to achieve rapid product-market fit.

Pride: LinkedIn - The Professional Ego Booster

LinkedIn has masterfully tapped into our desire for recognition and status. It's a platform where professionals can showcase their achievements, skills, and connections.
By providing features like skill endorsements and recommendations, LinkedIn feeds into users' pride, encouraging them to continually update and improve their profiles.
This strategy has paid off handsomely. As of 2024, LinkedIn boasts over 900 million members worldwide, becoming an indispensable tool for professionals across the globe.

Greed: Dream11 - The Promise of Easy Riches

Dream11, India's largest fantasy sports platform, has successfully harnessed the human desire for quick wealth. Users create virtual teams of real players and earn points based on actual performance in live games.
The platform taps into the allure of potentially winning large sums of money with minimal effort and investment.
By 2023, Dream11 had over 150 million users and was valued at over $8 billion, demonstrating how appealing to greed can lead to rapid growth.

Wrath: Twitter - The Digital Battleground

While not originally designed for this purpose, Twitter has become a platform where outrage and heated debates thrive. Its short-form content and real-time nature make it ideal for quick, passionate responses.
The platform's design inadvertently encourages polarization and conflict, keeping users engaged and coming back for more. Despite (or perhaps because of) its reputation as a hotbed of arguments, Twitter has grown to have 396.5 million users globally as of 2024.

Envy: Instagram - The Highlight Reel of Life

Instagram provides a platform for users to share carefully curated glimpses of their lives, often stirring up feelings of envy among viewers.
The platform's visual nature and features like Stories and Reels allow for even more polished and engaging content, keeping users scrolling, liking, and posting.
This strategy has led to tremendous success, with over 2 billion monthly active users as of 2024.

Lust: OnlyFans - Monetizing Desire

OnlyFans provides a platform for content creators to share exclusive, often adult-oriented content with paying subscribers. It taps into the age-old truth that sex sells, but with a modern, personalized twist.
By providing a platform that caters to lust in a seemingly more ethical and direct way than traditional adult entertainment, OnlyFans quickly found its market fit.

Gluttony: Swiggy/Zomato - Indulgence at Your Fingertips

Food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato make it incredibly easy for users to satisfy their food cravings at any time. Features like express delivery, late-night options, and curated lists of indulgent foods cater directly to the desire for immediate gratification.
Both platforms have seen tremendous growth, with Zomato having over 70 million active users in India and Swiggy completing over 1.5 million orders daily as of 2023.

Sloth: ChatGPT - The Ultimate Shortcut

ChatGPT offers users the ability to generate human-like text on almost any topic with minimal effort. This promise of effortless productivity taps directly into the human tendency to seek the path of least resistance.
ChatGPT's rapid adoption speaks to its success in leveraging this aspect of human nature, gaining 100 million monthly active users by January 2023.

The Power of Vice in Product-Market Fit

For entrepreneurs seeking rapid product-market fit, there's a valuable lesson to be learned from these successful startups.
Products that tap into one or more of the seven vices often find a ready and eager market. This is because these vices represent deep-seated human desires and tendencies that, when catered to, can drive strong user engagement and growth.

If you're developing a product and want to assess its potential for rapid product-market fit, consider whether it aligns with any of these seven tendencies. Does it appeal to users' pride, greed, or desire for instant gratification? Does it provide an outlet for strong emotions or cater to basic human desires? If so, you might be on the path to creating a product with strong market appeal.

Co-credits: Arunank Divya Sharan