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Max Levchin's widget maker Slide just took on funding that set its value at $550 million. And the company's user base grew 142 percent in a year to 150 million users, giving it the ninth largest "reach" on the Internet. Maybe this means its worth paying attention to Levchin's ideas on "How to successfully launch a social networking platform? Maybe. But not for more than 100 words.

  1. Create a feeling of technological openness. Developers love the ins and outs — the bugs, unfinished features.
  2. Treat developers equally, but the best ones? Let them closer in.
  3. Manage a community pre-launch: meet-ups, chats, IRC channels, mailing lists, visit companies.
  4. Shift support/documentation onto the early developers. Smaller developer groups will help each other.
  5. Respond quickly to platform issues.
  6. Bible-thump: "you will make money" during the early platform days.
  7. Make your campus a place that developers want to visit, a prize.
  8. Over-communicate policy changes with the perception of open debate.
  9. Make the goal of your PR team coverage for successful developers
  10. Hold frequent developer events. Invite leading developers to speak.

(Photo by flawedartist)