The network effect is one of the most underrated growth engines in any SaaS company

The idea is simple: the value of a product increases as more people use it. A classic example is the telephone. The very first telephone was almost worthless — it had no one to call. Two phones created some value. Ten made it useful. A million made it indispensable.

The same applies to modern platforms. LinkedIn is valuable because everyone else is there. It’s not the features that drive growth — it’s the network.

I’ve seen this up close. When we built Mintra, a significant part of the strategy was to cultivate this effect. The more companies that joined the platform, the stronger the incentive became for their customers, suppliers,