Nextdoor was a pivot from Nirav Tolia's previous failed startup Fanbase after 2 years of work
Nirav Tolia was challenged by his VC Bill Gurley to give it another try instead of returning investor money
Nextdoor has now grown to over **50% market penetration in American neighborhoods**
Initially, Nextdoor grew by manually verifying and building the first **176 neighborhoods** in 1 year through personal outreach
Nextdoor then scaled through more automated processes while maintaining quality standards
Today Nextdoor has over **80,000 neighborhoods** and reaches **50% of American neighborhoods**
**41% of members use** the service every other day, consistently
Nextdoor differentiates by focusing on **local neighborhood connections**
Nextdoor began prioritizing **monetization in 2016** after achieving growth and engagement
As Nextdoor scales, maintaining **civil discourse** is increasingly important
Nextdoor takes responsibility to ensure **safe and productive neighborhood interactions**
Meeting Notes:
Nextdoor's Beginnings
Nextdoor was a pivot from Nirav Tolia's previous failed startup called Fanbase after 2 years of work
Nirav Tolia was challenged by his VC Bill Gurley to give it another try instead of returning investor money
In summer 2010, the team of 7 people worked on various ideas, ultimately leading to Nextdoor's creation
Nextdoor's beginnings were marked by failure of Fanbase, but the team feels lucky that Nextdoor has now grown to over **50% market penetration in American neighborhoods**
Nextdoor's Growth and Evolution
Initially, Nextdoor grew by manually verifying and building the first **176 neighborhoods** in 1 year through personal outreach
This manual process ensured quality by requiring 10 verified neighbors within 21 days to start a neighborhood
Nextdoor then scaled through more automated processes while maintaining quality standards
Today Nextdoor has over **80,000 neighborhoods** and reaches **50% of American neighborhoods**
It has over **90% of neighborhoods in the top 40 U.S. cities**
Early Growth Tactics
Nirav Tolia and team initially did things that don't scale:
Manually verified addresses by requesting photos of driver's licenses
Went door-to-door to get people to join
Made personal calls encouraging neighbors to invite others
They systematically made these unscalable processes scalable with technology over time
Current Growth Tactics
Pay for neighbors to **send postcards inviting others**, ~20-25k postcards/day
Number of postcards per user tied to conversion from their past invites
Fewer postcards for larger neighborhoods as they grow organically
Introduced "**Nearby Neighborhoods**" feature to increase:
Viral growth by connecting adjacent neighborhoods
Utility by allowing broader communication e.g. for lost pets
Nextdoor's Key Metrics and Engagement
**41% of members use** the service every other day, consistently
Cohort analysis shows steady **growth in neighborhood size** over time