The founders who get blindsided by algorithm changes aren't lazy. They're just doing what works until the platform changes the rules.
I've got a client right now whose entire lead engine rusn on LinkedIn. Several hundred thousand followers and he's truly established as a leader in his area of expertise.
Then the algorithm shifted. His reach dropped 6x overnight.
Same effort. Same quality. A fraction of the result.
Here's what's frustrating about this — he wasn't doing anything wrong. He was doing exactly what every startup does in the early days.
You build the smallest version of your business. You find one channel that works. And you just keep leveraging it, because there are 29 other things screaming for your attention and this one is paying the bills.
Nobody diversifies channels at the seed stage. You'd be crazy to. If something's working, you call it solved and move on to the next thing.
The diversification conversation doesn't happen until Series A. And the reason is simple. Testing new channels isn't cheap. If you spend $20,000 on Facebook ads and it doesn't work, you haven't proven Facebook doesn't work. All you've proven is that you spent 20 grand without figuring it out. Real channel testing costs hundreds of thousands of dollars across enough variations to actually learn something.
So you're stuck. You can't afford to diversify early. But the longer you ride one channel, the more exposed you are when the platform changes the rules.
The platform always changes the rules.
Facebook did it. Twitter did it. Google's done it a dozen times. LinkedIn is doing it right now.
Building your business on somebody else's platform is renting a house from a landlord who can change the locks whenever they want. You don't own the audience. You don't own the distribution. You're a tenant.
So what do you do?
You don't panic-diversify. That's how you blow your runway chasing five channels badly instead of running one well.
But you do start building something you actually own. An email list. A community on your own platform. Direct relationships with the people you've already sold to — the 80 former clients you haven't talked to in a year who would happily refer you if you bothered to stay in touch.
Word of mouth doesn't have an algorithm.
The platform giveth and then the platform taketh away (yay enshittification!). Your job is to make sure that when it taketh, you don't go to zero.