“Building on a platform is easier — you don't have to build the community around it. You can kind of cannibalize part of it and try to solve a sub-issue… Notion already had a huge community, people were really fans of the product — they had like a huge subreddit, tons of Facebook groups.”

Build on a platform with an existing fanbase — cannibalize their community instead of creating yours

Picking an existing platform with a passionate user base means you inherit their community instead of building one from scratch. Solving a sub-issue inside that ecosystem lets you ride attention from a hungry crowd already organised in subreddits and Facebook groups. Platform risk is real, but the distribution head start is worth it.