Build around your discovery mechanism

As they say, location, location, location. I started an ISP in Oklahoma back in the mid 90s. Instead of running a ton of advertising to drive traffic to the phones or website, I opened a store front in an 800 sqft unit attached to the front of the local Best Buy. I did my selling in person, and used some unique branding to help people remember us. This worked because a) dialup ISPs sold to a localized area, and b) the newness of the Internet scared people. I lost count of how many computers passed through our doors getting configured correctly for access.

In a pure online play, I think the equivalent of location is channel strategy. Find partners who are a close fit to your offering, and work hard to form a good relationship with them early on. If you can provide a service to their customers that adds value, it's a win for both sides.

The busy-shopping-street analogy is something I've been thinking about before; what is an online shopping street? It seems to me Max couldn't really find the online equivalent either: both Apple's App Store and Facebook have plenty quiet streets I'm sure, so building a business on those platforms does not equal building on a busy street.

Is there really a way of building my business next-door to yours - in the sense that I'll catch customers walking out your door?

I'm not sure building the delivery first, and then the product is a good idea. Analogously, it's like buying a lot on a busy street, and taking out ads for a shoe store, then only building a store, and buying inventory, after people are coming to buy shoes.

This does not seem to me like a good way to encourage repeat business.