Another way of looking at this is to realize that beta testers are hard to come by, and one could leverage from the already existing pool of beta testers (53,651). Most startups want to improve their pre-money valuation before going to the VC, the most important ingredient for achieving that is a stable system that is a result of successive relevant iterations of the features. This could as well be part of any Web 2.0 company's road map for the first few months upon going live. It is needless to say that for a VC to be convinced, it is important to have the right kind of users. If there is even a little bit of overlap between the 53,651 web savvy users and the ideal end-user, it is safe to assume that viral marketing will take care of itself. An example that glares in the face is Google. Their systems are the way they are, thanks to their #1 beta testers, their employees. And one could argue that there are other beta testers at various levels, namely the actual end users. This statistic seems to do more good than harm, if regarded positively. The eventual end users of the system could just be an extension of the 53,651 initial users. Go Techcrunch!!!