When Roblox launched, in 2004, its user base was made up of friends, family members, and about 100 tech enthusiasts recruited via Google ads to serve as impartial advisers. The idea was simple but ambitious: create an online space where people from anywhere in the world could do anything—construct buildings, run businesses, battle enemies, play sports, attend concerts—together. Everyone agreed that user-generated content (UGC) would be the key to making the platform great. Sixteen years later Roblox boasts nearly 50 million active daily users and millions of developers, who have created experiences such as Let’s Be Well, a game about recovering from depression, and Royale High, a virtual high school. Thanks to their own creativity, Robloxers can now walk fashion show runways, experience an eagle’s flight, or figure out how to flee natural disasters with friends. The company’s decision to embrace UGC opened it up to a whole new world of innovation, well beyond what its employees could envision or manage. Roblox achieved it with a culture that values long-term thinking, employees with a founder’s mindset, a laser focus on end users, and an organizational structure that helps them stay creative and engaged.
When Erik Cassel and I launched the precursor of our online platform Roblox, our users were friends, family members, and about 100 tech enthusiasts we’d recruited via Google ads. We offered one experience. “Peak times’’ meant maybe 30 or 40 people playing at once. Erik and I were the moderators, keeping our community safe and civil.
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