Can people picker resolve NTLM users in an FBA extended site?

In the beginning, how did OKCupid attract people to start creating profiles and when there weren't many users? In fact, how did they convince the first 50 users to sign up and keep visiting the site?

• Answer:

  I am not sure about OkCupid, but I would take the case of my startup http://Zumbl.com which is operating in a similar space. Who are our initial 50 users? Friends, Friends of friends, and people who expressed their interest while we were developing the idea. Unless, you launch your portal through a massive PR stunt this will be the case. Assuming above, I feel that a more important question is how do we get our first 50 organic users, and how do we retain them? Former can be achieved easily through a simple press release. But the later is difficult because of the chicken-egg problem. These people will need profiles to stalk and start flirting. So, the idea is not to target 50 users but atleast say 1000 users geographically placed close to each other. To retain them, it is highly recommended if you can stay in close touch with them at your personal level and keep taking their feedback. It is often said that their feedback is sometimes more important than the next 100,000.