The “Single-Player Mode” Fallacy?

I’ve been thinking about the tension between single-player mode and multiplayer mode in SaaS (especially in the days of LLMs & user context).

On one hand, founders (myself included) often hear: “Don’t just build for one user, build for teams. That’s where the revenue and moats are.”

On the other, some of the best products in recent years started by winning over individuals first and only later layering on team features.

A great example is @Granola: They nailed their single-player use case (taking notes) before expanding into Granola 2.0, which introduces more team-oriented collaboration. That sequencing seems to have worked really well for them.

At Attrove, we’ve been wrestling with the same question — do we double down on helping individuals get value immediately, or lean harder into team-based insights? I’d love to hear how others have navigated this tradeoff.

So here’s the question: is single-player mode a stepping stone to scale, or is it a trap that slows you down from real adoption?

If you started solo-first, how did you know when it was the right moment to “go multiplayer”?