When you are just starting out as a business or trying to grow your base, the secret to success is building and listening to your audience.
Keep working hard at it… it’s the one way to accurately predict the future. Using past trends instead (in marketing), as this article states, isn’t nearly (if at all) as effective.
Listing to Air BNB customers was the key to the companies success. This wonderful piece by NPR outlines how Air BNB came to fruition despite the many setbacks that its founder Joe Gebbia endured and how his secret to success lied in listening to his customer base.