Here are some examples I know from some notable startups that have applies this technique:
- Youtube
Youtube initially hosted pirated content when they had nothing at their site.
This leads to a massive amount of traffic to their site in their early days
(sadly Megaupload tried to copy the same method but they failed)
2. Reddit
Initially seeded the website with fake profiles posting links to simulate
activities.
3. Paypal
They created a bot that bought goods on Ebay and then insisted to pay via
Paypal.
4. AirBnB
Allegedly created a bot & fake email addresses that would automatically
respond to posts on Craigslist.
5. Visually
Here's a direct quote from the VP of product of Visually
Initially, when we had projects coming in the door of our marketplace that we knew our supply at the time would not be able to fulfill, we would often call upon our agency partners to pick up the slack and step in to take on the project. These days, agencies that don’t have the in-house talent to fulfill a client’s project actually come to us. They leverage our talent pool, getting ‘on-demand’ access to our designer network and, as a result, can take on projects that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to handle in-house.