THIS IS WHERE I POST MY BEST THOUGHTS.

There are a few mile markers that always seem significant for early-stage companies: your first dollar, your first non-founder hire, and, of course, your first user. In my experience, users are the chicken that comes before the dollar’s egg, which means that most of your early attention will go to attracting and converting them. This is a process that I’ve had to do multiple times throughout my career. I did it at YouCaring, where we scaled our users from 0-100,000 in two years, then again at Codenvy, where I scaled our new users from a few thousand per quarter to over 5,000/week, and more recently have scaled our KitOps installs from 0 to 1,000/week (a massive milestone for us!).

Most of the time, when I talk with other founders, they just assume that the key was some really good demand gen strategies, or if you’re old enough to remember the trend, ‘growth hacks.’ To be transparent, yes, demand gen strategies played a role, but (and this is a big but) demand gen is not the driving factor behind these successes. Instead, it’s something that is usually overlooked by early-stage founders: messaging.

When I compare these three companies and the activities that led to usage and adoption, messaging was the catalyst that got the adoption ball rolling.

For example, when we launched YouCaring, there were a handful of platforms in our space. There was Kickstarter for business ideas, GoFundMe for personal expenses, and a bunch of little players that I can’t even remember. All of them positioned themselves in their own way. Kickstarter was “funding and following creativity,” and GoFundMe was “raising money online” and had just started using the term “crowdfunding.” By mid-2013, everyone was a crowdfunding platform, and no one outside of the industry knew what that actually was. Most of our fundraisers were for medical expenses and funeral expenses, things that just don’t happen very often, meaning our user was almost always a first-time user.

Instead of going in the same direction as everyone else (crowdfunding for xyz), we simplified it and just called it “free online fundraising,” and as it turns out, that’s exactly what average Joes and Janes were googling.

Codenvy, on the other hand, was a bit different. Codenvy was way earlier and way more technical than YouCaring and only had a few competitors. Codenvy’s challenge was that no one knew what it was, understood the underlying technology, or was actively looking for a solution to the problem. It started as “an industrial cloud IDE,” but we hit our stride when we simplified to “on-demand developer workspaces,” and really found traction when we used “Cloud workspaces for dev teams.”

What was the trick?

Messaging to the masses

I don’t know about you, but sophistication feels sexy. Big words make you feel smart. Creating categories has the appeal of innovation.

The problem is that sophistication is confusing to the average user, big words aren’t usually used in a simple Google search, and it takes years for a made-up category to become common knowledge. When you create messaging like this, you take your already small ICP and cut it down by 80% or more.

When most founders or early marketing hires create messaging, they target a subsegment of users called early adopters. Early adopters are unique: they are aware and educated about the problem you’re solving or solution you’ve created, they are actively looking, and most of all, they care deeply. Because they are the ones finding you, there’s a temptation to create messaging targeted at this persona.

This is a big mistake. Growth comes from messaging to the masses.

A few tips for pulling this off

First, when you’re creating messaging, focus on an audience that is not aware or educated. This means that they might group you into a category of tools that you don’t really fit into. At this stage, your goal isn’t to reeducate them; instead, your goal is to figure out what they are searching for and communicate your ability to solve their problems.

Second, oversimplify your messaging. Oftentimes I’ll hear a founder describe their product and then say, “it’s basically just x for y.” If you have to draw that comparison, your messaging is too complex (and you should just use that comparison!). Early adopters might use more specific terminology, but keep in mind that they understand your solution well enough that simplified messaging will work on them as well.

Finally, stay away from industry-specific terminology. Don’t use an acronym if it’s not well adopted, don’t use a category if it’s not established, and stay away from stringing lines together that no one else is. Keep your messaging honest; if you’re just starting off, you probably aren’t “the fastest browser on iOS,” “the last revenue SaaS you’ll ever need,” or “the most trusted way to secure your data.”

I hope you find this helpful,

/jw