by Frank Gruber
If you cultivate relationships with developers, designers, and others, you may end up hiring them someday. I keep a secret wish list of potential hires, adding new people as I meet them and removing people when they no longer fit anymore. (Bo Fishback of Zaarly one-ups me: he makes his own list and then asks all his new hires for their lists!)
One person on my list was Justin Thorp, a DC-based developer who had moved into community management and marketing for AddThis and then HelloWallet. Justin is probably one of the most approachable people I've met, and he loved Tech Cocktail. He was at our early Tech Cocktail events in DC and even flew to Chicago to attend our first conference. I always thought he would be great to have on our team to help build our community, as well as the direction of our news products. Five years later, I had an opportunity to hire Justin, and he did not disappoint. He has led the growth of Tech Cocktail's event and editorial footprint while also helping to build new processes within the organization as we formalize from a bootstrapped company to a funded startup fueled for growth.
Lesson learned: make note of the people you meet, and maybe someday you'll hire them or help them get hired elsewhere. They might be the next people who invest in you to help you live the dream. They could also include a budding journalist at a local publication, who just a few years down the road takes over at a major national publication. You never know where people will end up.
Tips for Relationship Building
So you want to improve your odds at creating lasting relationships? Figure out what relationships you're looking for: mentors and advisors, entrepreneurial peers, investors, general industry relationships—you can actively decide.
If you don't know anyone, start attending local events or meetups. Speaker-style events such as our Sessions series showcase thought leaders who might be good mentors, and you may meet interesting peers. Think of creative ways to introduce yourself at the event or online and see if these leaders will meet you for a 15-minute coffee. In that initial meeting, don't unload all your problems. Ask questions, and let them do more of the talking as you get to know each other. Afterward, just keep in contact. Once you have the communication lines open, it becomes easier to ask for advice or introductions.
If you're too shy or introverted to go out and meet people, you may want to consider teaming up with someone else. Pair up with someone in your network—ideally someone who can sustain a conversation. That person can fill in any awkward pauses and help lead the conversation forward.
When trying to expand your network, hands down, warm introductions go a lot further than reaching out on your own. By warm introductions, I mean an introduction to someone through a mutual contact. Fitton recommends starting with the people closest to you and asking them who they know who can help you—she did that with OneForty. Fitton's friends didn't know any angel investors but kept making introductions for her, and eventually she connected with the right people.
AngelList
AngelList was founded in 2010 by Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi, who had worked together on a startup advice site called Venture Hacks. AngelList is a platform that connects people within the startup community: entrepreneurs can meet investors, potential employees, and one another. It recently launched Syndicates, where accredited investors can raise a fund with other investors who agree to invest in any startups the first investor chooses. AngelList is based in San Francisco.
She explains, “Start with the people who already know you, love you, and believe in you…because those are your strongest advocates.” Or better yet, do the work for them—do your research. Visit their LinkedIn or AngelList profile and see whom they've invested in or whom they're connected with that you might like to meet.
For a list of tools for cultivating and managing relationships, check out http://tech.co/book.
Relationships for the Long Term
Once you've met new people, it's important to maintain those relationships. This will take time and follow-up on your part. Building relationships requires repeated contact, online and offline. Try sending your new contacts an interesting article, making an introduction, recommending an event for them to attend, or telling them about a competitor. You can also take the opportunity to share some updates about yourself, without bragging.
Downtown Project
Led by Tony Hsieh, the Downtown Project is a $350 million revitalization project in downtown Las Vegas. It divides its funds in a few key areas: $50 million for investing in small businesses, $50 million for tech startups, $50 million for education, and $200 million for real estate. The goals of the Downtown Project include creating a downtown that lets you live, work, and play all within walking distance; creating the most community-focused large city; and creating the coworking and colearning capital of the world.
“It's through those interactions of being able to understand the person well, feeling comfortable helping them out, and then them feeling comfortable receiving that help, where we can truly develop these bonds,” says Andy White, a partner at the Downtown Project's VegasTechFund.
Make this part of your daily routine. Brittany Hodak, cofounder of ZinePak, spends 90 minutes on Monday mornings scanning LinkedIn and other sites for job changes and promotions and sends congratulations and invitations to lunch or coffee. Band has it down to a science and recommends keeping in touch with potential investors and hires every 7 days, sales leads every 10 days, top users and current investors every 15 days, and partners, advisors, future investors, and other entrepreneurs every 30 days.
The Harsh Reality
Building, maintaining, and managing relationships is a full-time job. There are a variety of personalities out there, and some people are just not nice. Even if you're trying to help them, they may be rude or difficult to deal with. You can get rejected. You remember that girl or guy you asked out on a date who said no? It happens here as well. Trust me, there have been people who haven't given me the time of day, but I don't give up easily.
Building and managing relationships can be even more difficult if you're introverted. “I do like people generally, but the activity and the effort is just painful…I just don't like all the rigamarole that goes around these introductions at large events,” says Micah Baldwin, founder and CEO of Graphicly. “At the end of going to something, I'll be exhausted.”
And you'll probably stumble along the way. “Early in my career, I often rushed into the business side of things way too early, without really getting to know who I was speaking to. This sometimes led to miscommunication and a conflict of interest,” says Jonathan Birch, an online development consultant at Mediaworks. You don't want to be known as someone who is only out for yourself.
You're also likely to run into people who take advantage of you. Not everyone out there has pure intentions. People lie, cheat, and hustle. You may meet some of these people and even do business with them. I know we have, and it stinks. A few years ago we were working with a company at one of our events and they insisted—very loudly—that we had wronged them, actually bullying one of our team members. We had an e-mail chain a mile long that indicated we had not and that they were actually trying to take advantage of us, but nothing we said was going to change their mind. When they tried to cause a public scene at an event, we simply asked them to leave, looking to defuse the situation and follow up with them afterward. Just know that as you build relationships, you can't control everything or everyone. As I tell my team, act with integrity, take the high road, and move on. Next.
Celebrate: Enjoy the Journey
Your attitude toward relationships will directly affect how much fun you have while growing your network. If you can be genuinely interested in people and embrace the idea of getting to know others, then it will be more enjoyable—regardless of whether it yields benefits to your business. “I no longer ask people what they do for a living—that's lame. Instead, I ask them what they're passionate about,” explains Tony Rappa, an entrepreneur and consultant. He says that's been a game changer for building solid relat
ionships.
Micah Baldwin reflects on his relationships by saying, “I don't really consider myself having a network—I just have a bunch of friends. I think that's the key. I've never tried to network in my life. I've only tried to meet interesting people and to be friendly. I don't ever think about what I can get. I think about only what I can give.” Baldwin knows the importance of helping others first.
Relationships are what will energize you and fuel you, making life worthwhile. They take time to develop and nurture. Look at building relationships as making friends, not just networking. Friends are the kind of allies you want on your side.
Final Thoughts
Remember, people care about themselves and what they believe in. Think of what others care about from their perspective, not yours; this will ensure you make more friends and make stronger connections.
It can feel like an odd balance—you want to build relationships and just see where they lead, but eventually you might need to ask for something and take opportunities when they're presented to you. Carpe diem. Learning to ask for what you want is an art. “Ninety-five percent of the time we don't get what we want, we never ask,” says Fitton. “You cheat the heck out of yourself when you're too afraid to pursue an opportunity…So what if someone turns you down.” As Wayne Gretzky says, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take.”
Part 4
Sales and Marketing
Chapter 12
Marketing
Give them quality. That's the best kind of advertising.
—Milton Hershey
On a sunny, spring day in Washington, DC, the farm-to-table salads and wrap upstart called Sweetgreen was struggling to get its second location off the ground. The storefront was the only thing on that particular side of the street—and now there weren't enough customers.
While Nathaniel Ru manned the store, his cofounders, Jonathan Neman and Nicolas Jammet, decided to try something to stir up excitement and make a musical scene. They aimed a newly purchased black speaker toward Dupont Circle and set up a brown folding table on the sidewalk. With these amateur DJs just outside the restaurant and free samples available, people crossed the street and stopped by. The founders had created demand for Sweetgreen.
When the sidewalk party grew too large, they moved the gathering to the parking lot behind the store. They brought in a stage and got local bands to play, attracting 500 attendees. The Sweetlife Festival, a party with a purpose, was born. The street fest was all in the name of the sweet life, a core value that Sweetgreen lived by, but the music festival was also a way to market and attract new customers to its new location.
The next year Sweetgreen connected with Seth Hurwitz, one of the owners of the famous DC music venue the 9:30 Club. The founders wanted to make the Sweetlife Festival bigger, thinking 2,000 attendees would suffice. Hurwitz suggested they go all in on the Sweetlife Festival by moving it to a bigger venue and getting some bigger musical acts. The Sweetgreen team loved the band the Strokes, so they decided that if they could get the Strokes to play at Sweetlife, they would take the leap. As luck would have it, the Strokes were available and the Sweetgreen team agreed to move the Sweetlife Festival to Merriweather Post Pavilion. In its second year, 2011, the festival attracted 13,000 people and has been growing each year since.
Marketing, by definition, is a form of communication designed to acquire and retain customers while demonstrating the value of your product. The sweet life is the essence of Sweetgreen's product—delicious and healthy food—and a fun outdoor musical experience fit right into that. The Sweetlife Festival became a kind of marketing tool that attracted new customers and created delight, one of the most elusive but powerful aspects of marketing.
How did the Sweetgreen team do it? They found their tribe: a niche of customers who enjoyed their quinoa, kale, coconut water, and other fresh and healthy offerings. Then, they let their tribe tell other people, who went on to tell others, about the food experience. Music was the hook. According to Neman, “Music takes you back to another time and provides a great emotional connection.”
Marketing Strategy
Coming up with your marketing strategy is an exercise in truly understanding your business. Here are some aspects to think about, before we dive into different types of marketing.
Customers: To create marketing delight, understanding your customer base is crucial. Who are your customers? What do your customers want and value? What are their needs? Where do they hang out online or offline?
Vision: What is your vision or why? That's what customers latch onto. “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it,” says Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why, in a TEDx talk. Your marketing messages and communications should begin with that purpose and only then explain the how and what of your product. Sweetgreen's marketing essentially said: Do you want to enjoy the sweet life? (why) We have a fun and meaningful experience for you (how). Come check out our music festival or our tasty food (what). Sinek goes on to say, “The goal is not just to sell to people who need what you have…the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe”—your tribe.
Sinek explains that these people—the innovators and early adopters, consisting of about 16 percent of your market—are most influenced by their limbic brains, where trust and loyalty are cultivated. You reach that part of the brain with your why message. Only after they're on board will the 84 percent majority of the population be willing to give you a shot.
The final insight Sinek shares is the reason consumers follow a why message: to prove something about themselves. For example, Apple users buy all sorts of gadgets to demonstrate how forward thinking they are. And who do you think drives a safety-conscious Volvo? An aspiring young musician or a middle-aged college professor? “We follow those who lead not for them, but for ourselves,” Sinek says.
Rachel Sklar
A former lawyer, Rachel Sklar is now a social entrepreneur, thought leader, and startup advisor. She's the cofounder of Change the Ratio, whose goal is to increase visibility and opportunity for women, and TheLi.st, which extends Change the Ratio's mission with a community platform and events. Sklar was a founding editor at the Huffington Post, and she continues to write about media, politics, culture, and technology. She's also a comedian, and her #CTRComedy helped get more women performing comedy at SXSW.
A great example of this is Rachel Sklar, who has spent the past few years heading up initiatives to help women be more successful. Her organization, Change the Ratio, started with the mission to increase visibility, access, and opportunity for women and other minorities. It inspired a startup called TheLi.st, which is a community platform for women: it includes a membership network, written content, and events. Whatever Sklar is doing, she has a strong following of supporters, because they believe in her vision for the world.
Story: Once you know your vision, the next step is to start crafting a story around it. It's surprising to me how many entrepreneurs and startup founders are unable to articulate their story effectively. Yet startups are full of potential stories: for example, how the product weaves into customers' lives or the personal inspiration for creating it. Marketing icon and author Seth Godin believes that great stories are authentic, bold, trustworthy, and subtle; hit you at first impression; appeal to the senses; are aimed at a niche (not the masses); and agree with the customers' worldview.
TaskRabbit's founding story stems from a personal experience that many of us can sympathize with. One night, founder Leah Busque and her husband were all set to go out to dinner when they realized that they were out of dog food for their 100-pound yellow Lab, Kobe. Shouldn't it be possible to find someone nearby to pick up and deliver the food, they thought? TaskRabbit, a site for outsourcing small jobs to your neighbors, was born—and Kobe's story lives on in their marketing.
Leah Busque
Leah Busque founded TaskRabbit in 2008, originally calling it RunMyErrand. The site lets you post a task that you want done, and then connect wi
th a TaskRabbit to complete it for you. TaskRabbits are certified by the company through a background check and interview process. Based in San Francisco, TaskRabbit has raised almost $40 million in funding and has expanded to about 20 cities. Before TaskRabbit, Busque spent seven years as a software engineer at IBM.
Differentiation: Whatever your story may be, it should include a differentiator or positioning statement. This will make clear exactly how you're better than the competition. Geoffrey Moore's book Crossing the Chasm goes into detail on how to produce a positioning statement. It's a helpful tool and forces you to get to the heart of your value. Here is Moore's template:
For [target customers] who are dissatisfied with [market alternative], our product is [new category] that provides [cite the breakthrough capability]. Unlike [product alternative], we have assembled [key points of competitive differentiation].
Types of Marketing
Now it's time to put all these concepts into practice, and every marketing strategy is different. You may want to use all the types of marketing mentioned here or only a few of them; either way, it's helpful to understand your options.